Pineapple Tarts

No New Year is complete without pineapple tarts. Yet, I have morbid fear in making these; Hard work, Hard work, Hard work and more hard work...

• Hard work making the pineapple jam,



• Hard work rolling out the dough and



• More hard work trying to shed the extra weight gained from these little devilish tart.

Last year when I made these, I told myself "last time liao, next year no more... siong!" This year I said the same to myself as I cooked the pineapple... haha. It is such a tradition, oh my oh my dear pineapple tarts!!!

It is so cumbersome; as I am shaping these little tarts, I told myself whoever darn complain how expensive pineapple tarts are, I will ask them f***off =p

See, the stress is so much that even the ladle couldn't handle:



Sigh. But what needs to be done, needs to be done...

I won't post the pineapple jam recipe here cos there are many many many on-line recipes that you can use. Personally I do think it's the pineapple rather than the recipe that will make a difference in the final result of your jam.



I am sharing the melt-in-your-mouth dough which is eggless to encourage bakers to use less egg:

Eggless Pineapple Tarts
360g plain flour plus extra for dusting
40g icing sugar
300g cold salted best quality butter
1 tsp vanillin

1) Sift flour, sugar and vanillin. Mix Well. Cut butter into small cubes and add to flour mixture. Continue to cut the butter with your spatula, and coat with the flour until they are really tiny. Use fingertips to rub the butter into the flour until it combine to form a dough.

2) Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper if not using the individual paper case.

3) Divide the dough into small balls. Put a pineapple jam on it and wrap the dough around the jam. Repeat until all the dough or jam is used up.

4) Place a clove on each tart to make it look like a tangerine. this step is optional.

5) Preheat oven to 190C.

6) Bake for 5 mins at 190C, then next 15min at 160C. Allow tarts to cool completely on a wire rack before storing in an airtight container.

my notes:

• icing sugar prevents the dough from spreading too much in oven.


• vanillin is the powder form of vanilla extract. It reduces liquid into the dough which is already very soft by itself.


• Use the best quality butter you can afford for this dough. They make a difference. Best is the tin -type of butter


• rubbing in-method: you will not get to the 'breadcrumbs' stage as the proportion of butter to flour is too high to stay as breadcrumb.


• No point to chill the dough; When it is out of the fridge, it is too hard to be rolled and moulded. Once it is soft enough to be rolled, it will be sticky again. Just get use to it. You will.


• Divide the dough into equal portion ensure you get evenly sized tarts. I used 10ml pineapple + 10ml dough. This gives you very thin dough.


• I bake my tarts in a small paper liner - it helps to retain the shape better. If you do not, reduce the baking time by a few minutes.


• Becos this is eggless, the tarts are softer (and weaker) than those with eggs since egg actually strengthen the structure. The paper liner here will help to ensure the tart stays better in the container too. Also, the colour will appear paler; if you prefer a richer colour, add some egg yellow colouring (avail at Phoon Huat).
  

recipe adapted from Delicious Asian Sweet Treat by Oi Lin