The Correct Recipe for Pineapple Tarts
Oops. That's right. The title implies that the earlier one was ... wrong!! Well, maybe that's a rather strong word to use considering that I baked my first relatively successful batch of pineapple tarts using it. It had, however, been the source of much agony one evening when I must have tried it several times, each successive attempt resulting in increasingly brittle--and totally unusable pastry. Add to that the irritation of having to use inferior quality off-the-shelf pineapple jam which I thought to try in hopes of discovering a short cut. Well, lesson learnt! Home-made is often better, and, true to a truism, the right recipe makes all the difference...
I was all but ready to give up on pineapple tarts for a while, and then my husband and I met up with a fellow Singaporean who had sons who missed greatly Chinese New Year goodies like the tarts. This gave me a new boost of determination and zeal to make some good tarts for the boys. I managed to get a recipe for the pastry from my aunty (who has been baking for decades) and tried it out this afternoon. An adjustment to the baking time and temperature was needed; thankfully I found the optimal time and temperature after a little experimentation. The following worked for me, for my oven, but I'd suggest that you do some experimentation as well on single pineapple tarts before you bake a whole tray of them. Click on picture below to see the tarts up close.
Pineapple Tarts
Makes about 45 tarts
Pineapple Jam:
Bring 500g crushed/grated pineapple (I use canned ones), 300g of sugar, and 2 tablespoons of lemon juice to a boil and let it simmer for as long as it takes for jam to thicken. (I usually need more than half an hour--maybe more--of simmer time; make sure you stir occasionally to ensure that bottom does not get charred) When most of the liquid has evaporated, sieve in about 1 tsp of corn flour, stir well, and set jam aside to cool.
Pastry/Base:
1. Sift 450g plain/all-purpose flour and 20g milk powder together. Make sure they are well mixed.
2. Put 250g butter, 120g icing sugar and 1 egg (beaten together with about 1/2 tsp salt) in mixer and beat until sugar is just dissolved.
3. Add flour and milk powder and mix until dough holds together. (It may look crumbly but that's okay. Pressing it well during rolling will do the trick)
4. Preheat oven to 150 degrees C.
5. Beat 1 egg in bowl for glazing.
6. Roll out dough to about 0.5cm thickness. Press out dough with tart or cookie cutter cutter and put generous mound of pineapple filling in centre.
7. Bake for about 3-4 minutes; remove from oven and glaze pastry with beaten egg. Bake for another 4-5 minutes. (My aunty's recipe called for a baking time of about 15 minutes at 180 degrees C, but I found that that burnt the bottom of the pastry)
Have fun, and enjoy this traditional Singaporean Chinese New Year delicacy! There's nothing quite like it...
I was all but ready to give up on pineapple tarts for a while, and then my husband and I met up with a fellow Singaporean who had sons who missed greatly Chinese New Year goodies like the tarts. This gave me a new boost of determination and zeal to make some good tarts for the boys. I managed to get a recipe for the pastry from my aunty (who has been baking for decades) and tried it out this afternoon. An adjustment to the baking time and temperature was needed; thankfully I found the optimal time and temperature after a little experimentation. The following worked for me, for my oven, but I'd suggest that you do some experimentation as well on single pineapple tarts before you bake a whole tray of them. Click on picture below to see the tarts up close.
Pineapple Tarts
Makes about 45 tarts
Pineapple Jam:
Bring 500g crushed/grated pineapple (I use canned ones), 300g of sugar, and 2 tablespoons of lemon juice to a boil and let it simmer for as long as it takes for jam to thicken. (I usually need more than half an hour--maybe more--of simmer time; make sure you stir occasionally to ensure that bottom does not get charred) When most of the liquid has evaporated, sieve in about 1 tsp of corn flour, stir well, and set jam aside to cool.
Pastry/Base:
1. Sift 450g plain/all-purpose flour and 20g milk powder together. Make sure they are well mixed.
2. Put 250g butter, 120g icing sugar and 1 egg (beaten together with about 1/2 tsp salt) in mixer and beat until sugar is just dissolved.
3. Add flour and milk powder and mix until dough holds together. (It may look crumbly but that's okay. Pressing it well during rolling will do the trick)
4. Preheat oven to 150 degrees C.
5. Beat 1 egg in bowl for glazing.
6. Roll out dough to about 0.5cm thickness. Press out dough with tart or cookie cutter cutter and put generous mound of pineapple filling in centre.
7. Bake for about 3-4 minutes; remove from oven and glaze pastry with beaten egg. Bake for another 4-5 minutes. (My aunty's recipe called for a baking time of about 15 minutes at 180 degrees C, but I found that that burnt the bottom of the pastry)
Have fun, and enjoy this traditional Singaporean Chinese New Year delicacy! There's nothing quite like it...
posted by E Loy | 3/11/2005 09:21:00 PM
26 Comments:
hi,am i reading your recipes.found something on the net, a different recipes you Pineapple Tarts
Ingredients:
1 can crushed pineapple
Sugar to taste
1 cup butter
½ cup icing sugar
2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. vanilla extract
Egg for glazing
Method:
1) Preheat oven at 325F.
2) Drain crushed pineapple and cook till dry. Stir.
3) Add sugar to pineapple. Stir. Cool.
4) Mix butter, icing sugar and flour together. Add vanilla extract.
5) Shape dough and add pineapple filling.
6) Bake for 15mins
but it seems your recpie is more complicated but more delicious..mine email j00a@yahoo.com
Hi. I am a great fan of pineapple tarts. MY all time favourite (which however can not be bought anymore cos the maker has is very old now) pineapple tarts were made in the shape of jambus. The pastry was heavenly, it practically melts in your mouth. Would you by any chance have such a recipe?
