Pineapple tart

Slightly out of shape due to a wonky mold

As most folks in this part of the world probably know, pineapple tarts herald the coming of the Chinese lunar New Year.  New Year snacks of long ago were baked over charcoal because most households did not own ovens but this soon changed when ovens became more affordable and the standard of living in Singapore improved. With it, baked stuff such as pineapple tarts and kueh bangkit made its way into the New Year menu.

I am about 10 months late making this (  or 3 months early  for 2014 ) but no one can resist having a go at this when Helena’s tempting pictures of pineapple tarts appeared on her post.

Being a newbie at this, I should have been more cautious going about adapting a master’s recipe but thankfully the error margin was pretty lax for these tarts. The ‘new’ version was part logistical because I was slightly short of butter. Furthermore, I have no idea how to derive 1 ½ yolks so I opted for yolks from 2 small eggs instead.

Due to the texture of the dough, it requires nimble fingers to craft the dough around the filling. The tacky job actually turned therapeutic as I gently coax the dough to behave itself.

The end result : a melt in the mouth tart that is neither cloy nor too heavy. The portion is just right and goes well with a cup of oolong and maybe some light music in the background.

The tarts survived 12 hours

Makes 10 tarts.

Credits : Adapted from Helena who first spotted it here

100g butter

15g icing sugar

2 small egg yolks

200g cake flour

30g milk powder

Singlong pineapple filling

Method:

Preheat oven to 160C.

On medium speed, whisk butter and icing sugar until fluffy and light, 5 minutes. Whisk in yolk, one at a time. Stop when egg and butter combines.

  

Sift in cake flour and milk powder.

Whisk contents until just combined. Do not overwork the dough ( for light texture dough )

Wrap the dough in 2 portions for easy management and leave it to rest in the fridge, 30 mins.

For each tart, portion out 37g dough and 25g pineapple filling. Make  little balls. Tip : oil the hand when handling the filling so that it does not stick to the hand.

Wrap the filling with the dough. Shape with a mould. I used a mini mooncake plunger.

Arrange the tarts on a lined tray.

Bake the tarts at 160C for about 25 mins or until tarts begin to tan around the edges.

Cool well before storing.