Enclosed Pineapple Tarts Recipe

My enclosed pineapple tarts recipe pretty much uses the exact same ingredients as my cute open pineapple tarts – but this time, I'll show you the technique for using a stamp mould with them.

(And here's a pic taken from when I remade these in 2024:)

Xin nian kuai le! Today's the first day of the Lunar New Year, and I've been hard at work making plenty of Malaysian CNY biscuits. As an extra bonus entry today on a Tuesday, I re-imagine my usual pineapple tarts as closed ones, with the jam fully-encased in the pastry.

I found a super cute mahjong mooncake mould online with interchangeable 'north, south, east and west' plates, and found that they were small enough to make pineapple tarts too. Usually when rectangular enclosed pineapple tarts are made, they're baked in metal moulds which are removed afterwards. My recipe is sturdy enough for the dough to keep its shape in the oven outside of the mould.

And yes, I have the usual Wednesday original recipe blog post lined up for tomorrow, too.

Check out how I make these on my YouTube channel (long version on top, short version below):

Ready? Let's go.

(Makes 20 pineapple tarts.)

Ingredients

For the Jam:

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

For the Pastry:

125g cold unsalted butter, cubed
175g plain flour
Pinch of salt
2 tbsp cornflour
2 tbsp custard powder
25g icing sugar

Extra plain flour, for dusting

Method:

1. In a large wok, simmer all the pineapple jam ingredients together on a low to medium 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 that moves almost as one mass around in the pan – this will take a couple of hours.

2. Scoop into a bowl and leave to cool completely before popping in the fridge for an hour (it'll go quite hard if you leave it in the fridge for too long, but if that happens just leave it out for a little bit before working with it).

3. Take teaspoon-sized portions of your jam and roll them into 20 balls using oiled hands.

4. Preheat the oven to 180°C and line a couple of baking sheets with nonstick baking parchment.

5. Make the pastry by rubbing all the ingredients together with your fingertips, switching to a light kneading motion to make the dough come together.

6. Divide the dough into 20 portions, rolling each into a ball. Take one ball, flatten out into a disc, and use it to wrap up a ball of jam. Repeat with all 20 balls until you have 20 round 'dumplings'.

7. Sprinkle some extra plain flour onto a clean work surface, and roll a 'dumpling' generously around in it to coat it. Pop it in your stamp mould, place directly on a baking sheet, and push down the plunger firmly to squeeze into shape. Carefully lift the mould to leave your shaped pineapple tart behind, and repeat with the rest of the dumplings.

8. Bake for 10–15 minutes, or until lightly golden brown (don't bake for too long otherwise the jam inside will go gooey and the pineapple tarts will start to collapse).

9. Leave to cool completely before eating.

Enjoy, and have fun.