I noticed that your recipe calls for cornflour to be stirred into the pineapple paste. What's the purpose of the flour please?
Thank you in advance. I look forward to trying your recipe this coming school holidays as my kids love tarts too.
The recipe we have does give the pastry a "melt in your mouth" texture--but I'm not sure how good it would be compared to what you tasted. We learned it from a relative, who knows a lot more about such things. I think the cornflour helps hold the pastry together--but again, we are not experts. Hope that helps.
My aunt makes the pastry with only flour, butter, a tsp of salt and an egg. It gives a nice contrast to sweetness of the jam :)
Thanks, Wandernut. We'll be giving it a try.
hi,
I'm a fan of pineapple tart and I found out that your recipe call for milk powder and I'm living in Germany and I don't think there are any in the shop. What can I do to replace the milk powder? thanks
[may, christian & benjamin] why would germany not have any milk powder? what do babies drink then?? hmmm... so you have those pints of milk bottles delivered by the milkman? ((: wow thats very cool. haha... i suppose it's cos singapore don't have. =D
i suppose the milk powder can be substituted with milk. only add the milk last. i suppose for this recipe, you can try adding milk until the dough is to your suited consistency. =))
hihi
can't find crushed pineapple. do you think sliced ones would work?
I've been neglecting this blog for some time (my apologies).
dav: actually, you can crush the sliced pineapple yourself using a fork. Alternatively, send it through a blender *very briefly*. The reason why I prefer crushed pineapple is because the outcome gives the jam more textual (compared to commercially available tarts).
May,Christian & Benjamin: milk will probably work, but I'm not sure. I'll go with huiyi's answer.
the cornflour is used to thicken the pineapple jam - a shortcut method if you're too impatient to wait for the stuff to dry up and caramelise properly.
happy CNY!
Hi!
I just tried using your recipe to make pineapple tarts.
I put in the flour and milk powder into the mixer, after mixing in the butter, icing sugar and egg. Is that correct or should I just mix the flour and milk powder by hand with the mixture?
I find that the end result is very crumbly and is difficult for me to create shapes with the cookie cutter.
Also, someone told me that you need to put the dough in the fridge for at least 30 mins before cutting it. Is that right?
Pls advise. Tks.
Corn flour sort of holds the other ingredients together. Just like when you cook, you sometimes add a bit of corn flour to your gravy if it's too watery.
I'm gonna give your recipe a shot! :D I'm okay with cooking but am a klutz at baking pastries :P
Hi,
I follow your pineapple tart recipe, but the pastry look crumbly. Is it possible for me to add some cold water or milk or egg yolk ? Pls advise
Hope to hear u soon
Thanks & Regards;
hi to the peeps who got the crumbly flour problem-
i find that just handling the dough a bit more will sort of 'melt' the butter inside and make it more pliable. but i heard the downside is that handling the dough excessively wil cause the cookie to be "tough". but i guess adding a little bit more egg wont hurt..?
i usually use a shortcrust pastry for the dough (flour, cold butter cut into small cubes and salt). Keeping your hands quite cold (so it doesn't melt the butter, crumble the flour and the butter together - look up any recipe book on shortcrust pastry -try Delia Smith).
It should be done quite fast otherwise you end up over mixing the butter and flour and that reduces the melt-in-your-mouth texture. Before use, return the dough to the fridge so the butter hardens again. this should make the dough firmer.
Actually as the above blogger have said, u need to use real cold butter cut into cubes and rub the butter in with your finger tips. dont use your palms. the ned result is very nice... i guess cooling your hands id a great idea. Thanks for telling!
sorry can i ask a question.
i just made a batch without using this recipe.
while browsing i saw that u put milk powder?
what exactly does the milk powder do?
Hi... I tried following your recipe, but I cant get the jam out. Somehow when the jam cools, it harden so much that I have no idea how to get it out from the pot...
Any idea what went wrong?
But I'm not giving up.. I'm going to give it another try tomorrow. =)
Why do we need icing sugar for the pastry ? What does it do for the pastry ?
I used your recipe for the jam but halved the sugar, added 1 cinnamon stick, 1 star anise and 4 cloves to the jam
For the pastry, I did without the milk powder but grated in 50g of shard cheddar. The resulting base is not like the traditional crumbly base but still good nontheless.
you need icing sugar for the pastry because else the sugar will not combine properly with the pastry
hey there, do u have any idea on how to make the pineapple tarts more fragrant? it's like..the moment you open a bottle of pineapple tarts you can immediately smell the buttery-smell of the tarts.
slurpp! :)
I followed yr receipe and not only does it work, it's better than what my mother makes!! Hah! I made the pineapple jam by grating the pineapple manually though; it was really hard work frying it and making sure it was dry. Will have to make life easier by trying canned pineapples next time
hi.. i was searching for a simple pineapple tarts recipe and chanced by ur blog n this recipe.. tried baking over last weekends, and it turns out really nice n tasty.. thanks for such simple n nice recipe.. :-)
Julie
Please one more post about that.I wonder how you got so good. This is really a fascinating blog, lots of stuff that I can get into. One thing I just want to say is that your Blog is so perfect
I am actually looking for an old fashioned recipe from the 1960"s , it is a small tart filled with crushed pineapple then a layer of cream and lemon icing on the top, they were divine but I can't find them anywhere or the recipe, does anyone out there have the recipe ? From Ruth, Cornwall, England
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