Delicious pineapple tarts. This recipe is adapted from Rasa Malaysia and it is absolutely delicious. I have always loved eating pineapple tarts and their availability around this time of the year, Chinese New Year, means they are in abundance around Toronto. I have always been tempted to make them and there are different ways they can be made. I opted for the method and design of tarts that did not require me to get any additional molds.
Pineapple tarts have a sweet pineapple jam filling and a buttery crumbly exterior. They are a popular Chinese New Year or Lunar New Year cookies that is said to represent good fortune, like many of the foods and colours around Chinese New Year. It is also said to symbolize bringing a sweet life into the new year. Pineapple Tarts are enjoyed in several countries like Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia to name a few.
Feel free to freeze the tarts and the left over filling if you think you cannot eat them fast enough. When ready to eat the tart or use the filling just let thaw until it comes to room temp.
Pineapple Tart (Pineapple Cookies)
Recipe adapted from Rasa Malaysia's Best-Ever Pineapple Cookies (Pineapple Tarts) Recipe.
Ingredients
Tart Dough
- 3 sticks (350 grams) butter, unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 100 grams sweetened condensed milk
- 2 large egg yolks (up to 4 small yolks)
- 250 grams all-purpose flour
- 250 grams cake flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Pineapple Filling (Pineapple Jam)
- 2 whole pineapples peeled, chopped and core removed (optional) (about 2kg)
- 1 cups 250 grams granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1/2 tablespoon cloves
Egg Wash
- 2 egg yolks
- 1 tablespoon condensed milk
- 1/2 teaspoon oil
Instructions
Pineapple Jam
- Place your peeled, cored pineapple into a blender and blend until smooth. I do not core my pineapple but if you want a smoother, less fibrous filling, remove the core.
- In a pot, add your filling and cloves and cook down for 15 minutes on medium heat. Stir constantly so it does not burn. Even if it is bubbling or splashing, you cannot close the pot completely because the point of cooking your pineapple jam is to let water evaporate off. You may partially cover with a lid in the case of splashing.
- After 10 minutes, add your sugar, lemon juice and continue cooking on low to medium, stirring constantly for up to 40 minutes (or more as needed) until your jam is thickened and darkened in colour.
- Use your judgment but you want your jam to be nice and thick, it will thicken further when it cools, but not too dry because your jam filling will not be as enjoyable.
- Remove your cloves from your pineapple jam, making sure all the dark bits are gone. I do this by working with 1 scoop of jam at a time, on a plate. Add a scoop of jam to a plate, remove the cloves, add a another scoop, remove the cloves, and so on.
- Set your filling aside and let it cool completely, uncovered. Place in fridge for 30 minutes uncovered before using. If making your jam ahead, let it cool to room temperature uncovered, then transfer into an air tight container and store in your fridge until ready to use
Tart Dough
- Beat your room temp butter and condensed milk together for about 3 minutes.
- Add your egg yolks. If you have normal sized egg yolks, from large eggs, use 2 egg yolks. When making this recipe for the first time, the carton of eggs I used had tiny yolks so I ended up double the number of egg yolks from 2-4 (yes they were that tiny).
- Finally, add your two flours, and salt and mix until just combined and the butter and flour are evenly distributed. The dough may look crumbly, depending on the temperature of your butter at the start but it will come together. Cover with plastic wrap until read to use.
Egg Wash
- Add all your ingredient sin a bowl, whisk with a fork and set aside.
Form Tarts
- Divide your dough into 50-100 pieces. I make mine bigger so I get about 55 pieces as I make them about twice as big as the original recipe intended.
- Make a tester, flatten out one of your dough pieces. Use a teaspoon to scoop some of your cooled filing and form it into a ball. This should be easily done but if your filling is too wet, it may be easier to work with an "irregular shape" and not try and form it into perfect balls.
- Place your filling ball in the middle of your flattened out dough ball and encircle your filling with your dough carefully, rolling it in your hand to make sure there are no cracks.
- Use the back of a knife to make cross hatching into your dough ball (about 3 line horizontal and 3 line vertical( , place on line parchment paper. Until your are ready to egg wash and bake.
- After making your single tester, you can get a sense of how much filling your need in each tart.
- You can start working efficiently by dividing up your filling ahead of time, filling your dough and forming them into circles and when all the filing is done, you can cross hatch on mass and egg wash all at once.
- Preheat oven to 330 degrees before all your tarts are filled, and bake your tarts for 20-21 minutes. If you have make bigger tarts (closer to 60 tarts total rather than 100, you may want to bake for an addition 2-3 minutes.
- It is important to have a tester baking sheet where you bake about 5 tarts and test out how they bake, and how quickly they brown in your oven.
- When they are ready, let cool slightly, transfer to plate while you bake your others.
- On the first day they are melt in your mouth butter and so tender. Pineapple tarts are said to do well with "aging". When they are fully cooled store them in an air tight container at room temp and as your continue to enjoy them over several days, your will notice a textural change. They become less crumbly but the flavour in the jam filling is more pronounced.
Notes
You may not end up with 100 pineapple tarts. I often make my tarts bigger than bite sized and therefore end up with about 55 tarts. I make mine two-bite as opposed to one-bite pineapple tarts.
If you have a kitchen scale, you can utilize this kitchen tool to help you make uniform tarts. Make a “sample tart” and if this as your baseline measurements for any subsequent tarts you make.
You may have left over filling. I had about 1/3 of cup leftover which I freeze and save for another batch. I rather make too much filling than not have enough filling for my cookies, I like to stuff them as much as possible.
If you do not have cake flour, simply use 500 grams of all purpose flour, remove 2 tablespoons of all purpose flour from the total, and add 2 tablespoons of cornstarch.
