To usher the Water Dragon - Eggless Cream Cheese Pineapple Tart

Ready to Bake!

Come closer to every chinese new year, I will read about bloggers shouting about their "heirloom" pineapple pastry recipe. Occasionally I will be tempted (read: too "eng", or "free" in hokkien) to try out a different recipe.  Sometimes, half way through making, I realized that some steps were missed out... in which why bother to post it???!!! 

Most times, I rarely impressed enough to ditch my usual eggless version for something new.  Oh well, not until i tried this recipe from Wendy's blog.

Accordingly, it is soft even to melt-in-your-mouth yet firm enough not to crumble in your hand.  Oh well, what's not to like about this...  except it uses egg yolk.  But who says I can't try taking it off the list.

Below is adapted to be eggless, plus some personal preference.

Eggless Cream Cheese Pineapple Tart


I used Bulla heavy cream
but any dairy whipping cream should do.





Ingredients: 
250g salted butter

50g cream cheese 

50g caster sugar 

170g whipping cream 

50g icing sugar 
420g all purpose flour 
30g Corn flour 

Method: 

1. Sift AP flour and corn flour together.  Set aside. 
2. Using an electric mixer, blend the butter, cream cheese and sugar together till you get a creamy mixture.  I used speed 1 setting on my Kenwood mixer - beating at high speed with a wire whisk will induce more air into the mixture which will make the tart expand and crack when baked.  So I used the flexibeater as it not only limits the air whisked into the mixture, it saves me the need to stop and scrap the side of the mixing bowl every now and then.      
3. Add whipping cream slowly to the mixture and continue to mix until it comes together.
4. Sift flour into the creamed butter mixture, with mixer running on MIN setting.   Stop as soon as you do not see any trace of flour.  Over-mixing will make the dough tough.
5. Allow the dough to stand for minimum 10 mins in fridge. Cold dough is easier to handle.
6. Divide dough into small balls and the pineapple filling into balls roughly 1/2 the size of the dough.  I used 1tsp pineapple jam + 1tbsp dough, but this is soley personal preference so feel free to have less dough and more pineapple if this is what you like.  It's your life :-)

7. Wrap filling ball with dough ball and shape as desired.   I stamped the pineapple ball with the sugarpaste cutter; an idea that I got from Elyn who always have the chic-est pineapple tarts! 
8. Bake at 180 degrees celsius for 20 mins in an oven. (If using convection oven with turbo fan, lower temperature to 160 degrees celsius) 



Taste Test:  It is not melt-in-the-mouth, but I can't blame it on the recipe cos I have removed the egg yolk which is presumably does the trick.  It is not the buttery or milky type if that's what you like, but I do have my MIL and a couple of colleagues who prefer this to my usual buttery recipe.  I find the cream cheese and whipping cream add a delightful flavour to the dough.  It is certainly a good recipe in its own right.

In the end, I decided to keep both recipe.  My old trusty one for the open tart, and this for closed type (this recipe cannot be made for the open tart).  




I used to make my tart with loads of pineapple filling, like 1:1 ratio. 
But now i prefer the current ratio 1: 3, where there's a better balance, I find.

 

Ready for New Year!