It's time for Homemade Pineapple Tarts again!

It's that time of the year again - Lunar New Year.

Other being a time for collecting redpackets (for children) and catching up with family and friends, it is a time for FEASTING!

Lunar New Year can never be without some new year snacks.

In the past, I have made some quite-melt-in-your-mouth peanut cookies and also some pineapple tarts last year and some 2 years before. This year is no exception.

Chinese New Year - Pineapple Tarts

Chinese New Year is here again! It is the period of eating, eating and eating!

2 weeks ago, we had our Reunion Dinner session 1 with my aunt's family. Then there was another session with my own family, and another session with dear's family.

On the second day of CNY, my family went out for a good lunch, almost bursting our stomachs. Straight after that, we travelled for about 30-40 minutes to my cousin's place, and ate like silly again. That was early dinner for me...and about 10pm, dear and I went out for supper...my favourite cheese and mushroom prata.

Of all the CNY snacks, I usually have these few - kueh bangkit (MUST be melt in your mouth type), pineapple tarts (homemade from my aunt), peanut puffs (homemade from my other aunt). Kueh Bangkit and peanut puffs shall be my trial items next year.

This year, I made peanut cookies and pineapple tarts. Up to the week of CNY, I had been making these 2 items for consecutive evenings. They never seemed enough. I had a list of people I want to give them to. It was over ambitious again, because my oven could not handle that much. As I baked, dear ate and ate. To his dismay, I had to tell him not to eat any, otherwise I would never be making enough...and he had to eat the "rejected" pineapple tarts, those which failed my QC and did not look nice enough to be put into jars to be given away.

For pineapple tarts, as I made them over and over again, I got better and faster. Some people leave the tops empty, and some use a tiny cookie cutter to make some cutout like flower shape etc.....but they all look kind of naked to me. As far as I remember, the pineapple tarts I have been eating from young (made by my aunt) always have these handmade crosses. Moreover, I like the imperfect look (some bigger, some smaller) of homemade stuff, it smells of home....rather than factory made tarts which weigh and look all the same for every piece. Haha, that's an excuse for myself for not being able to make every tart look the same. :P

Since this is the first year I make pineapple tarts, I decided to use store-bought jam. I do not want to waste time cooking the jam and then end up with failing in making the crust. There are many many recipes out there for pineapple tarts. Some use milk powder (I do not quite like the smell of milk powder), some use cornflour, some use rubbing in method, some use creaming method...The first recipe I tried was too flaky. I then tried this second recipe which did not use milk powder or cornflour but turned out very good, so I am sticking to it till I find a better one. Now that I have found a good recipe for the crust, I can try making the jam next time.

Peanut Cookies

Chinese New Year is coming, and I am planning to make some stuff for relatives and friends. I had some time the other night, and decided to bake some peanut cookies, which turned out to be really easy.

I made them into small little mouth-sized oval-shaped balls, which looks more like the "stepped-on tortoises" in Super Mario's game.

My colleagues who tested them complimented on the taste and fragrance of the cookies. I sure will be making them again.

Try them here!

Pineapple Tarts

Lately, I had been searching for Pineapple Tart recipes. I found 4 of them, and tried out 1 this morning. I made the dough last night actually, and made 5 tarts. But I decided the dough was too soft and left it to chill overnight. This morning, it was too hard and could not be rolled, so I let it soften a little, and while waiting, I made some muffins for my breakfast.

I love the way cinnamon always fill up the whole kitchen with its fragrance...it's irresistable...and they always pair up so well with apples and brown sugar. I had halved a Apple Cinammon Muffin recipe I found on the net...but I had forgotten to half the amount of butter!! It was too oily of course, but the muffins still managed to rise and were actually more fluffy and light than I had expected. The taste was good, except for the excess butter which soaked the paper liners. Therefore, I will only post the recipe when I make it correctly next time.

While they were in the oven, I went back to work on my pineapple tarts. I know I know, Chinese New Year is in January next year. I just want to see how my attempt will turn out, so that I have time to try different recipes and can plan to make some for family and friends.

For the pineapple jam, I use ready made ones since this is my first attempt, and they tasted not too bad, though a little too dry. Perhaps due to humidity, the dough soften easily and quickly, I had difficulty removing them from the mould without distorting their shapes. It got better as I continued the second tray of tarts. I guess I was too generous with the first tray of tarts, and the balls of pineapples look inproportionately big as compared to the tart base. When I look at them, the term C-cup boobies kept appearing in my head! Oops! When buying pineapple tarts from commercial shops, I usually prefer the open tarts, because there usually is very little filling in the closed ones. But I made 3 closed ones and fill them with a big ball of filling, just for the fun of it.

The tart shell was crumbly and melt in your mouth, with a slight buttery taste. Personally, I am very glad with this attempt and my chief guinea pig (aka my husband) agrees. I'll check the verdict with my other guinea pigs tomorrow. I also put them into the typical plastic containers with red lid, just for the Chinese New Year effect. I'll share the recipe once I have tried others and decide which one I prefer.