Pineapple Tarts

M. had to work till quite late yesterday, and I had all the time in the world to bake =)

I've been thinking about pineapple tarts lately, and decided to bake that. Baked two types of pineapple tarts, both the 'opened' and 'closed' types. Both tasted yummy! I prepared the pineapple jam paste the night before, using canned pineapple chunks. Personally, the taste is about the same as using fresh pineapples.. For the pastry dough, I tried this recipe taken from this cookbook, "The Best of Singapore Cooking" by Mrs Leong Yee Soo.

More pictures below :

Pineapple Jam Recipe

Ingredients :

4 cans of pineapple chunks, drain the chunks and blend or chop up roughly

1 cup of sugar (more or less to suit your taste)

1 cinnamon stick

5 cloves

2 segments of star anise

dash of cinnamon powder (optional)

1 tbs of butter

1 tbs lemon juice (optional)

Method :

1. Heat up butter in a heavy bottom saucepan.

2. Place all the remaining ingredients in the saucepan and cook over moderate heat till almost dry and thick.

3. Halfway through cooking the jam, do a taste check. Add more sugar if necessary, and lemon juice.

3. Cool and store overnight in the refrigerator till ready to use.

Dough Pastry Recipe

Ingredients A :

340g flour

1/2 tsp fine salt

1 tbs fine sugar

225g butter

1/2 egg

Ingredients B (to mix together) :

27ml iced water

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 or 2 drops of yellow food colouring

Method :

1. Sift flour with salt and sugar.

2. Rub butter into flour till mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

3. Beat egg lightly and add to the flour. Add Ingredients A to form a pastry dough. Chill for about 1/2 hour.

4. Roll pastry to 0.5cm thickness on a floured surface.

5. Cut with a special tart cutter or any round cutter.

6. Fill tarts with pineapple filling.

7. Cut thin strips from left-over pastry to decorate top.

8. Place tarts on a greased tray and bake in oven at 175 deg. celcius for about 15 minutes.

9. Reduce heat and bake for another 10 - 15 mins, till light brown.

10. Remove tarts and cool on a wire rack before storing in an airtight container.