Pineapple Roses

So Chinese New Year is approaching and what is Chinese New Year without Pineapple Tarts? The last time I made Pineapple Tarts successfully was 2 years ago when I was adventurous enough to cook my pineapple paste from scratch. It was sure a lot of fun and a lot of satisfaction but as time isn't on my side this season, I decided to try out the Sarawak Pineapple Paste from Ailin that's so highly raved. Well, true enough, I love the pineapple paste that's not too sweet yet it's not too sour. For me, it's just right, even though it's not as fibrous as I'd like it to be. Then again, with store bought paste, this is really good enough at $6.80 for 1kg. So this time round, I love these Pineapple Roses.

This recipe was taken from food4tot. Even though the paste is meant for Nastar tarts, it worked perfectly fine for the close tarts I did. They melt perfectly in the mouth and that's just about the only complain I have of these tarts: they are way too crumbly and fragile! Then again, even though it's a mess to manage it after it's baked, it's all worth it as the tarts are so 'melt-in-the-mouth-and-oh-too-good-to-be-true' good.

So, give this recipe a try! (:

Pineapple Roses Recipe

This recipe yields about 60-70 pieces of Pineapple Roses

250g unsalted butter (room temperature)

50g icing sugar

2 egg yolks (I used 55g eggs)

360g plain flour

2 tbsp corn flour

1/4 tsp salt

600g pineapple paste (I used Ailin's Sarawak Pineapple Paste)

Steps:

If you want really good pineapple tart pastry, use good quality butter. I used SCS's Unsalted butter for these tarts and they're fragrant... and totally melts in the mouth!  Totally worth every cent when you taste the good stuff.

Leave the butter to warm to room temperature. Or if you're as impatient as me,  cube them into smaller pieces and they will warm up sufficiently in a matter of minutes.

Sift the flour and the corn flour together.

To the butter, add the icing sugar.

Cream the butter and sugar till light and fluffy. This should take about 1-2 minutes on high speed.

Add an egg yolk and mix well.

Add the other egg yolk and the salt and mix well.

'Loosen' up the mixture by stirring it to get a smooth consistency. I used a spatula.

Then, add 1/3 of the flour mixture and mix well.

Add another 1/3 and mix well.

And the last 1/3 and mix well.

Mix well to form a dough.

Cover with cling wrap (on the surface of the dough) and leave to 'firm up' for 30 minutes in a cool and dry place.

I weighed and rolled my pineapple paste into 8g balls.

The dough was 10g in weight. Roll the dough into a ball.

Flatten the dough.

 

Place the pineapple paste in the middle.

'Pull' up the sides of the dough.

Seal the ball. 

Roll it to form a round ball.

To crimp the rose, I set my rose on a flower/rose nail as I found it easier to work with. Method of crimping was adopted from E' Joie's page. The crimping bit requires a lil' trial and error to get the correct angle but once you get a hang of it, it becomes relatively easy.

Here's the white plastic crimper that I used. The bento cutters were used to make impressions on another batch I did (Image at the end of entry).

You have to crimp 2 layers like this. If you make an error when crimping, fear not! Just take that small portion of torn paste and 'press' it back into the part it came out of and you're ready to crimp again!

Set the roses on a baking sheet/Silpat!

Bake in a preheated oven of 160 degrees Celsius for 15 minutes before cranking up the temperature to 180 degrees to bake for another 2 minutes. I did not egg wash my pineapple tarts as I like them this way.. If you like, you can do an egg wash of 1 egg yolk + 1.5 tbsp milk/water.

You may also choose to bake them in paper liners. The shape holds quite well cos of the ball shape.

The completed tarts!

And more tarts! 

So, this baking project wasn't much of a difficulty as the paste was store-bought in my case. If you find the crimping of roses too challenging, you may try the follow designs that I did too with my bento cutters.

So, get baking today! 

Do remember to use a good quality butter like SCS so as to get really fragrant tarts! (:

I'd love to see the bakes or stuff you've cooked using the blog's recipe! Do share photos of stuff you've baked or cooked using the blog's recipe with me either via FB message to http://facebook.com/limcynthia OR http://facebook.com/thebakingbiatch OR via email at cynthia.lim.hl@gmail.com! I look forward to hearing from you! (: