I have just finished my Spring Cleaning for the Chinese New Year also known as Spring Festival. This is the culture for Chinese to clean their house before Chinese New Year which we believe this will sweep away all the bad luck. Every nook and cranny of the home is scrubbed, broken furniture and appliances discarded, and dirt is swept away to unsure Chinese New Year starts off right. This is a big day where I can still recall my grandmother will choose an auspicious date to start off the job. In fact, we were using bamboo leaves to clean the house in order to sweep away the 'dirty unknown' stuff!!! As comparing with my grandma's practice, my Spring Cleaning is far less complicated.
Back to my pineapple cookies. As usual, my son is the one who initiated so that we can have some festive mood. After some discussion, he suggested to bake cookies and among the cookies, he has chosen Pineapple Cookies!! That is really a time consuming task!!! I have no choice but to fulfill his wish.
He has helping me with some blending job and rolling up the pastry. So far, I have made 2 batches and the batches are different in term of the used of sugar for the filling and the type of oil for the pastry.
For the 1st batch, I have used 20 g of brown sugar. To be honest, the brown sugar flavor covers by the pineapple taste and it does not help much in improving the tart's fragrance. As for the 2nd batch pastry, I have replaced around 30 g of butter with vegetable shortening. It turns out to be softer and creamier. Thus, in future, I shall use the pastry recipe of the second batch.
Another trick that I observe is the sweetness of the pineapple filling. In my normal baking, I will reduce more than half of the sugar amount. However, for the pineapple filling, it is not advisable as this will yield sour filling. You may keep on tasting the filling while you cook in order to get the right amount of sourness.
As for the glazing, the outcome will be more presentable if we only glaze after we bake the cookies. I did it for my second batch and the color turns out to be so beautiful and I do not have to worry about over bake the cookies.
Ingredients
Pineapple Filling (yield around 350-400 g)
2 large pineapple, remove skin
200 g sugar (you may adjust according)
3 cloves
1. Blend all the pineapple using a blender or processor.
2. Use medium heat, cook the blended pineapple with cloves until it forms a thick paste; like oatmeal thickness.
3. Add in sugar. Upon adding in sugar, the paste will be slightly watery again. Do not worry and continue to cook until you get the color and paste consistency that you want.
Pastry
280 g plain flour
20 g custard flour
40 g corn flour
30 g milk powder
40 g icing sugar
150 g salted butter
30 g vegetable shortening
3 lightly beaten egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla essence
2tbsp Parmesan cheese
Egg wash (egg yolk and 1tsp of milk)
1. Sift plain flour, custard flour, corn flour, milk powder and icing sugar together.
2. Cut the salted butter into cubes and mix with the flour. Mix well either with finger tips or a mixer.
3. Once they are well blended, add in the yolks and vanilla essence.
4. Knead well with hand and chill in the fridge for 1 hour to firm up the dough for the ease of handling.
5. While waiting for the pastry to chill, roll up around 7 g of pineapple filling. Set aside.
6. As for the pastry, rolls up around 9 g of pastry. Then, carefully warp the pineapple filling inside the pastry and roll in a ball.
7. Bake in a preheated oven at 170'C for 15-20 minutes. Remove from the oven and glaze with egg wash.
Another trick that I observe is the sweetness of the pineapple filling. In my normal baking, I will reduce more than half of the sugar amount. However, for the pineapple filling, it is not advisable as this will yield sour filling. You may keep on tasting the filling while you cook in order to get the right amount of sourness.
As for the glazing, the outcome will be more presentable if we only glaze after we bake the cookies. I did it for my second batch and the color turns out to be so beautiful and I do not have to worry about over bake the cookies.
Ingredients
Pineapple Filling (yield around 350-400 g)
2 large pineapple, remove skin
200 g sugar (you may adjust according)
3 cloves
1. Blend all the pineapple using a blender or processor.
2. Use medium heat, cook the blended pineapple with cloves until it forms a thick paste; like oatmeal thickness.
3. Add in sugar. Upon adding in sugar, the paste will be slightly watery again. Do not worry and continue to cook until you get the color and paste consistency that you want.
 |
| Blended pineapple |
 |
| Pineapple Filling |
Pastry
280 g plain flour
20 g custard flour
40 g corn flour
30 g milk powder
40 g icing sugar
150 g salted butter
30 g vegetable shortening
3 lightly beaten egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla essence
2tbsp Parmesan cheese
Egg wash (egg yolk and 1tsp of milk)
1. Sift plain flour, custard flour, corn flour, milk powder and icing sugar together.
2. Cut the salted butter into cubes and mix with the flour. Mix well either with finger tips or a mixer.
3. Once they are well blended, add in the yolks and vanilla essence.
4. Knead well with hand and chill in the fridge for 1 hour to firm up the dough for the ease of handling.
5. While waiting for the pastry to chill, roll up around 7 g of pineapple filling. Set aside.
6. As for the pastry, rolls up around 9 g of pastry. Then, carefully warp the pineapple filling inside the pastry and roll in a ball.
7. Bake in a preheated oven at 170'C for 15-20 minutes. Remove from the oven and glaze with egg wash.
 |
| Before oven |
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