Friday, January 22, 2010

Pineapple Tarts - Disney Characters

This is my first attempt in pineapple tarts making.  Sis E was supposed to pass me some of her cutters but there was no chance for a meetup.  My hands were itching to make some pineapple tarts so I decided to use my disney cutters to make them as closed tarts, somewhat similar to Taiwan's Pineapple Tarts (凤梨酥).

Choosing a recipe was tough as there are simply too many recipes online.  I could have asked my sisters for their recipes but I chose not to as Sis E bakes without a recipe (she can mix-and-match any leftovers and create her own recipe without any exact measurements for she cooks/bakes with her eyes).  To get recipe from Sis C will take weeks...  Anyway, I googled and shortlisted 2 recipes from the numerous, one from Delicious Asian Food and another from Florence's Do What I Like.  I was keen to try the first recipe as it is a mother-in-law's recipe (I always go for elderlies' trusted recipes) but 2 things deters me :- recipe uses 2 - 3 eggs and not in metric measurements.  Finally decided on Florence's as I was plain lazy (again) to do the conversion and prefer to use 1 egg yolk recipe.

I didn't bother to cook my own pineapple filling so I used store-bought.  As usual, my 2 older children wanted to help so I got them to help roll the pineapple fillings into balls.

DH is still on reservice and he was on duty last night when I made these.  I only had time to bake 1/2 the dough so I kept the balance dough in the fridge.  Weighing a total of 40g, these are hugemongous pineapple tarts :P

The imprints were obvious before baking but faded when they were out of the oven :-(

After my failed egg wash here, I added more water to the egg yolk but this time round, it was too diluted.  My egg wash failed again :P  Don't know why but I just can't seem to get it right.  Maybe I'll just give egg wash a miss since I've no luck with it.

A cross-section of the tart loaded with pineapple filling.

Despite the ingredients used were all very basic, the pastry was relatively easy to handle and has a melt-in mouth texture.  This is definitely a keeper!

Pineapple Tarts
Ingredients
(A)
340g Plain Flour
1 1/2 tbsp Icing sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
*sifted

(B)
200g Cold butter, cut into cubes

(C)
1 Egg yolk
1/2 tsp vanilla essence or brandy (I used Martell)
*lightly beaten

(D)
25ml ice cold water

(E)
Egg glaze: Lightly beat1 yolk with 1 tbsp water

(F)
Pineapple fillings

Method
  1. Lightly beat egg yolk with brandy.
  2. Sieve flour, baking powder and icing sugar into mixing bowl. Stir in salt and blend well.
  3. Cut in butter until it resembles fine bread crumbs.
  4. Add egg yolk and ice water into flour and roughly work it into a ball.  Do not overwork the dough.
  5. Divide dough into 3 equal portions and chill in fridge for 1 hour.
  6. Remove 1 portion of dough from fridge and divide dough to portions of 20g each.
  7. Wrap pineapple paste (20g each) with dough and shape into rounds.
  8. Place dough into cutter and flatten with stamper.
  9. Place tart onto baking tray lined with baking sheet.
  10. Bake at 200C for 10 minutes, remove from oven, apply egg wash and lightly press the pineapple filling onto the indentations of the tarts. Bake again at 180C for 10 – 15 minutes or until the golden colour that you desired.

11 comments:

Cosy Bake said...

HI BH,

YOu know what?! I was having the same idea of making my pineapple tarts using the same disney moulds!! BUt, I'm stil waiting for the day to get closer to CNY before making them. YOU may wanna try making the dough without baking powder? cause baking powder will make the pastry rise nad there it fades the 'Faces' after baking. In fact I see many recipes didn't call for baking powder. It's just my opinions, hope you don't mind.:)

Blessed Homemaker said...

HB,
Great minds think alike ;-)
I was also thinking along that line to omit rising agent as many recipes don't use any. Anyway, I didn't bake these for CNY, more for home consumption. As these are huge, I limit to 1 pc per pax daily, else overdosed of pineapple tart!

Sonia ~ Nasi Lemak Lover said...

Wor, they look really cute!!

ann low said...

Very creative to use the disney moulds for pineapple tarts :)

WendyinKK said...

So cute:)
1 pc a day! Great! Kids should learn to ration.

I'm trying to instill that in my children too.

Angel @ Cook.Bake.Love said...

Very cute Disney Characters pineapple tarts.

I tried this recipe b4, due to the baking powdder the shape will be out a bit (expand) after baking. I think without the baking powder the shape will be nicer.

How about without egg wash? The design may be clearer (not sure, just guessing).

Pei-Lin said...

I've never seen pineapple tarts the Disney way!! Creative, frugal & resourceful indeed!!

Pei-Lin

D4D said...

Hi BH,

May I check if you using those ready-made pineapple filling or you prepared it yourself?

I've 1 pack of the pineapple filling from Phoon Huat, but not dare to use it yet scared the quality not as nice as home-made?
If really use it, do I need to do anything to it or can just straight away use it?

Please advise.


Regards,
mommy of 3

Blessed Homemaker said...

Sonia, thanks for your kind words.

Anncoo/Pei-Lin, when we are desperate to bake, we just have to make do with whatever we have ;-)

wendy, I think it's basic discipline I want to instill in my children as I've seen many pampered kids asking for the sky.

Angel, I just did another batch using the balance dough without egg wash and I think they look so much better.

mommy of 3, I used Red Man's from PH, $4.60/pack. The filling is quite dry so you may want to add 1 - 2 tbsp butter and 3/4 cup water to 1kg filling and cook till the consistency you want.

DG said...

Pineapple tarts are already everyone's favourite. Additional Disney Characters - Pineapple Tarts ... Wouw ... it's hard to resist it:P

Cookie said...

This is very creative!!! I'm suire kids love them :-)