Chinese New Year is just around the corner. We will be sharing traditional kuih and cakes recipes with you. Here is one of the most popular Chinese New Year recipes: pineapple tarts or pineapple rolls, or known as nastar in Malay. Enjoy!
Contributor: Ho Siew Loon
It is another 3 weeks before we usher in the year of the Tiger. The best time about Chinese New Year is the preparation and I will always have a line up of cookies and cakes. One of our family’s favorite and also my specialty is the hand-made Pineapple Tarts. Over the years, I have spent a lot of time and passion trying to make perfect this little jewel and today it has always been the most popular among my guests…(get pineapple tarts recipe after the jump)
Pineapple Tarts is a mouth watering pastry wrapped in home cooked pineapple jam that would melt smoothly in your mouth. Today, it comes in different shapes and designs such as the open tarts which is popular in Malacca, the Pineapple Rolls (Nastar), pineapple shaped tarts and many others but all of it are as addictive.
Pineapple Filling
Ingredients:
4 large pineapples
300 g sugar
1 clove
1 inch cinnamon stick
1/2 star anise
250 g liquid glucose
2 Tbsp wheat flour or wheat starch (Tung Mein Fun)
Method:
1. Slice and grate pineapples till fine. You can use a food processor do grate it.
2. Strain the grated pineapple till dry.
3. Let it simmer in a wok toll the juice has dry up. Add sugar and, star anise, cinnamon stick and clove.
4. Stir till the pineapple has thickened and dry. Add maltose or liquid glucose.
5. Stir till the pineapple filling is thick, sticky and dry.
6. Add wheat flour. Continue to stir for about 10 minutes or until filling is dry.
7. Leave to cool and shape into small balls.
Note : You can make the filling in advance and refrigerate it.
Pastry
Ingredients:
500 g butter
140 g powdered sugar
4 egg yolks
650 g all purpose flour
1 Tbsp cornflour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla essence
Egg Brush
1 egg yolk plus 1Tbsp water
Method:
- Preheat oven at 150° C.
- Cream butter and sugar till white.
- Add in egg yolks and beat at low speed for 1 minute.
- Fold in flour gradually.
- Insert pastry into cookie press and press into strip of about 3 inch each.
- Put the rolled pineapple filling onto the pastry and roll it up.
- Brush with egg brush.
- Bake for 30 minutes or when tarts is light golden brown in color.
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yummo! I was just chatting to Ellie and saying I am so late to make pineapple tarts for this CNY! Now u have a recipe, yay! looking forward to try out next week… if i have time.
Billy, this recipe is by my contributor and she is a fantastic baker. Everything is made from scratch. Looking forward to seeing your version.
Winning combination for me,pineapple tarts,what a treat.
Hi, may I know how much liquid glucose and wheat starch do the recipe needs? Thanks.
May I know how much wheat flour to put into the pineapple filling? The list of ingredients did not mention. Thanks.
Please add 250g of liquid glucose and 2 Tbsp of wheat flour or Wheat starch (Tung Mein Fun).
do you have 250g of maltose in tbsp or cup measurement?
Ooooh pineapple tarts – one of my two favourite CNY cookies. Thanks so much for the recipe, am going to try this out. :)
Would you happen to have a groundnut cookie post coming up as well? I have never been able to find a very good one so far…. :P
Thanks, Su Yin. We will try to put up the peanut cookies if there is no time constraint.
Awesome. Stupid question – what is liquid glucose?
You can get it from the baking ingredients shop or can use maltose ( ba leh koh) which is available in Asian supermarkets.
what is thung mien fun? any substitutes for it?
Hi, thanks for the recipe. What is powdered sugar? Can I use granulated sugar instead.
It is icing sugar.
These authentic pineapple tarts look so delectable! Yes, it is very addictive. Only you start to put one in your mouth, you will never be able to stop it. LOL!
you make these look so doable… but wow, 4 pineapples.. expensive!
these pineapple tarts are lovely. it reminds me of the original pineapple tart that looks like sunflower, if u know what i mean . i could sweep 20 in a matter of minutes lol.
thanks for the recipe :D
oh thank you for this recipe! i just made the jam last weekend and making the tarts tmrw so this recipe would really come in handy! :)
Hi Bee Yin,
This recipe come just in time. I was searching for y’day, and saw yr status in FB.
I made pineapple rolls today. The pastry was quite soft, I added about 30 grams of flour during making the 3rd batch. Turned out to be better. I find using the stainless steel murukku presser is much easier to handle the pastry. I pressed the pastry on a sillicon sheets, roll and cut off.
Also try using a small flower shape cookies cutter, with the pieneapple jams in the middle. Cute and easy for kids.
Lannie Loke
Hi, Lannie, I use the cookie press which is design for pineapple rolls. You can get it from the baking ingredients specialist shop if you are in Malaysia or Singapore. If you use this cookie press, the pastry is just right. This pastry is not really suitable for the open tarts as it is too soft.
can i used canned crushed pineapple instead? how much should i use?
Excited to try this recipe! can’t have chinese new year without pineapple tarts!!
