Pineapple tarts (Recipe)

Happy Chinese New Year. We are going into the year of Monkey. It is officially tomorrow, but celebrations have already begun. Normally, we have family dinner and get-together the day before the new year and fast on the day itself. We try to keep to the tradition as close as possible, but it is harder nowadays with everyone's busy schedule. 

This year I decided to make pineapple tarts (open ones) for the occasion. I have been busy looking for recipes and ingredients since last month. Fortunately I had Thursday off, so I decided to go for it. It took me about 3 hours to bake the whole batch (I got 75 cookies in total). After the tarts came out of the oven, the pastry base was crunchy and the pineapple filling was melt-in-the-mouth. I really enjoyed the sourness from the pineapple, and the sweetness was just to my liking. It is a very nice cookie, very well-balanced. I was very happy with my first batch. It is not difficult to make, but you do need some patience.

Recipe for Pineapple tarts

Makes about 75 cookies 

Ingredients:

Pastry dough:

250g plain flour

125g cold butter

25g icing sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla essence

Pinch salt

1-2 tbs iced water

Pineapple jam filling

2 cans (880g) of crushed pineapple in juice, drained

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup white sugar (to taste)

1 tsp lemon juice

1 tsp cinnamon powder

Egg wash:

1 egg, slightly beaten

Method:

For the pastry:

1. In a food processor, blend flour, butter and sugar and pinch of salt

2. Once ressembles crumbs, add in egg and vanilla essence

3. If too crumbly, add 1 tbs of water at a time, until dough is formed.

4. Place in cling wrap and rest in the fridge for about 30 minutes.

Make pineapple filling in the meantime

For the pineapple filling:

1. In a blender. crush the pineapples to fine consistency

2. Place a saucepan on the stove on medium high heat and place processed pineapple, both sugars, lemon juice and cinnamon powder.

3. Stir occasionally and heat until the filling become sticky and there is no juices left. It should change to a brownish colour. It took me just under an hour.

4. Let to cool. Roll pastry in the meantime.

For the tarts:

1. Preheat oven to 170 degrees, fan-forced.

2. Roll pastry about 1/4 inch thick and then stamp your flower mold.

3. Place on baking tray.

4. Once pineapple filling is cooled, roll balls of 5g each.

5. Place each ball in the middle of each cut.

6. Brush with egg wash.

7. Bake in the oven for about 10-15 minutes. If browning too fast, reduce temperature to 150 degrees. 

Note:

The tart is best eaten on the day, if you want so crunchiness. The pastry becomes a little soft the day after, but still very tasty.