Pineapple tarts or cookies are butter cookie dough shape of rolls open at the ends and filled with sweet pineapple paste.
They come in many shapes and I love them a lot. They are amazingly tasty and delicious to eat.
I bought 4 pineapples for RM5 at the market. It was amazingly cheap but like all cheap things, it came with a hiccup. The pineapples were super sour. It was too sour to eat plain and too sour for juice. Thinking it would be wasteful to throw away, I decided to make it into pineapple jam filling for pineapple tarts.
Pineapple tarts or pastry are a favorite in Kota Kinabalu. They are usually found in abundance during festive seasons. Some are shaped like a log with opens at the ends and some fully enclosed within a rectangular shape or closed up like a ball.
At first I tried rolling the pastry into a ball but I feel it took up too much time. So I decided to try the log method. To simplify it, I have decided to use plastic bag instead of cling film to roll the dough in. This gives the dough really smooth edges, no trimming required and no wastage unlike if you do it any other way.
Check out the video to watch how I use a plastic bag to roll my dough in.
Now back to my sour pineapple story. As I mentioned above, it was sour. So I decided maybe plenty of sugar might reduce the sourness but I was horribly wrong. My hubby the taster said maybe I should have added MORE sugar into the jam. Well, throwing the jam would be wrong so I proceed to make my cookie anyway.
A good pineapple tart is judged by the texture of the pastry and the sweetness of the filling. I think my tart filling tasted really way off the mark so I add an extra 30g of brown sugar to the pastry. Finger cross this will mellow out the sour fillings.
Before I continue my rambling on the technique of how to make the cookies, let me start on how to make the pineapple filling.
The Pineapple Filling
Blender
Cut the pineapple into piece (3 pineapples) and blend it.
Cooking
Place the pineapple juice and pulp on to the pot at low flame. Add in 1 ½ cup of sugar. Let it simmer until all the water has vaporized, the filling look thickened and darkened.
Oven
Placed the filling on to a non stick pan and put into the oven at 100C (lowest). Let it cooked for another 40 – 60 minutes. Keep checking every 10 minutes to make sure it is not burning. When the filing has thickened to a consistency of sticky fudge then it is ready.
Tips: Strain and throw away the juice if it is sour.
The Pineapple Pastry
Ingredient
250g butter or margarine
300g flour
50g cornflour
50g caster sugar
30g brown sugar (optionable)
1 tsp vanilla
Methods
Beat the vanilla, butter and sugar until fluffy.
Pour the flour into the batter and use a spoon to mix. Keep mixing until it is no longer easy to turn and the batter has formed into lumps of dough.
Assembling the Pineapple Tart
Rolling the Filling
Use a melon ball spoon to scoop the jam and drop on to plate filled with caster sugar. If the filling was cooked thoroughly then it would be firm enough to handle with your fingers. Using two fingers form them into balls.
The Pastry
Divide the dough into 5 plastic bags. Using a rolling pin, roll out and flattened the dough into rectangle. Place to chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Forming The Log
Place one rectangle dough on to the cutting board.
Use a knife sliced open the plastic in half. Peel off the plastic.
Cut the dough into long strips about 2cm x 4cm
Place one jam filling in the middle of one strip. Fold the edges over the jam. Placed the open edges face down on to the baking tray.
Brush some egg wash over the tarts and let it baked at 170C for 15 minutes or until browned on top.
I do not make pineapple tart so often because it takes too much time. You can reduce the time consuming of making the filling by buying just the jam which is sold at RM8 to RM10 each tub. There is no guarantee that the filling will be sweet. I have ever tried one that is as equally a sour as my story above.
At the end of the day nothing beats the achievement feeling of making these cute pineapple tarts and serving them to your family and friends.
