Pineapple Tarts 凤梨塔

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 fibrous. You should have about +/-900g of pineapple flesh now.
3. Drain the grated pineapples with a sieve. Place the grated pineapple flesh into a large surface area pot. Save the pineapple juice for later.
4. Add 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 occasionally, 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 by now. Turn the heat to low and continue cooking until the mixture looks very dry and coats the wooden spoon without any moisture. Add in 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 golden yellow colour would also be an indication of its doneness.
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 8 to 10g each.)

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.
3. Add the remaining half of cold butter and beat together, till sandy mixture. If there are large size 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.
8. After resting the dough, roll out 1 portion of dough and cut out using pineapple tart mold. You may need to dust the working surface and mold with some flour. (I rolled the dough on non-stick baking paper so I didn’t need to sprinkle with flour. I also rolled the dough to about 4-5mm thickness. You can roll thicker pastry if you prefer more crust.) 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 paste.
9. Place pineapple paste balls onto pastry. Egg wash the pastry surrounding the pineapple paste TWICE.
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.