Thursday, April 07, 2005

Pineapple Tarts



This is my favorite Pineapple Tarts recipe. I first adapted Amy Beh's recipe but was not satisfied with the result because I wanted a melt in the mouth tart.  So, I played with the recipe couple of times until I got the end result that I was looking for.  The recipe below was the result of my experiments and is the recipe that I used every year since then. The pastry was soft and has the melt in your mouth taste to it.



Pastry:
1 1/6 cup butter (2 sticks + 1.5 Tbsp)
2/3 cup icing sugar
2 egg yolks
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. salt


Sift together,
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup + 1/8 cup cornflour (I split it out for easy measurement)

1 beaten egg for glazing, beat with a little water to become Egg Wash.


Filling:
-2 canned crushed pineapple in it's own juice (20oz), drained.
-1 cup sugar
-1 or 2 cinnamon stick(s)
-2 star anise
-6 cloves


Methods:

The night before, make the pineapple filling:
In a saucepan, on medium high heat, pour in drained crushed pineapple, add in the rest of the ingredients. Stir occasionally until the jam like consistency is achieved. Meaning it became dry and sticky like. About one to one and a half hour. Discard the spices and store the jam in the fridge until ready to use. It will thicken more in the fridge.

The next day, make the pastry:
1. Cream butter, margarine and icing sugar until light. Beat in egg yolks one at a time. Add vanilla extract and salt and beat until fluffy. Fold in the sifted flours and mix into a dough. Refrigerate the dough at least 30 minutes before use.

2 Preheat oven to 350'F.

3. Roll the dough out about 1/2 cm and cut with a cookie cutter. Place the jam in the middle and decorate the top with strips of pastry. Brush the top with the egg wash. (For a prettier tarts, roll the jam into a ball and place it on top of the pastry.)

4. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown on edges. Cool on wire racks.

NOTE:

1. Handle the dough with care since it's very soft. Roll immediately after taken out from the refrigerator.

2. You can also try to make it into a covered pineapple tarts.

3. Thicker cut pineapple tarts required more time to bake.

My heart shaped pineapple tarts when I didn't own any pineapple tart mold back in 2005.

21 comments:

  1. Hi foolano,

    I got my Amy Beh's cookbook in M'sia. You can also find her recipes at www.kuali.com.

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  2. Hi!

    Happy Piggy Chinese New Year!!

    Your pineapple tart pastry is different from mine. What is the function of corn flour and is there a substitute?

    Many happy and joyous returns for 2007 =)

    Thanks!

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  3. Hi Penny,

    The cornflour/cornstarch is to make the pastry melt-in-the-mouth.

    The substitute for it is custard powder which makes the pastry smells very fragrant.

    You have a happy and healthy Pig year too! :)

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  4. hihi~ does your pineapple tarts turn mouldy very fast? Cause i heard if the jam is not prepare properly, it will turn mouldy very fast.

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  5. All these years that I have made my pineapple tarts, I never have one turned mouldy on me. It keeps for a month here with no problem. HOWEVER, I live in a very dry climate okay, so that's preserve the jam. If you are living in Asia, then I really don't know because I heard from my mom that lots of pineapple tarts turned mouldy very fast in M'sia. I gave her some to take back to M'sia before and it didn't turn mouldy. But then hor, it was so good, it was finished within few days though. So sorry lah, I really don't know how long it will stay fresh in a humid climate. Just make sure you fry til the jam is very dry.

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  6. Those are adorable! And they look delicious, too.

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  7. Oh my god, I loooooooove pineapple tarts. I love the chewiness of the pineapple filling and the intense mouth-puckering sweetness. Yours look absolutely perfect, by the way.

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  8. Thank you Elle & jesse and thanks for dropping by. :)

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  9. Hi, I am having difficulty measuring 3/8 cup of corn flour :) Is that equivalent to about 1 tablespoon? Thanks.

    Kath

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  10. Hi Kath,
    3/8 cup = 1/4 cup + 1/8 cup.

    1/8 cup = half of 1/4 cup.

    You should have a 1/4 cup measuring cup. :)

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  11. May i know how do to go about if i want to add milk powder in it.. i love pastries with milk.. =p

    Joyce

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  12. Hi Joyce,

    I would take out 1/4 cup of flour from the 3 cups and replace it with the milk powder.

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  13. Hihi m interested in makin my first attempt at pineapple tarts tis yr! Pardon my silly qn but how many grams is one cup equivalent too? Cos I m usin a weighin scale instead of measurin cups. Thx!

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  14. I have a conversion chart on my right panel, look for it. If it's too difficult for you to convert, just look for other pineapple tarts recipe on the web that uses gram.

    Oh, someone did convert into gram using my recipe, see the link below:
    http://vhanded.blogspot.com/2009/01/pineapple-tarts-for-cny.html

    Just uses it as reference and the conversion chart from my right panel.

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  15. Oh this is really helpful!! Thx for ur help. I will give it a shot!

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  16. Hi,

    Can we add a little shortening instead? I tot shortening wld makes it "soong" and therefore has the melt in the mouth effect.

    Cheers!

    Jackie

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  17. You are welcome Anon.

    Jackie, yeah you can try substitute the margarine with shortening. But I used all butter and it is still melt in the mouth soft. I just baked a batch yesterday, one more batch today. Happy Baking!

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  18. Hi, your pineapple tarts look fantastic. May i know what 20oz tin of pineapple is? Is the weight of the pineapply and juice before draining or after draining.
    Do we throw away the juice? Thanks,Susan

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  19. Hi Susan,
    The 20oz tin including the juice. I normally drain the juice to cut down on my stirring time on the stove. If you include the juice, you might have to stir for 2 hours instead of 1 hour.

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  20. Oh Susan, you can save the juice and use it to tenderize beef. Add a little of this pineapple juice in the marinade use to marinate the beef/ pork. Or use it in baking or just drink it.

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