Best Pineapple Tarts

After my first attempt on pineapple tarts, I stumbled into Anne's blogpost on her pineapple tarts which referred me to Wendy's blog on her "Best Melt-In-Your-Mouth" Pineapple Tarts. With her very detailed 'documentation', pictures, instructions and the rave reviews, I've decided to give pineapple tarts another try. Of course, hubby thought that I must be out of my mind. We've already 3 types of pineapple tarts!

The 3 pineapple tarts we have: (from left) made by mum, bought by mum-in-law& my first attempt.

Nevertheless,  I went on to buy another 2 big pineapples!

And made more pineapple jam... I actually halved the amount of sugar as we didn't like the pineapple jam too sweet. I just hope that the mould will stay away until we've finish eating the tarts.  According to Wendy, the sugar also acts as a preservative. I've also used cinnamon powder instead of a cinnamon stick.

Next, I made the dough and followed her recipe closely. The dough was really soft as compared to the dough from my first attempt. The additional ingredients of cream and creamed cheese made the dough really soft. I wonder how this is going to wrap up the pineapple jam. I let the dough rest in the refrigerator for 30 mins.

While I rolled the cooled pineapple jam into balls....

 This time, I doubled the amount of dough used. Double the amount of dough as compared to the pineapple jam.

Hubby took a bite and proclaimed that this is the best pineapple tarts he had eaten- better than the ones bought by his mum and better than the ones baked by my mum!  All of hard work paid off :) He said I can sell them. But I told him it's not worth the effort. I've spent about 6 hours just to make 3 bottles of pineapple tarts. Well, you can say it's much easier to buy. But well, I had fun and I don't think I can buy a bottle of pineapple tarts outside that's this good. :P 

Look at all the fibre in the pineapple jam. I've grated the pineapple by hand. 

Mum-in-law said this is real pineapple :P

(Is there fake pineapple?)

A bottle of pineapple tarts ready for CNY. 

Just hope it'll still be around till then :)

Pineapple Tarts

Mum gave me a bottle of her homemade pineapple tarts, like she always do every year before Chinese New Year...

When we had dinner last Saturday, My mum-in-law also gave me another homemade bottle that she bought.

So now I have 2 large bottles of pineapple tarts that Jerome & I won't be able to finish on our own... not to mention all the other goodies that I've baked and mum has baked!

But being a little crazy & 'passionate' about making my own CNY goodies, I went to buy two pineapples, determined to make my very own pineapple jam so that I can make some pineapple tarts too!  The skin of the pineapple were already cut when I bought them from the supermarket. I just had to cut out the eyes...

And gated them by hand into this pulpy looking mess... As this was my first attempt, I didn't know how this should look like but it's surely too much juice. Keeping my fingers crossed that my pineapple jam will finally appear...

Half an hour later, Hubby looked at my pineapple 'porridge', shook his head and said, "Are you sure this is pineapple jam? I don't think it's going to make it." I'm also starting to doubt it...

 Finally, 2 hours later, my pineapple jam happened!

After cooling it, I rolled the jam into balls using a teaspoon to measure the amount.

 Cloves standing by...

Pineapple tarts before baking...

Baked pineapple tarts. Looked kinda pale as I've added too much water to the egg yolk for the egg wash.

So here it is, my first attempt at pineapple tarts, from scratch! 

As I've used an equal amount of dough to pineapple jam, the crust was quite thin...

 Honestly, I'll have to say the pineapple tarts made by my mum and those bought by my mum-in-law are better than mine, Hey, but this is my first attempt! So I think I've done well :) (Give myself a pat on the shoulders.)

Not going to post the recipe here cos I've found another one much better than this which I'll write about in my next post :)

Egg Tarts

I like egg tarts- Hong Kong style egg tarts with the shortcrust pastry or Portuguese egg tarts with the puff pastry. I love the crust to be crispy & the egg custard to be soft. I've been wanting to try baking some egg tarts at home. However, Jerome doesn't like egg tarts. This means that if I'm going to bake them, I'm going to be the one eating up all of them. So I took the opportunity to try baking them when my friends came for a visit last Saturday. I have found a recipe from Allrecipes.com and had been wanting to put it to the test. But the recipe has called for 9 eggs to be used for the egg custards! That's a lot of eggs! Imagine half an egg in 1 tart...

Fortunately, as I was snooping around in Aunty Yochana's Blog , I chanced upon an egg tart recipe. Looking at the positive comments by others who had tried the recipe, I decided to use her egg tart recipe instead. I made some adaptations & mistakes along the way. Her recipe has called for an egg yolk & half an egg white. I decided to use the entire egg as I know I'll probably end up throwing the remaining egg white away.

In my prior experience of preparing shortcrust pastry, I have been cutting in the butter into the dry ingredients before adding in the egg. So I happily did just that only to realised that the recipe has required beating up the butter & sugar before adding the eggs, while the flour is last. So I made a mistake at the very first step. I kept my fingers crossed & hoped that it would still work & fortunately it did! :) Next time, I must remember to read the recipe carefully before starting.

I also had to extend the baking time for the egg custards that took a long time to be done. It had to be baked till it's no longer wobbly. So instead of 15 minutes, I baked them for 30 minutes.

Hong Hong Style Baked Egg Tarts

Taste Verdict: I think it's quite yummy but it's a little on the sweeter side for both the crust & the egg custards. I'll cut down the sugar next time.
Jerome : It's very nice, but I still don't like egg tarts. (Sigh..., the recipe didn't change his preference)
My friend's 4-year old son gobbled down 3 egg tarts. So I guess the egg tarts have found their fan.

Adapted Egg Tart Recipe
(makes 20 egg tarts)

For the tart pastry:

Ingredients:
120g butter, chilled
50g icing sugar
1 egg, beaten
200g all purpose flour, sifted
1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Method:
1) Beat butter & icing sugar till well mixed.
2) Add egg & vanilla essence & mix well.
3) Add flour & mix into a dough.
4) Cover it in a bowl & let it rest in the fridge for 10 minutes.
5) Form small dough balls & roll flat on a floured surface & press into tart moulds or aluminium tart trays.
6) Bake tart shells for 10 minutes at 180 degrees celcius. (Tart shells will be half-aked.)

For the Egg Custard:

Ingredients:
280g milk
140g sugar
3 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Method:
1) Heat sugar & milk in a saucepan. Remove from heat once the sugar dissolves.
2) Whisk eggs slightly (not till frothy) & pour into the milk mixture.
3) Stir in the vanilla essence.
4) Strain the egg custard & pour into the tart shells.
5) Bake at the lower shelf at 180 degrees celcius for 30 minutes or till the custards firm up.
(The custard should not be wobbly when you shake it.)