In a few weeks it's time to celebrate chinese new year and this means getting pineapple tarts baked well in advance, since there's way too much cooking to be done leading up to the day itself. In Singapore these are consumed in the weeks leading up to the new year and as kids they had to be hidden from us to ensure that there were some left for visiting guests during CNY itself! I've continued baking these tarts ever since I left, and my kids and family here have grown to like them.
This is essentially a shortcrust pastry with a caramelized pineapple jam filling. It's meant to be flaky, tender and very melty. I like the filling mildly sweet with pronounced sour notes. The fiiling should be made the day before and left to cool and dry completely. These pastries taste better at least a day after they are baked, and keep well for up to two weeks (I always mail a portion to my parents in Singapore).
To make a tray of about 35:
Filling
Grate 1 pineapple. Squeeze out as much pineapple juice as you can (use/drink this, it's delicious), and cook the remaining grated pineapple with 2 tablespoons of sugar in a pot over low heat. Keep an eye on it and stir occasionally. After 30 minutes, the mixture will start to brown and become quite sticky. Taste and add some sugar if it's not sweet enough. Sprinkle some cinnamon and cook until completely dry. Leave to cool and store in the fridge overnight.
Pastry
210g pastry flour, 40g corn flour, 150g salted butter, 2 egg yolks, 20g icing sugar
Mix the flours and icing sugar together. Crumble the butter in. Add the yolks to form a dough ball. Flatten into a disk and refrigerate overnight.
To bake
Make pastry balls of 15g and pineapple filling of 8g. Flatten the pastry balls and encase the pineapple filling in the middle. Seal the case without stretching, making sure that there are no gaps if not the filling will leak when baking. Shape into a rectangle and make decorative patterns if desired (it's the highlight of the process for me). Brush with egg wash.
Bake at 175 degrees for about 20 mins until golden.
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Looks delicious and such pretty presentation. I'm a little tempted to make them too, but suspect that my default baking way is to make a very sweet jam, perhaps too sweet.
It's nice that you've found a way to share them with your parents!
-Jon
Thanks, Jon. I've never had a very sweet tooth, but have had my fair share of very sweet pineapple tarts because I just cannot resist them if I see them! Love them nonetheless. Hopefully you'll give these a try someday.
They look amazing! I love the patterns you've put onto them.
My family's from Hong Kong and we don't have a tradition of eating these for CNY but I've started making them in recent years. How do you normally use the pineapple juice (other than drinking)? I always struggle to use it up before it goes bad, because there's only so much I can drink haha.
This is also a good reminder for me to start my own planning and baking, since CNY feels so early this year.
So nice to hear from someone else who's also baking these tarts. Pineapple juice - you're right, it's a lot of it. I tend to use 5 pineapples for each batch so it can be a bit of a pineapple overkill in the kitchen. The family manages to drink half of that amount - also as part of smoothies - and with the other half I use them in my cooking, e.g. slightly thickened as a sweet/sour sauce for stir frys, for cooking rice (very nice for tomato-based dishes).
I love these, they are so popular in Taiwan I believe as well. I made these once but used mooncake molds and they turned out quite well. I wanted more pineapple flavour from them though. The recipe I followed used canned crushed pineapple that was drained of it juices. I wondered whether keeping the juices but cooking them down might enhance the pineapple flavour. I just haven't gotten back to making them again to try. I love your use of fresh pineapple though, even better.
Benny
Back when i was selling these, my jam was from shredded fresh pineapple and i did not remove any juice. It need a very specific pineapple variety to execute successfully without ending up drowning in caramelized syrup when done though, a variety that's used for cooking (curries, stir fries and other stew types) that are not actually as juicy as the pineapples served fresh.
Do you remember if it was perhaps 'Queen' pineapple that you used?
Agree with you, bmaz, that the variety of pineapple makes a huge difference. I aim for slightly underripe pineapples, though with the shortcut method of removing some juice, I've found it possible to make the jam with Malaysian, Indonesian and Costa Rican eating pineapples (the latter supplies most of the EU's pineapples, I believe). Not sure about which specific varieties, though!
Did you have to cook down the pineapples for quite some time? I know that other households in Singapore cook their jam with grated pineapple, juice intact, and it takes them hours. Perhaps with the cooking variety it wouldn't take that long.
Do you not make them anymore? Would love to know more about your process.
I can never find decent "fresh" pineapples worth eating in the US, let alone identifying different varieties. I wish I could. I still remember fresh-in-the-field pineapple from the year I lived in Hawaii, before the fields were all ripped out. Nothing can compare!
TomP
Yes, Benny, I love the pineapple tarts I had in Taiwan as well! I always get them when I visit. The flavour and texture are quite different though and indeed I have wondered if it's due to the difference between canned and fresh pineapples. I know that many do cook the grated fresh pineapples with their juices - the process will then take a couple of hours. That will surely concentrate the flavour, though I've found that the shortcut - with juice separated - produces a sufficiently delicious filling, especially if slightly underripe pineapples are used.
I hope you will try making them with fresh pineapples some time! Let us know how it goes.