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Sunday, January 19, 2014

Pineapple Tarts (凤梨酥)

Chinese New Year Cookies

Chinese New Year Cookies

Chinese New Year Cookies


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'

17 comments:

  1. Wow, yummy! Thanks for the tip to use a pair of tongs to place the pineapple jam onto the dough before wrapping.

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  2. Hi Veronica
    I never knew Melbourne can be that hot....hotter than Malaysia! When the weather is so hot, it is quite difficult to bake that handle with pastry dough. But you manage to bake your pineapple tart looking so perfect in shape as well as golden colour. (Im sure almost everyone has their own handwritten recipe book).

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    Replies
    1. Although it is hotter than Malaysia, we don't sweat much here as it is drier. Thankfully we don't have many hot days throughout the whole summer.

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  3. Hi Veronica, I believed this is good recipe. Bookmarked.

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    Replies
    1. Kimmy if you want a melt in your mouth texture, this recipe is really great.

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  4. They look so golden brown and wonderful, Veronica. Have to try your pineapple jam recipe.

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    Replies
    1. Hi Angie! the pineapples I bought were not very ripe, so the jam turned out to be tangy and not overly sweet.

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  5. Now everyone is baking pineapple tarts, it seem it is a must CNY cookies! Your sound good too.

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    Replies
    1. Sonia, I was inspired by your pineapple tarts so I decided to join in the fun of making CNY goodies.

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  6. so beautifully baked Veronica! gosh.. they are so pretty.... and what's even more attractive in this blog is your handwriting! so neat and cursive... wished i can write like that...

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    Replies
    1. Thank you thank you. Believe it or not, I find it hard to write neatly anymore. My handwriting is like cakar ayam nowadays, lack of practice.

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  7. Hi Veronica,

    I must salute you that you are cooking the pineapple jam and baking so many pineapple tarts in this super hot Melbourne weather... I can totally understand because these are the things we do to eat delicious pineapple tarts :D

    Zoe

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  8. Hi Veronica,
    Your pineapple jam looks so good, love the colour and texture! I have yet to make pineapple tarts, not sure if I'm making it at all!
    Thanks for linking!

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  9. This is my favorite CNY cookie, i am saving this for the last otherwise we will definitely finish it before the festival :) Yours look beautiful, so lovely golden hue!

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  10. My mum lives in Melbourne and said that she found the weather really suffocating. Living on the other side of the world where it's winter, I wish we had some of that heat! Those pineapple tarts are so perfectly formed! Well done on having lots of patience :-)

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  11. veron, i am so blur.. all this while i thot you are staying in the US. i sort of decided not to make pineapple tarts becos i'm just lazy..i dont know ..see how..but i'm really interested in the recipe you're sharing here. thx!

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