Pineapple tarts are just one of the many pastries well-loved by Singaporeans when it comes to celebrating festive occasions, be it the Chinese New Year, Hari Raya Puasa or Deepavali. These tarts are made of butter, egg and flour and filled with pineapple jam. For the Chinese, the tart symbolises the arrival of prosperity: ông lâi in dialect refers to the pineapple, which is also the homonym of ‘旺来’, or ‘prosperity is coming’. This symbolism is undoubtedly most apt for welcoming the new year.
Pineapple tarts are easily available in supermarkets and stores weeks before the afore-mentioned festive seasons. Nevertheless, I have decided to make them myself because I find the commercial ones a tad too sweet for my taste, probably because of the huge servings of pineapple jam that they slab onto the tart bases or wrap within the tarts. It is nice to be able to give some away too – sort of like distributing prosperity to those around me. I hope everyone around me will love the taste of these home-made tarts as much as I do too.
Ingredients:
- Salt: 1/4 tsp
- Plain flour: 400g
- Corn flour: 50g
- Icing sugar: 60g
- Good quality unsalted butter: 250g
- Vanilla essence: 1 tsp
- Egg yolk: 2 (about 40g), beaten
- Pineapple jam: 400g
- Egg wash: 1 egg yolk + 1 tsp water
Method:
- Sift salt, plain flour, corn flour and sugar into mixing bowl. Set aside.
- Using an electric mixer, whisk butter with essence on low speed for 30 secs.
- Continue whisking on medium speed for 5 min till mixture is light, fluffy and creamy.
- Add in yolks and whisk for another 5 min.
- Make a hole in the center of the flour mixture. Pour in whisked mixture.
- Using your fingertips, fold in and rub butter into flour.
- Stop immediately when a firm dough forms. Do not overwork it.
- Wrap in cling wrap. Chill in fridge for 30 min.
- In the meantime, roll pineapple jam into 45 balls of 6g each (about 1 heaped tsp). Set aside.
- Preheat oven at 180 degrees Celsius. Remove dough from fridge.
- Roll 12g of dough (about 1 heaped tbsp) into a ball. Flatten into an oval shape.
- Place 1 ball of jam in the center of dough. Use a finger to dab some water onto the jam.
- Wrap dough around jam and roll into a ball first and then into a log shape.
- Repeat steps 11 to 13 to make the rest of the tarts.
- Place tarts onto a greased baking tray. Bake for 8 min.
- Remove tarts and brush with egg wash. Bake for another 7 min till golden brown.
- Remove to cool for 15 min before serving or storage.
Tricks:
- Dabbing water onto the jam before wrapping it in the dough helps to keep the jam moist and soft during the baking.
- After a few rounds of experimenting, I’ve discovered that brushing the tarts with egg wash only after they have been baked for a while helps to make the golden colour more even and vibrant.
- Good quality butter and corn flour – these are the secrets to making melt-in-your-mouth pineapple tarts!
Disclaimer:
- This recipe was kindly adapted from ‘Foodie & Baker‘.
Serving:
Makes 45 large pineapple tarts
