It's the time of the year...

I thought I would not be baking any cookies for this coming lunar new year. There is just so much work involved. I only enjoy 'making' the cookies but not the cleaning up. Since no one ever expects me to bake anything for them, I thought I would give this annual baking ritual a miss this year. To my surprise, two weeks ago, my niece asked me when I am going to start my Chinese near year baking. She missed those horlicks doggies cookies, and won't mind if I make her some butter cookies too. Then, my younger child reminded me that he is the only person who gets to glaze those those peanut cookies with egg wash. And so, I started baking some horlicks cookies, and a batch of peanut cookies. Very soon I found myself slogging away again...wrapping tiny pieces of dough with pineapple jam in my kitchen!

This is my second year into baking these pineapple tarts, and I am proud to announce that this time I made them with homemade pineapple jam :D

I told myself if I were to make pineapple tarts again I will really have to cook the jam from scratch. The comment I got from my siblings last year was that even though the pastry was very close to what our mother used to make, the store-bought jam just couldn't replace homemade ones, which they feel has got more 'bite'.

I was terrified at the thought of cooking the pineapple jam for hours over the stove, even cutting and slicing the pineapple was a great hurdle that I wasn't quite ready to overcome. So I bought One ready-cut pineapple...with skin and eyes all removed to try ;)

Once I got home with the pineapple, I cut it into slices, grated and drained most of the juice away (it went into my stomach!). According to my family recipe, the pineapples are to be cooked with just some rock sugar and caster sugar. Most recipes I came across would recommend cooking it with cinnamon. I doubt my children would like the flavour so I stick to just sugar. However, in order to give the jam a nice golden hue, I used a mixture of brown and white sugar. If only white sugar is used, the colour would be too light, giving the impression that the jam is sour. To my great surprise, cooking the jam was not that tedious after all! Maybe it was because of the small quantity, I spent only about 45mins to cook the jam before it dried up and became sticky.

These golden gems are truly labour of love!

After my successful attempt at making my first batch of jam, I bought another two pineapples to make another batch. This time I really did it from scratch! No more cheating by using ready-cut fruits. I spent quite sometime trying to slice away the numerous eyes on the pineapples. Then it was another daunting task grating the pineapples. In the process, I grated not just the pineapples but also my fingers too!

I made tangerine-style pineapple tarts (my favourite!) and also tried shaping them into pillows. I wasn't quite sure how to go about it, so I simply rolled them in between my hands. The resulting tarts look more like cocoon than pillows! I then realised it was due to the shape of my palms and fingers. So I tried rolling it on my table and it worked! I went back to the same pineapple tart recipe but this time, I added in 30g of icing sugar. The original recipe has got no sugar in it, and I had a hard time judging whether the tarts were done. The pastry just wouldn't brown and I kept extending the baking time as I thought my unreliable oven was playing tricks on me again. Well, even with this extra sugar, the tarts didn't brown that much either :(

Feeling a bit more adventurous after having gained the confidence of making homemade pineapple jam, I ventured into something even more challenging...

...making Nastar rolls. With a cookie press, the dough is piped into a strip before wrapping it with the pineapple filling. I tried piping the dough on the table but the strip kept breaking. Fortunately I found a way that worked well for me...I piped the strip of dough directly onto my palm, place a pre-rolled pineapple gem on it and roll it over. I don't know whether it is the cookie press or the dough, the resulting nastar rolls look like sotong (squid)!!

The pastry was so fragile that I gave up glazing the rolls with egg wash. Even though these nastar rolls are not quite close to what they should be, it was certainly a good experience shaping them.

Once you sink your teeth into one of these golden morsels, the buttery pastry will crumble away in your mouth before hitting the soft, moist and delicious pineapple filling. They are so delicious that I have to keep a close guard on them otherwise they would be all gone before the new year eve!

Note:
* Hop over here for the tart pastry recipe. I added 30g icing sugar for this latest batch.
* Pineapple jam - I cooked 2 pineapples (grated and drained) with 150g brown sugar and 150g caster sugar (adjust sugar amount according to taste and sweetness of the pineapples). Add sugar only when most of the moisture has evaporated. Once sugar is added, keep stiring constantly to prevent burning. It takes about 30-45 mins on medium to low heat before the jam becomes dry and sticky. Leave to cool before storing in fridge. Roll into small balls.
* For closed type of tarts, I use half a tablespoon of pastry dough and 1 teaspoon of pineapple jam. Watch this video to learn the method to wrap the tarts.
* If the jam is too soft (under cooked), it will be difficult to wrap. To overcome this problem, freeze the rolled jam balls in the freezer for about 30mins (or longer) before wrapping.