Homemade Pineapple Tarts Recipe – 2021 Update

Since first posting my cute pineapple tarts recipe in 2016, the only thing I've changed is to add a little salt to the shortbread dough. Other than that, it remains a constant in my Chinese New Year snack repertoire.

I absolutely love these buttery, melt-in-the-mouth biscuits. But they take patience to make, particularly the jam, which needs a few hours to reduce down, cool and roll. But they're so worth it.

Need visuals? Check out my YouTube video:

Makes 20–28 depending on how thinly or thickly you roll the pastry dough.

Ingredients

For the Jam:

2 medium-sized pineapples, peeled, cored and puréed
200g caster sugar
1 cinnamon stick
1 pandan leaf

For the Royal Icing Leaves:

1 small egg white
150g icing sugar
A few drops of pandan paste (you can just use green food colouring paste)

For the Pastry:

125g cold unsalted butter, cubed
175g plain flour
Pinch of salt
2 tbsp cornflour
2 tbsp custard powder
25g icing sugar
1 egg, beaten (to glaze)

Method:

1. In a large pan or wok, simmer all the jam ingredients together on a low heat. When it reduces by half, remove the cinnamon stick and pandan leaf, and stir often with a silicone spatula or wooden spoon to stop it from sticking. Stir until you have a really thick, relatively dry paste – this will take a couple of hours.

2. Scoop into a shallow dish and let cool completely before popping in the fridge for an hour (I left the jam to cool on the kitchen counter overnight as it was quite a chilly day anyway).

3. To make the royal icing leaves, whisk the ingredients together until stiff and fluffy, and pipe little leaves on a baking paper-lined tray. Leave to dry overnight.

4. Take teaspoon-sized portions of your jam and roll them into balls using oiled hands.

5. Preheat the oven to 180°C and line a couple of baking sheets with non stick baking parchment.

6. Make the pastry by rubbing all the ingredients (apart from the egg) together with your fingertips, switching to a light kneading motion to make the dough come together.

7. Roll the dough out until it's about 1cm thick, and cut out your pastry shapes. Place them about 2cm apart on the lined baking tray and pop a pineapple jam ball in the centre. If your kitchen's a bit warm and the pastry becomes soft as you work with it, pop it in the freezer for five minutes to firm back up again and re-roll.

8. Brush beaten egg lightly over the tops and bake for 10–15 minutes, until golden brown. Then cool completely on a wire rack before sticking the leaves into the jam and then eating.

Enjoy, and have fun.

PS – You can store the extra icing leaves in a clean, airtight jar for a couple of weeks.