“Pineapple” Pineapple Tart “凤梨”凤梨酥

Pineapple tart is my favourite CNY bake, I will never get tired of trying different type of pineapple tarts whenever I have chance.

The type of pastry I like is soft and buttery (must have very strong butter taste) and not too crumbly (I don’t want it to crack in my hand). For the paste, I prefer slight sour than sweet. I know homemade one is the best but I still use ready-made one for the convenience sake (read here to see how I modify the store-bought pineapple jam).

When I made my first pineapple tart in year 2009 I treated it like a small project. I tried different recipes (sometimes just made small changes to see the difference, e.g. with and without cornflour/ with and without baking powder). I even tried adding dairy cream to the dough.

I used two butter brands, Golden Churn and SCS. At the end, all the testers preferred SCS except myself. After trying all variations, guess what, the most preferred one by my family members was the very first one I made. The recipe contains only basic ingredients, without baking powder and cornflour. (Check out my 2009 pineapple tart here)

The problem with this recipe is that the dough is super difficult to handle due to its high butter ratio. So this year I revisit the recipe and add little custard powder, the little starch makes the dough much easier to handle. Custard powder is actually cornflour with added colour and flavouring. So if it is not available, it can be replaced by cornflour.

So how’s the taste and texture? I would say it’s almost there, very close to “the one”. I can’t describe how “the one” taste like; it’s the standard I set to myself to achieve.

I will be making another batch so I asked D if I should try another recipe or make any changes to this, his answer was no. He said I should stick to this recipe, as the result was fabulous. Should I?

Do give this recipe a try if you have the same liking of pineapple tart as me.

I am submitting this to Aspiring Bakers # 3: My Favorite CNY Cookie (Jan 2011) hosted by j3ss kitch3n.

Ingredients: (yield 40pcs)

140g chilled SCS salted butter, cut into small cubes (see note)
180g top flour (plain flour is fine too)
1 tbsp custard powder
30g icing sugar
1 egg yolk
½ tsp vanilla essence
For glazing: 1 egg yolk with a few drops of water

Pineapple rum paste: about 320g
*Roll into ball of slightly below ½ tbsp each, about 8g. Feel free to make it smaller (e.g. 1 tsp each).
*Refer here for the “recipe”

Method:
1) Sift flour, custard powder and icing sugar together into a mixing bowl.
2) Add in butter, use fingertips to rub the butter into the flour until you see no trace of butter and flour.
3) Lightly beat egg yolk and vanilla essence, add into the butter/flour mixture, combine and press lightly to form a dough (do not knead).
4) Wrap the dough with cling wrap and refrigerate for about an hour to firm it up before shaping (you may skip this if you think the dough is not too soft to handle).
5) To assemble, roll the dough into ball (each dough is slight rounded ½ tbsp), make a hole at the centre by thumb, place the pineapple paste ball into the hole, wrap and roll again. If want to make into pineapple shape, slightly flatten the ball and use fork to make crisscross pattern on top.
5) Line baking tray with greaseproof paper, place pineapple tart on top.
6) Bake in preheat oven at 190C for 6 mins, middle rack, remove tarts from oven, apply egg wash (that’s how you get shinning and yellow glazing, no colouring added).
7) Return to oven to bake at 180C for another 4 -5 mins.
8) Use a flat spatula to transfer the tarts to wire rack for cooling. Allow tarts to cool completely before storing in an airtight container.

Note:
1) You may use your preferred brand of butter but remember use only real butter, not “spread” or margarine.

2) Adjust the oven temperature and baking time according to your oven condition and tart size.