Malaysian Pineapple Tarts Food

MALAYSIAN PINEAPPLE TARTS

Steps:

• Methods: 1. Prepare the filling one night before. Cook the filling over medium heat till thick and dry . Set aside and let it cool completely. 2. Cream butter in a large mixing bowl until light and fluffy. Add egg and beat well. 3. Sift icing sugar, flour and custard powder into the mixture. Fold to incorporate all ingredients to form a smooth pastry dough. 4. Roll out the dough till it's about 0.7 cm thick. Cut into shapes with a pineapple tart mould. Brush sides of tarts with egg wash. Bake in a greased, lined baking tin for 10 minutes. 5. Remove tarts from the oven. Fill centre of tarts with some pineapple jam. Return tarts to oven to bake for a further 10 minutes, or until golden brown.Cool the tarts on wire rack. Notes: 1. I used canned pineapple in stead of fresh pineapple and I onitted the sugar. I cooked it with the syrup till thick and dry enough to form a paste. 2. I used only 60g icing sugar for the pastry as my pinepple filling is sweet enough for me. 3. I didn't use cinnamum or anise cause I don't really like the smell.

MALAYSIAN PINEAPPLE TARTS

Steps:

• Cook the grated pineapple, spices and sugar in a saucepan on medium heat until it starts to bubble, stirring as you go. Note, you can use an electronic chopper instead of grating if you prefer.
• Once the mixture is bubbling, reduce the heat to low and stir regularly for about 1 hour or until pineapple jam has reached a sticky consistency. You need the jam to be quite dry or it will run all over the pastry when you bake it.
• Make sure you keep stirring the jam as it burns quite easily. Once the jam has thickened, turn off the heat, remove the spices and allow to cool completely. You can bottle this for use later.
• Rub in the butter and flour until the mix resembles bread crumbs.
• Add in the beaten eggs to bind but don't work it too much as the pastry will get too hard. If it is too dry, you can drizzle a few drops of water (ala Delia). Don't be tempted to make it too wet.
• The dough should all come together into a ball. When it does, wrap in cling film and put it in the fridge for a couple of hours.
• About an hour before you are ready to roll out the pastry, take the dough out of the fridge and let it get to room temperature or it will be too hard to roll out.
• Preheat oven to 180°C. Using lightly oiled hands, roll out about a teaspoon of the pineapple jam into balls and place aside. Don't be tempted to make the balls of jam too big as they will overflow over the pastry.
• Roll out the pastry dough to a 0.5cm thickness (pound coin) between two sheets of non stick baking sheet or use a lightly floured rolling pin. Remove the top sheet of paper and use your pineapple tart or cookie cutter mould to cut out shapes of your pastry. Use the handle of a wooden spoon to make a small circular dent in the middle. You can then either remove the excess dough and slide the baking paper with the pastry onto your baking tray or remove each cut piece and place it on a baking sheet.
• Place the prepared balls of pineapple jam into the middle of each tart and place decorative pastry on top of jam if you want. Traditionally, small pieces if dough will be rolled out and placed as a cross across the jam. In this case, I used some star shaped sprinkles to match the cookie shape after the tarts were cooked.
• Brush pastry with egg wash and bake on the top shelf of the oven for 15-20 minutes until the pastry is slightly golden. Cool on a wire rack to allow the pastry to crisp up and store in an airtight container.

SINGAPORE STYLE PINEAPPLE TARTS

Steps:

• Filling.
• To make the jam, grate the pineapple coarsely.
• Combine the grated pineapple with the rest of the ingredients in a heavy-based saucepan and cook over a moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until mixture is almost dry.
• Set aside to cool.
• Pastry dough.
• Put sifted flour, salt and sugar in a mixing bowl.
• Rub in butter until mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
• Beat in the egg yolk and add ice-cold water and essence.
• Mix well to form a dough.
• Place in a plastic bag and chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
• Roll pastry out to 0.5 cm thickness on a lightly-floured tabletop and cut out rounds with a pie cutter.
• Fill each piece of cut-out pastry with pineapple jam filling.
• Pinch a small neat frill aroud the edging.
• Cut thin strips of pastry to form a lattice on top of each pie.
• Glaze the strips with beaten egg.
• Place tarts on a greased baking tray and bake in preheated oven at 180°C for 15 minutes.
• Reduce the temperature to 170°C and continue to bake for another 10 minutes or until golden.
• Turn tarts out to cool on a wire rack before storing in air-tight containers.