Pineapple Tarts (凤梨酥)

This is a truly wonderful pineapple tart recipe which was given to me by a friend more than ten years ago.  I've only tried it once many years ago and had forgotten about it until I came across it recently when I flipped through my two-decade-old hand-copied recipe book.  

For the past week of seriously hot weather in Melbourne which sent the mercury soaring past 40 degrees, turning on the oven to do some baking is just out of the question,  so I waited for a cooler day to make my pineapple tarts.  At last, yesterday we were rewarded with a cool day of 23 degrees.   Although it wasn't hot it was warm and humid; my hands were warm and it made the pastry to very soft and difficult to handle.  Remember the golden rule about cold hands make good pastry?  I had to keep rinsing my hands under cold running water, just to cool them; and the pastry dough had to be kept in the fridge while I worked with a small portion of pastry at a time.  It was tedious and time consuming but was finally rewarded with the wonderful aroma wafting through the kitchen.  And it was simply divine when I bit into these crumbly and buttery pineapple tarts with a melt-in-your-mouth quality. 

My 2-decades old handwritten recipe book

Ingredients:  [Makes 70 tarts]

150g butter 

100g margarine (I replaced with butter)

75g icing sugar 

2 egg yolks

1 vanilla beans, scrape the seeds out

1/4 tsp salt

350g plain flour

50g corn flour

Glaze:
2 egg yolks
2 tsp condensed milk (I replaced with fresh milk)

1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp water

• Sift plain flour , corn flour and salt together.
• Using a stand mixer cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add in egg yolks, one at a time, followed by vanilla seeds.  Beat well to combine.
• With the mixer on low speed, fold in sifted flours in three additions and beat until just combined to form a dough.  Wrap the dough with cling wrap and let it rest  in  the fridge for an hour.
• Take one small portion of the dough to work with while the rest of the dough remain chilled in the fridge.  Divide the dough into balls of 10g each.  
• Flatten the dough with your finger and using a small silicon tongs, place a ball of rolled out pineapple jam filling (8g each) in the centre of the dough.  Gather the edges together to seal and roll into an elongated roll.  Use a small paring knife to create criss-cross marks on the tarts.  Place the tarts onto a tray lined with baking paper and refrigerate them for at least 30 minutes before baking.
• Bake tarts at 170 degrees C for about 20 minutes.  Remove tray from the oven and glaze the tarts.  Return tarts to the oven and bake for another 5 - 6 minutes or until golden brown.
• Cool tarts on a wire rack before storing in an air tight container.

Pineapple Jam

1.5 kg pineapple flesh, cut into chunks
600g granulated sugar (up to individual's taste)
1/4 tsp mixed spice powder
2 tbsp lemon juice

• Place pineapple pieces into the food processor and Pulse them until they are quite small but not pureed. 
• Pour processed pineapple and lemon juice into a heavy based and wide-mouth saucepan and bring it to the boil.  Reduce heat and stirring frequently, simmer until most of the liquid has evaporated.  Add in sugar and mixed spiced powder.  
• Continue stirring, cook until jam reduces to a thick paste.  Do not overcook the jam as it will continue to thickens after it is cooled.
• Transfer jam onto a plate to cool or you can refrigerate it.  With wet hands roll jam into balls of 8g each.  

 

I'm submitting this post to the Bake Along event hosted by

 Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids, Joyce of Kitchen Flavours and Lena of Frozen Wings

and the theme is 'Chinese New Year Cookies'