Su-yin lives up the street from me. Like, literally. This fact bodes particularly well for me as each time she bakes something delicious, I inevitably receive a bbm asking if I’d like some. As if she even has to ask. So from time to time, I receive parcels of freshly baked awesomeness delivered right to my door step, and ok ok, I send some sugary goodness back her way too.

It’s a good relationship we have, Su-yin and I.

Strangely though, until last Tuesday night, we’d never actually baked together.  But we’ve now changed all that. Armed with… nothing, I went over and we embarked on baking these gorgeous pineapple “nastar” tarts for a little pot luck lunch we’re going to this weekend. Don’t let these adorable little babies fool you, they are harder to make than you think and I shit you not, I even came home with bruises.

Anyway, Su-yin wrote a great post (with recipe!) about the whole experience so I’m gonna let her tell the story…

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I’ve always had a thing for pineapple tarts. After my beloved peanut cookies, pineapple tarts are next on my “must overindulge in” list during Chinese New Year. My favourite pineapple tarts to date are the ones my mum buys from a Malay lady – melt in the mouth yet crumbly pastry encasing a lovely round of pineapple jam = perfection.

I must say one thing though – pineapple tarts are MUCH more time consuming compared to peanut cookies. I mean, in comparison those peanut cookies were an absolute doddle. Thankfully Catty dropped by to help me make these, and you know what – I could not have done it without her help! She initially thought that she would be “providing the chatter” and “taste testing”… little did she know how much work she would have to do… 🙂

There are a few reasons why these are time consuming.

1) The pastry dough has to be “piped” out using a special mould – this is not dissimilar to cookie presses, and gives you the typical scalloped lines you see on the face of the pineapple tarts. The piping process was the hardest part of all. In the end, we decided that the best way to approach it was to have the mould filled with pastry dough at all times – and even then, it was very unpredictable. Push/pipe too slowly and you get breaks in the dough, which essentially means it then cannot be used.

2) The cookie dough is VERY fragile. Very. Even when you get a perfect strip of piped dough – you then are faced with the challenge of not destroying it. We found that the easiest way was for Catty to pipe the strip of dough directly onto my palm. I then placed a ball of pineapple jam ball on it and wrapped it up. Piping the dough onto a baking tray is also an option… but believe me when I say it is very hard to lift it off the tray without destroying it somewhat. So yes, much easier if one person does the piping, and someone else wraps. Trust me on this one.

Because I made too little pineapple jam (I saved half a pineapple to err.. eat with rojak sauce), we had some leftover pastry dough. So we made some matcha tartelettes (from some leftover white chocolate & matcha ganache that I had from baking the day before) and some mini blueberry pies. And you know what, those matcha tartelettes were amazing. If you eat them when they are warm, the filling oozes out whilst the delicate pastry melts in your mouth. Definitely a keeper.

But back to the pineapple tarts. These actually turned out pretty well. The pastry was light yet crumbly, and had that essential “melt in the mouth” texture. I did feel that the pastry lacked “fat”, and this is probably because I used a mixture of butter and oil in the recipe. I also thought the pastry could do with being slightly sweeter. The jam was also delicious – you can adjust the sugar content according to your personal tastes, and to the sweetness/tartness of your pineapples. I thought the jam was too sweet, R thought it wasn’t sweet enough, and Catty thought it was fine.

And before I get to the recipe, just a note to say that I had to add an extra 40-50ml of corn oil to the dough as it was originally too crumbly, and wasn’t forming a cohesive dough. I have incorporated this into the recipe below by increasing the amount of butter used.

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For the recipe, please visit Su-yin’s blog HERE.

Happy weekend y’all!

ps. all gorgeous photos are taken by Su-yin.

15 Thoughts on “pineapple tarts, matcha tartlettes & blueberry pies: all in an evening’s work, right Su-yin?

  1. Wow, these are very impressive! And well done for creating them, and sharing them with us! Every time I see ‘Matcha’ anywhere in your post feed, I jump straight over. I tried a Matcha Frappe style at Eat on Tuesday and it was great. The cold version of the hot one, minus the milk. It sure did have some other thing in it, (not sure what it was) and it was so good and I felt really alert and hyper after it.

  2. Ahhh yes we DID work incredibly hard. So deceiving, these teeny tarts are. Thankfully they turned out well, or I might have burst into tears. 😛

    p.s. I promise the next time we bake together we’ll choose something that won’t leave you with bruises!

  3. I hope I get to taste some of these lovelies … but most likely they will be in your tummy. 😉

  4. PINEAPPLE!!!! Im eating 2-3 cans a day right now because it is all I am craving during pregnancy. Cant wait to try these out. Thanks!

  5. Oh my gosh,these look amazing! We’d love to make them, but our baking skills aren’t quite that developed yet. The little blueberry tarts look so cute.

  6. That was a lot of hard work from you and Su-Yin!! But the pineapple tarts are worth it!!

  7. Ana: Eat are serving COLD frappe right now? Are they crazy, it’s FREEZING! I used to pop in to get the matcha latte (hot version, with milk) but haven’t been in a while. They use vanilla in their matcha lattes which gives it an odd flavour, but sometimes I just take what I can get! 🙂

    Su-yin: I officially have 4 left. I’m scared. I don’t want them to run out. (but darned if I’m gonna make them again any time soon!)

    Ken: Hehe, yeaaaah no chance those will survive past tonight!

    Koreen: Pineapple is good for you, I’m sure! That’s quite a healthy craving – as opposed to donuts and milkshakes and what some other people get 🙂

    The lunch girls: oh the tarts are ADORABLE, right? We added the little lattice on top which I think is so cute hehehe 😀

    Kay: They are SO worth it, as are the matcha and blueberry tarts! All so delicious!

  8. gorgeous looking pineapple tarts! i was thinking of making them for this cny but it’s not as easy.. tempting after reading this post! haha!

  9. Hehe I saws this post on Su-yin’s site! How fabulous to be neighbors and I think your both lucky to have each other so close by!

  10. Gorgeous! Well done ladies! 😉

  11. matcha tartelettes! awesome. must have recipe now.

  12. Melissa: Haha yeah they aren’t easy using this batter mould, but if you make just like tiny little bowls to put the pineapple jam in, it should be pretty easy!

    Lorraine: YES! now you should move over and live on our street too! 😉

    Maria: Thanks honey xx

    penny: Ahhhh yes, well, you’ll have to ask Su-yin for the matcha ganache recipe – so delicious!

  13. Worth all those bruises I’d say. Mind you, I never leave the kitchen without at least one abrasion/bruise/burn/cut. Ol’ butterfingers here never let a minor (or even major) injury get in the way of cooking. Priorities!

    These babies do look like the business – beautiful and – from the sounds of it – very tasty indeed. One I will appreciate looking at, but might leave the making to others more nimble fingered than I.

  14. mmm pineapple tarts! never had one before but sure do love pineapple! they look like these guava tarts i buy from the caribbean bakery near my apt :). and making the dough from scratch no wonder you went home with bruises…well good for you looks beautiful and the little matcha tartlets are soooo freakin adorable!

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