Pineapple Tart All Year Round

Now that Chinese New Year is only weeks away, you see all the CNY goodies out for sale. That includes the yummy pineapple tarts. I luuuurve pineapple tarts. My mom too and she has asked me several times to learn how to make it (so she can enjoy eating it).

There's something about the Christmas season that gets me baking. So I finally picked up my lazy bones and attempted to make pineapple tarts. Finding the right recipe is very important. I settled to follow the recipe shared by Food 4 Tots (they have beautiful pictures too). So far I've tried baking this tart 3 times. The following are the tarts on my 3rd attempt.

After receiving valuable advice from pro pineapple tart bakers, I chose to combine margarine and butter to make the pastry. So now I have the kind of pastry that doesn't crumble in your hand but melts in your mouth.

Here's the recipe that I use for the pastry.

• 150g margarine (Planta was recommended), 100g butter (At room temperature. Use unsalted butter if you want less salt).
• 50g icing sugar
• 2 egg yolks
• 360g all purpose flour
• 2 tbsp corn flour
• 1/4tsp salt

Directions:
Use a mixer to cream butter and icing sugar (sift it first) until light.
Add in the egg yolks and the salt. Keep beating until fluffy.
In a separate bowl, sift the flour. Mix in the corn flour.
Fold in the dry ingredients (flour) gradually into the wet mixture (butter, sugar, eggs). You don't need to use a cake mixer here. Just use a spoon, wooden spatula or maybe even your fingers to mix everything into a firm dough.
Leave the dough aside for 30 minutes.

Okay, so that is the pastry. What about the pineapple filling? Well, I'm not so hardworking to grate the pineapple and cook it myself. I bought a packet of ready made from the DoReMi bakery here in Sikamat, S'ban. The sales girl said many people have tried it and said its good. She wasn't lying. Their filling was better than the one I bought at another bakery in town. That one was too sweet. The DoReMi one is not as sweet.

How to put the pineapple tart together? Just watch this video. Even a 5 year old can do it.

Basically, you take the pineapple jam and make little oblong balls. Do this while you are letting your dough rest.

To make the strips of dough, a pastry press helps. I got my plastic one at the bakery shop. Make sure you get the right pattern - one that makes stripes on the dough. I think it is called a Nastar mould.

After assembling the pineapple tarts, brush the tops with eggwash (1 egg yolk and 1 tbsp milk) and bake it for 15 minutes at 180 degrees celcius.

Mamas Baking Tips

• Get your kids to help you roll the pineapple jam into balls. Older kids can help roll the pastry around the jam.
• When your hands get sticky rolling the jam, just wash your hands. Clean hands makes the work easier and faster. This may mean you will be washing your hands a few times.
• Use a baking sheet or grease paper to avoid the dough from sticking to the table surface.
• To get them all about the same size, you have to have about the same measurement for each ball of jam. I used a 1/4 tsp to scoop up the jam. If you want bigger tarts, maybe 1/2 tsp of jam.
• It is very tiring for one person to do it all. Get help if you can... grandma, kids or DH (I doubt he will say yes though). 

Now I can have pineapple tarts all year round. Woohoo! 

Oh, almost forgot... Happy New Year everyone.