Joni, Have not tried that. You can try it…..but it will definitly not be as nice as the real pineapple.
oh thank you for this recipe!
Hi
Came across this fab site ..sooo looking for this recipe … not too sure about the cookie press where can I get it in Singapore .. thanks . Tarts looks simply melt in the mouth will have to try asap when I can get my hands on the press as I have resided in Australia for most part of my growing up years and was fascinated by this rolled up version when I was given some from overseas just recently and then I discovered this blog … thanks
You can get it from the shop that sells baking ingredients. In malaysia, all the baking ingredient shops sell it.
Pineapple tarts is a CNY must! My mom cooks her pineapple filling in a copper wok (its only used once a year!). Her tarts are open faced and she still does it old skool, meaning she uses a ‘kepit’ to pinch all around the pastry. Then its up to us kids to make whatever design we like on top. Sometimes we will spell out ‘eat me’ or the animal year. Non of the boring lattice pattern for us. Now that we’re all out of the house, its Dad that does all the designs on top.
I cannot wait for the New Year’s celebration to start, even though I am not Chinese, I know a good celebration when I see it. These pineapple tarts look delicious. I am very fortunate to have a wonderful Chinese bakery within a block from me (on second thought maybe not so fortunate) as my pants have been a bit tight lately. Their pineapple tarts are amazing! They are more of the roll, but their filling is a bit creamier, I think they combine it with their coconut filling (can you see why I am in trouble) I think I’ll do better to try your delicious version.
Thanks OysterCulture.
Hi May i ask how does ur cookie press for pineapple tarts look like? and at bake the cookies at how many ° C? Thank u
Bake at 150 celcius.
How many tarts does this recipe yield?
&& if I don’t have a cookie presser, can I use a pastry bag with a wide tip?
Thanks.
About 200 tarts. Should be to ok use the tip.
With this recipe can you make the kind which are shaped like a tangerine? It’s the kind where you wrap the pastry completely around the filling and shape it into an oval so that the shape looks like a small tangerine
You need to add about 50g of flour as this pastry is quite soft. Then it is easier to shape.
hi, this is quite interesting because i haven’t seen a recipe that adds liquid glucose. can you substitute golden syrup for it? and what does the liquid glucose do for the jam?
i’m still searching for the perfect pineapple roll recipe…. will try this out and hope it’s my HG!
You can add maltose. Liquid glucose helps to thickened and make the jam sticky and therefore easier to shape. If the jam is not sticky and dry, it is very difficult to shape.
i made it yesterday (just the pastry because i had already done the filling). this recipe is brilliant. easy, pipes easily thru the press and not too difficult to handle. the texture is wonderful – baking at the lower temp is genius. i did add a bit of salt because i like the play of salty sweet.
this is my go-to pineapple tart recipe forever.
Bravo …..Sandra
I followed the recipe religiously & have made some new friends since :) Thanks, Nonyafood!
These look delicious! The pineapples need to be cored, right? How big should I make the balls of pineapple filling? How big are the finished cookies?
The size of a little marble for the pineapple filling.
Yup , the pineapple needs to be cored and mashed before cooking.
I tried and enjoying making pineapple tarts now. Thanks for sharing the recipe.
Hi! Thanks for sharing the recipe. I was wondering, how many pineapple tarts will this recipe make? It uses four large pineapples, I am assuming that will be a lot. If I were to reduce the amount of pineapples in half, would it be alright to just reduce the spices used for the pineapple filling in half as well? thanks!
Yes, please reduce everything to half.
Hi, i see in previous responses that some have been asking the purpose of using wheat starch in the pineapple jam, but you haven’t responded. I was wondering if you could let us know what purpose the liquid glucose and wheat starch serve?
Please refer to 2 feb 2010 reply on liquid glucose. Wheat starch act as a drying ageat and absorb the excess moisture from the pineapple jam.
i’ve tried the recipe for the pastry and it is really good. will try the pineapple jam recipe the next time
Whoa! The tarts look so lovely! Y’know what, when it comes to those melt-in-your-mouth type recipes, I’d have hard time pressing out the dough out of the nastar mold! Rolling it up to wrap around the filling is tough, too! Once baked and cooled, the pastry crumbles so easily because the pastry is so thin in its thickness! Sigh … Any advice on this?
Love your both of your work! Keep it up! Happy Chinese New Year to ya!
When rolling the pastry up around the jam, the pastry breaks. Is my pastry too soft (wet) or too dry? What can I do fix it? Thanks!
Pastry is too dry. Probably your butter is not oily enough. Try adding another 20 g of butter or another egg yolk.
pineapple tart is my absolute favourite… and the photo remind me of my mum’s pineapple tart I am missing. So i’ve linked your page to my very new blog. Have a great CNY!!
http://lechevitrine.wordpress.com/
Dear Nyonyafood
I just watch the movie “Little Nyonya”
What is Dramba Udang? I might not spell correctly – but the cake has Sticky rice, coconut milk wrapped in banana leaf. Do you have this recipe? Thanks