Getting ready for Chinese New Year - Pineapple Tarts (Part two)

This is the sequential part of my pineapple tart baking...

In my previous post, I've made my own pineapple jam and baked two jars of cream-cheese-melt-in-mouth pineapple tarts using both recipes provided by Wendy, Table for 2 or more. Wendy's cream cheese pineapple tarts recipe is really good but I would wish to seek further for an ultimate melting kind of pineapple tarts and wouldn't mind trying out different pineapple tarts recipes to satisfy my curiosity. Since young, I've been extremely good being a pineapple tart critic. LOL! My husband and son loves pineapple tarts too and I think that we all can be "critical" enough to test lots of pineapple tart from different recipes.

There are two recipes that I have tried and tested in this post:

My first recipe is from Jun, Indochine Kitchen. Her nastar (enclosed kind) pineapple tarts are all very uniformly shaped and they look so beaming with their golden glaze! I can't stop admiring the way she shaped and baked the tarts with her detailed step-by-step instructions and thought that I can do that too...or maybe not. Using her recipe, my pastry has turned out to be too crumbly for me to handle. My rolled pastry broke into pieces whenever I tried to roll them to enclose the pineapple filling. Eventually, I thought I can salvage the pastry by adding an additional egg yolk and can only shape the pastry into the open kind of pineapple tarts.

My second recipe is from Ju, The Little Teochew. As I was browsing through most bloggers' pineapple posts, there were a few that mentioned that this recipe by The Little Teochew is really really really good! And it is true! Out of all the recipes that I have tired so far, I would say that this is the best.

For this Chinese New Year, I'm happy and satisfied with the pineapple tarts that I made using the The Little Teochew recipe but wouldn't think that this is the end of my search for the most ideal pineapple tart yet. At this moment, I would love to sit back, relax and enjoy these pineapple tarts first, and will continue my quest probably after this celebration.

Melt-in-your-mouth pineapple tarts (Recipe from The Little Teochew)

A closer look of the yummy tart...

Another jar of goodies for our Chinese New Year celebration.

Here are the pineapple tart recipes that I've baked:

(with my slight modification and notes in blue)  

Recipe from Indochine Kitchen

200g butter

50g confectioners' sugar

40g powdered milk

280g flour, low gluten or all purpose

20g cornflour

2 egg yolks (plus 1 egg yolk)

500-600g pineapple jam

For egg wash

3 egg yolks

1/4 tsp condensed milk

(Mine is 1 egg yolk + 1 tsp condensed milk + 1 tsp milk)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 150°C (or 150°C fan forced)

Sift flour, powdered milk and corn flour twice.

In a mixer bowl, combine butter and sugar. Cream till light and fluffy, about 4-5 min, over high speed.

Add egg yolk, one at a time. Beating well.

Add flour mixture into the bowl and beat over low speed using paddle attachment. Do this for 4-5min, until everything is mixed well.

Work with 50 g of dough one at a time. Roll dough between plastic sheet to 0.2cm thickness.

Pipe pineapple jam on top of the dough. Roll the dough to cover up the jam completely.

Use a pair of scissors to cut them up into 4cm log and arrange on greased pan.

Brush with egg wash mixture twice using small pastry brush.

Bake in preheated oven till golden, 15-20min.

Let cool and store in airtight container.

Recipe from The Little Teochew
   

yields about 96 tarts

400g plain flour

50g corn flour

1/4 (heaped) tsp salt

280g cold, unsalted butter (do not allow it to soften)

3 egg yolks, beaten

3 tbsp cold water (or iced water) (I didn't add that)

6 tbsp icing sugar

1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

For glaze, mix 1 egg yolk + 1 tbsp water (replace with 1 tsp condensed milk and 1 tsp milk for extra colour)

Directions:

Sift the flours, icing sugar and salt. Mix well to combine.

Using the pointed ends of a fork, rub the butter into the flour until it looks like fine bread crumbs. If necessary, use fingertips to continue rubbing lightly the bigger pieces into finer pieces. Using forks prevents the cold butter from melting with minimal contact with heat. If you want to rub the butter into the flour using your hands, make sure you use only your fingertips.

Beat together egg yolks, cold water (I didn't use this) and vanilla extract. Add it into the butter-flour mixture. Using your finger tips, gently coax all the crumbs into one large dough ball. Do not knead. As long as all the crumbs come together, stop. Chill in the fridge for about 10 min, covered. (I chilled the pastry overnight)

Roll out to desired thickness (about 8mm thick). Cut out dough using cutter. Arrange neatly onto baking tray, with at least 1.5cm apart. Since this is a very buttery, oily pastry, it would be good to use a small portion at a time and keep the rest covered in the fridge.

Once you have arranged the tart shells on your tray, glaze them on the entire surface (not just the rims).

Place the pre-rolled pineapple jam balls onto the centre of each tart shell.

Bake at 160°C (or 150°C fan forced) for 20 min, turning the tray halfway through baking. According to the original recipe, when placing jam onto the pastry, take caution not to smear jam onto the sides as this will easily “burn” and render the sides of the pastry.

More useful notes from The Little Teochew:

• Instead of vanilla extract, 1/2 tsp of cognac can be added into this pastry.
• Egg wash can help to make the pastry "studier" during baking and gives the tarts a better glaze and a nice golden colour.
• Always pre-roll your pineapple jam before making the pastry.
• Always keep pastry chilled.

Note: Using half the amount of pineapple jam leftover from my previous pineapple tart bake and 2/3 recipe from The Little Teochew, I've baked 65 pineapple tarts. I had a little left-over jam after all my bakes and can salvage the pastry from Indochine Kitchen to bake at least 15 decent-looking pineapple tarts.

Happy Baking

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