Pineapple Tarts

If not because of Wendy of Table for 2 or more, I will never think of baking pineapple tarts myself. I never fancy pineapple tarts, I used to enjoy eating pineapple tarts but not recent years. Dunno why I just lost interest in pineapple tarts, probably because I need to keep my stomach for other more interesting CNY goodies :). I do still eat some during each CNY but only for homemade, those offered by colleagues that baked by them or their mum, must entertain a bit mah heeheehee...

When Wendy was baking her 1st batch of pineapple tarts, she told me about it and shared with me which recipe she was using. Next day, she MSN me and raved about how good were the pineapple tarts and she is going to bake more. I was tempted by her, she was so convincing that making my heart and hands so itchy, thinking that since I never bake pineapple tarts before then I should give it a try.

I was planning to get store-bought pineapple jam but Wendy kept assuring that it is actually easy to make the jam, her jam was done within an hour. I was thinking, since this may be the 1st and only one time that I will bake the pineapple tarts myself, then must well make it from scratch.

I went to hunt for the Morris pineapples that recommended by Wendy at a few supermarkets but not able to locate, I told myself to give a last try at wet market, if still not successful in hunting means I am fated to use store-bought jam. When I was in the fruits store, I immediately spotted the Morris pineapples, thanks to the picture that Wendy has provided in her blog. I asked the store keeper to choose two most unriped pineapples and so nice of him trying to look for the biggest for me. When he helped me to deskin the pineapples, I saw the pineapples were so pale in color, near to white color rather than very light yellow. Suddenly I felt very uncertain, I checked with the store-keeper and his replied was these type are better if meant for pineapple tarts.

Wendy is 101% correct, cooking the jam is not difficult at all, and best is dun even need to keep watching like hawk or keep stirring it, like she mentioned, I just need to stir it only once every 5 mins. This is unlike what I heard from others, it is tedious to cook the pineapple jam as you need to keep stirring and stirring and stirring. Wendy's notes are so detailed, if you read and follow her notes, you do not even need to throw a single question and the success rate is 100%.

My two pineapples weighed 1.5kg after deskin, much lesser than Wendy's, the store-keeper was so "generous" when deskin the pineapples, skin with lots of fresh :(. Since the pineapples are lesser so I reduced the sugar accordingly for 1.5kg pineapples.

The dough is definitely not easy to handle, quite sticky and took me sometimes to do the wrapping. As my estimation is lousy, Wendy asked me to use a tsp of pineapple jam, a tbsp of dough. However I think I used bigger portion of tsp and tbsp, ended up the pineapple tarts are quite big, I weighed the pineapple jam balls, roughly 8g each and dough, 15g each. I also do not know what went wrong, is it because the tarts are too big? My tarts actually went out of shape during baking, not round as Wendy's. Those tarts in the photos are most rounded and presentable among all :(.

Ingredients :
for pineapple jam :
2 Morris pineapples (weigh 1.5kg total)
330g
1 small cinnamon

For step to step method, notes and photos, pls refer to here. I got about 650g of pineapple jam after cooked.

for dough :
250gm butter (salted) - I used unsalted
75gm caster sugar
170gm dairy whipping cream
50gm cream cheese
3 egg yolks
400gm cake flour
30gm corn starch

One more yolk for glazing

Method :
1. Cream butter, sugar and cream cheese together.
2. When it comes together, pour in cream and whip on medium speed (I used speed 2 on my stand mixer) for 10 minutes. Scrape the sides from time to time. It may look lumpy, don’t worry, later it’ll turn all creamy.
3. Beat in egg yolks for 1 minute.
4. Sift both flours and pour half of it into buttery mixture. Mix on low speed until it comes together and pour in the remaining flour and beat until it comes together. Do not over mix.
5. Let dough sit for 10 minutes minimum before you start wrapping your jam with it.

For step to step photos and notes, pls refer here.

Verdict?
Like what Wendy has described, the tart is not very fragile and does not crumble in hands but still, melt in mouth type. It tasted good that once out from oven, I popped one after another, total 3 pineapple tarts in my mouth. However for my taste bud, I would prefer if it has more buttery taste, may be next time should use another brand of butter. For the pineapple jam, the sweetness is nicely sweet with some tartness, truely a thumbs up.

I may be busy again for the coming week so would also like to take this opportunity to wish all my baking buddies, friends and readers

Happy Lunar New Year, Gong Xi Fa Cai!

新年快乐, 万事如意!