my baking diary #8 Pineapple Tarts (I)

spent my Saturday morning and afternoon doing my first batch of pineapple tarts... well, since this is my first attempt, i relied on premix and store-bought pineapple paste...

the pineapple paste is Phoon Huat brand... i actually bought the past way back in December, wanting to try out making pineapple tarts then... but was too busy with all other types of cookies and X'mas baking, end up only doing in now.... the pastry was made using the pineapple tart premix i bought from Bake King... 

Pineapple Tart

1 pkt of Bake King Pineapple Tart premix

250gms butter (i used salted butter)

2 egg yolks

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

1 beaten egg (for glazing)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180C
2. Cream butter, egg yolks and vanilla essence

3. Mix in the premix and knead into dough

the dough is now ready - you can either do the open-faced pineapple tart... or the enclosed type like what i did... If you are doing the enclosed tart, its better to roll the pineapple paste into balls the day before you do your tarts... I did mine on the same day, and it took me about 1.5 hours to roll the pkt of pineapple paste...

i measured level 1/2 teaspoonful of pineapple paste, and roll them into balls... Its easier to work with cold pineapple paste balls when wrapping the pastry dough round it as it will then not stick to the pastry...

i was worried that the dough will not be enough, hence, i used 1/2 teaspoon to measure the dough as well... This premix dough is rather easy to work with.. Thinking it will be to soft, i left it to chill while working on the pineapple paste.. But it turned out too hard... So while doing the wrapping, the rest of the dough are sitting in the mixing bowl :)

(i have like 10 over small balls of pineapple paste left...)

 After the pineapple tarts are wrapped and rolled up, place them into paper casing (you can bake them on baking paper as well to save on the casing).... As this paper casing was bought sometime back, and taking into consideration the size, this was the reason why i used 1/2 tsp to measure the pastry dough and paste... You can make it bigger if you want, i.e. 1 tsp?

Brush the egg over the top of the dough before putting the tray into the oven...

Ta-dah... My first attempt at pineapple tarts! Not that bad afterall! My sis said the pineapple paste is too sour, but my mum and i found it just nice...

The premix give a rather melty pastry... and because i used the same propotion i.e. 1/2 tsp of pastry to paste, the pastry layer is rather thin, and the pineapple paste is actually quite a lot...

You can see from this picture the crumbly, melty layer of pastry, with a thick chunk of pineapple paste in the middle...

I am submitting this to Aspiring Bakers #3: My Favorite CNY Cookie (Jan 2011) hosted by j3ss kitch3n...