Family Fun!

It was really fun to make the pineapple tarts yesterday as it was a family affair!

In fact, we even set up a little counter for my 4 yr old nephew, Asher, to help roll the pineapple paste into balls!

I lugged my mixer and all the ingredients over. Thank goodness I had 4 blocks of butter with me, we used up 3! And we couldn't make the open tarts because we couldn't locate my mother's ancient baking items (but we did find a really really old recipe sheet, dated 17/10/77 ... yeah 1977! for some nonya cooking recipes - will post it up later). So we made covered ones, pineapple tart balls! And *giggles* we didn't have milk powder, so we used pedisure vanilla child formula instead. Saved us the hassle of adding in the vanilla essense too!

All in all, the following family folks were helping out:

my brother helped to make the pineapple tarts balls, arrange them on the baking tray, brush with egg and watch over them while in the oven. At one point we all got too excited over the kids and we had 1 batch slightly burnt, but hey! It was really very crispy so it was quite yummy!

My sister in law helped to make the perfect pineapple balls (mine was exponentially increasing in size).

My sister made the pastry and taught me how to wrap it into balls (took me about 30 minutes to get the hang out it). She's the one who provided the pastry recipe too and it was really good!

My ma jie, the expert in making all things, helped out in everything, and in between cooking dinner for us!

Me ... well i did make the pineapple paste, and I did get around to learn how to do the pastry and wrap the paste into ball shaped ... so mine was more of a learning experience!

Last but not least, Asher, who helped out a bit before he got bored!

We were supposed to try 2 recipes for the crust but in the end, we just stuck to the one my sister had. So here it is!

Pineapple Tart Pastry (good for melt in the mouth and crispy version)
250 g / 1 cup salted butter (we used SCS brand) - softened
4 tablespoon caster sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla essence or vanillin powder
2 and 2/3 cups cake/ plain flour
2 tablespoon milk powder
1 egg yolk

Method
1. Preheat over to 200 degrees celsius (180 if u are using fan assisted).
2. Mix butter and sugar together, with a wooden spoon or mixer. Add vanilla and continue to mix till mixture is white and fluffy.
3. Add the flour bit by bit (i used 1/3 measuring cup), and mix with butter mixture after each addition.
4. When adding the last cup, cut the flour into the mixture with a wooden spoon or by hand (make it crumbly). Add the milk powder and mix well.
5. Add egg yolk to bind the crumbs into a soft dough. If the dough does not hold (too crumbly), add some milk by per tablespoon till you get it to hold together.

To make pineapple tart balls
1. Take some dough and roll it into a ball.
2. Press your thumb into the center till you get the thickness you desire. Then using the thumb and the index finger, press the dough into a bowl shape and add pineapple paste inside.
3. Fold and cover, pinch off the excess dough and patch up the seams with your finger.
4. Gently roll the ball inbetween the hands to achieve the roundness.
5. Press a clove on the top and brush it with egg yolk. Done!

Bake it for 15 to 20 minutes, depending on the size. If you like it crisper, then you have to bake it longer, and turning down the tempature to about 180 degrees celsius (160 if fan assisted).

Notes:
1. I had used 5.75 pineapples to make the tub of pineapple paste, and we need 2.5 amount of the pastry to make all the tarts. We made about 300 tarts I think?
2. If you have left over pastry, just cut out some dark chocolate squares or chocolate mint and wrap it up. It tastes yummy too!
3. If rolling the dough out to make open face tarts, you can used the shortcrust pastry method, which is to cut the cold butter into small pieces, then cut in the sugar, followed by the rest of the ingredients in order as listed. Egg yolk to bind so use hands. Else the same method as above, but put a damp cloth over the bowl containing the dough and put into the fridge for 30 minutes before using it.

Have fun!