Pineapple Tarts

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR! : )

What are your must-have CNY goodies? I only managed to make some pineapple tarts on the CNY eve this year for my kids, as work has been really busy.

若想阅读中文版本，请在网页的右边 “Google Translate” 点击选择 中文简体 (Chinese Simplified）或 繁体 (Chinese Traditional) 翻译。可能食谱读起来会怪怪的，所以如果有疑问都可以问哦！

Do you still remember your favourite childhood CNY goodies?

I have a couple of favourite cookies for CNY, but among them, open pineapple tarts are the BEST! It won’t feel like it’s CNY for me if there is no pineapple tart!

If I remember correctly, during the time when I was a kid, we mostly ate these open pineapple tarts. The melt-in-mouth pineapple balls were made popular in the past decade or so.

What Are Pineapple Tarts?

Pineapple tarts are small bite-sized pastries topped with cooked-down pineapple jam, which are then baked till golden. In recent years, another variant of the pineapple tarts, those melt-in-mouth pastry wrapped with pineapple jam, have taken over the spotlight.

Pineapple tarts are often given as gifts or offered as snacks to guests during visiting, because pineapple are called “ong lai” in Hokkien. As many Chinese love auspicious words during the CNY, pineapple tarts sounds like 旺来 / “prosperity is here“, thus gaining popularity and is considered a “staple” snack or gift during this time.

How Different Are They?

Do you also find that the open vs enclosed pineapple tarts tasting quite different? I remember the old tarts that I ate when I was a kid, were slightly crumbly and buttery. I also love the lightly spiced pineapple paste (with cloves and cinnamon).

On the other hand, the enclosed tarts are usually melt-in-mouth with a slightly sweeter crust.

Some of my friends prefer the sturdier and slightly “crispier” tart shell for open tarts. Those who love melt-in-mouth texture would usually vote for the enclosed tarts. How about you?

Homemade Pineapple Paste vs Store Bought Pineapple Paste

To cook homemade pineapple paste to the right consistency, it will take a lot of practice to perfect it. So store bought pineapple paste can be a good choice too! You can look at the ingredients listed on the pineapple paste and try to choose one without coloring and preservatives, if you are concerned with that.

If you choose to make homemade pineapple paste, choose the Morris pineapple for best taste! Smell the bottom of the pineapple. Ripe ones will have a pleasantly sweet pineapple scent. I like to have a 50-50 mix of ripe and slightly unripe pineapples.

You’ll need to cook down the pineapple paste – if too watery, the pineapple tarts can turn moldy quickly; if too dry, the pineapple paste, placed on the open tarts, may have a layer of dry “skin” around it as it gets baked in the oven. It will then be a little too dry, and tastes really chewy, sticking to your teeth, which won’t taste as nice as the well-cooked jam.

Again, if you are inexperienced, you can try out store bought pineapple paste. If you are feeling adventurous, and have some time on hand, try cooking your own pineapple jam!

I have also included some tips and tricks in the recipe card below for baking these tarts with homemade and store bought paste 🙂

>> MORE CNY RECIPES:

• Purple Sweet Potato Pineapple Tarts
• Pandan Coconut Cookies
• Almond Cookies
• Peanut Almond Cookies (Kid Friendly)

Pineapple Tarts Baking Tips

As pineapple tarts usually carry the fragrant buttery scent, choose a good brand of butter to start with. I usually prefer the more subtle buttery fragrance from French butters, that don’t make the baked goods too greasy either.

For a nicer taste, you can use Elle & Vire. Otherwise, I find Paysan Breton butter not bad for its reasonable price too!

You will find that making the pineapple paste and pastry dough from scratch will take up a lot of time. So it would be good if you can break up the tasks:

• Pineapple Paste: Select and buy pineapples, cook them 2 days before you make the pineapple tarts. Roll them into balls the day before baking. Store in fridge.
• Pastry Dough: Make pastry dough the day before assembling and baking the tarts. Cling wrap and store in fridge for use the next day.
• Baking: Just roll out the dough, egg wash, top with the pineapple paste and bake!

Pineapple Tarts

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• Author: Cherie L.
• Prep Time: 360 Mins
• Cook Time: 40 Mins
• Total Time: 6 hours 40 minutes
• Yield: Makes About 50 Pcs 1x

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Description

The best Chinese New Year snack to have! Buttery and crumbly pastry tart topped with tangy sweet cooked down pineapple paste. Must have for Chinese New Year celebration!

