Thursday, August 9, 2007

Pineapple Tarts

pineapple tart 2

Hopefully, you still have some of the pineapple jam you made last week because we will need it to make Pineapple Tarts. Wait, you haven’t made it yet? Well, go on and click here, I’ll wait…

Now, aren’t you glad you did that? It’s freakin’ delicious, right? The only problem is that now you have to wait for it to cool. It’s fine, do what you gotta do. Again, I don’t mind waiting. Anything for you.

Hi again! Now that we have the pineapple jammaking out the way, we can proceed with the recipeing.

Pineapple tarts can be found at many Chinese bakeries and are like sweet, buttery, bites of fruity pie. They are fairly easy to make and lend themselves to a lot of creative possibilities in terms of their assembly. I have seen them shaped like tiny pineapples, rolled into little balls, and formed into miniature pies. No matter how you put them together, they are a delight and the perfect treat for any pineapple lover.

Pineapple Tarts
½ cup softened unsalted butter
4 tablespoons cream cheese
½ cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
2 ¼ cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon malted milk powder
½ teaspoon salt

1 egg – beaten (for egg wash)

Filling
½ Pint of Pineapple Jam: recipe here (if, for some reason, you STILL haven’t made it)

Method
Cream together the butter, cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Add the vanilla and eggs and beat until fully incorporated. Add the flour, salt, malted milk, and baking soda and mix until combined.

Pat the dough into a ball and allow to chill for at least 30 minutes.

After it has chilled, preheat your oven to 350 degrees and remove the dough from your refrigerator.

Using rounded tablespoons of dough, place the dough into a flat-ended pastry tip and force the dough through with your thumb (1). You should get about 2.5 inch long strips (3??). (Alternately, you could roll the dough into a disk that is about ¼ of an inch thick and cut the strips using a paring knife. But then you would not get the cool texture).
tart assembly
(whoa, that can't be the correct order, I need to update this photo)

After you have formed all the dough into strips, take a teaspoon of pineapple jam, place it in the center of the smooth side of a strip (2??) and roll the dough around it(4, ok now I'm making sense again). Place the roll, seam-side down, onto a silpat or a lightly greased cookie sheet. Repeat the process with the remaining dough.

Create an egg wash by beating the remaining egg with a teaspoon of water. Using a pastry brush, apply and even coat of the wash to each roll.
egg wash

Place the tarts into the preheated oven and bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown. Allow to cool and enjoy!

pineapple tart

Unfortunately, I didn’t have all the ingredients I needed to make the traditional pineapple tarts recipe. However, I was able to improvise and although the result was not quite the melt-in-your-mouth butter joy I generally associate with this desert, I do think the recipe is worth sharing.