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Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

Homemade Pineapple Paste (About 520g after cooked)

• 3 Pineapples (Morries, Malaysian Pineapple)
• 1 Pc Cinnamon Stick (Not cinnamon powder)
• 2 Pc Star Anise
• 2 Pc Cloves
• 480 g Caster Sugar
• 1/2 pc Lemon, Juiced

OR, Store-Bought Pineapple Paste

• 50 x 10g Pcs

Pineapple Tart Pastry Crust

• 320 g Plain Flour
• 200 g Unsalted Butter, Cold & Cubed (About 1x1cm cube)
• 30 g Icing Sugar
• 2 Egg Yolks, Cold
• 1/4 tsp Salt

Egg Wash

• 2 Egg Yolks, Strained
• 2 tsp Water or Milk

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Instructions

Homemade Pineapple Paste

1. Peel and remove the “eyes” of the pineapple.
2. Grate or finely chop the pineapples using a box grater into a large bowl. Discard core as it would be too tough.
3. Drain the grated pineapple with a sieve. Place the grated pineapple flesh into a wide pot with large surface area. Set the pineapple juice aside for later.
4. Add 80g of the sugar. lemon juice and spices into the pot at this point. Stir the mixture with a wooden spoon.
5. Bring the pot to a boil at medium-high heat. Once it start to boil, lower the heat to medium and stir it constantly, be sure not to allow it to burn.
6. Start adding the pineapple juice to the pot, a ladle at a time, until all the juice has been boiled away.
7. The juice will start to evaporate and dry out. The mixture should start to look dry and its color should turn darker. Turn the heat to low and continue cooking until the mixture looks very dry and coats the wooden spoon without any moisture. Add the rest of the sugar to taste towards the end of cooking.
8. Take the pot off the heat and allow the jam to cool completely once it looks dry and sticky. The pineapple jam should also look golden yellow in color.
9. Take note that the jam will continue to thicken after it is cooled so it is best not to overcook the mixture. It is better to under-cook it, for you can always put it back on the heat if it is still not at the right consistency after cooling.
10. After the pineapple jam is cooled, discard the spices, store it in an air-tight container in the refrigerator for up to a 3-4 weeks. (Good to cook this mixture 2 days prior to making the tarts. Roll and chill the pineapple paste 1 day prior to making the tarts – about 8g to 10g each, depending on your preference.)

Pastry Crust

1. Sift flour, icing sugar and salt into mixing bowl. Mix well.
2. Add half portion of cold butter into mixing bowl. Using the paddle attachment, beat the butter and dry ingredients together using low speed. You will see some coarse, sandy mixture coming together. You can also use the rubbing-in method by hand.
3. Add the remaining half of cold butter and beat together, till sandy mixture. If there are large pieces of butter, rub it into the dry ingredients using gloved hands. Beat the mixture again. Using your gloved hand, stir through the mixture to check if there are anymore large blobs of butter. Continue rubbing in if there is.
4. Add in the cold egg yolks and beat the dough together.
5. Divide the dough into 3 portions. Cling wrap each portion and chill in the refrigerator for about 30 mins to firm up.
6. In the mean time, roll out pineapple paste into balls if you did not manage to do so the day before. Roll each ball about 8 – 10g. Set aside in air tight container. Chill them for about 30 – 60 mins before using.
7. Preheat oven to 170C. Prepare the egg wash by straining egg yolk and water/milk together.
8. After resting the dough, roll out 1 portion of dough and cut out using pineapple tart mold. Dust the working surface and mold with some flour. Roll dough to about 4-6mm thickness. Repeat for all portions of dough. Place cut-out dough on lined baking tray. Reserve a portion of dough for “topping” on top of the pineapple jam.
9. Egg wash the pastry surrounding the pineapple paste TWICE. Place pineapple balls onto pastry.
10. Roll out reserved pastry dough and cut out using a small flower or heart shape cutter. Place on top of pineapple paste balls. You may want to egg wash the cut-out pastry dough as well.
11. Bake in preheated oven 170c for 20 – 22 mins, or till tart pastry look golden yellow. You may want to rotate the tray 10 mins into the baking time.
12. Once baked, cool baking tray on cooling rack. Once cooled, remove tarts to further cool on cooling rack. Store in airtight container when the tarts are completely cooled.

Equipment

Kenwood Chef XL

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Notes

If your homemade pineapple paste is drier, you can parbake the pastry for 10 mins without the pineapple paste balls (with egg wash). Remove from oven and top with pineapple paste balls and cut-out pastry. Continue baking for 10 mins more.

If you are using store bought pineapple paste which is slightly drier than homemade paste, you can use the parbake method as above.

I apply the egg wash twice so that the tarts will look more golden yellow after being baked.

Each tart pastry is about 4-5mm thickness; you can definitely cut thicker if you prefer. Simply add a few mins to baking time. Each pineapple paste ball is about 8g.

This recipe makes about 50 Pcs of pineapple tarts, also depending on your cutter size.

Pastry tart recipe originally from Travelling Foodies.

• Category: Cookie
• Method: Rubbing In (Mixer)
• Cuisine: Chinese

Keywords: Pineapple Tarts