Tart Nenas : Pineapple Tart

I was craving again last night, for my all time favorite, the Pineapple Tart. A very good friend, Sherry, sent me a tray together with chocolate chips cookies, all the way from home and I cannot get enough of it! Bless your heart & Thank you Sherry!

These are a must have, almost in every household during religious festivals back home, in Malaysia. May it be Chinese New Year, the Eid and other religious holidays or festivals, you will find them. It is delicious almost crumbly yet buttery on the outside; sweet, tart and almost chewy in its filling. Super delicious! Like Rugelach as my all time favorite in the States, these are the Ultimate Cookie back home, well next to Kuih Makmur [Mexican wedding cake in States] of course.

So, I went to my computer for recipe search and its among the top listed searches for 'Tart Nenas.' Of course everyone have their favorite ones. I got a few. After so many days of searching for the best ingredients, I came out with my own which came from a combination of so many recipes. I want my crust to be buttery, not too crumbly yet with a little crunch, enough to hold the pineapple jam that I made. This will be my 3rd recipe that I dare to come up with, according to what my taste bud likes.  I am making this tart without any rolling pin but just roll and press them with my fingers to make it into its shape. It may not be as pretty, like what I have seen online, but I think I got the taste to be just perfect. Just the way my FreezerNinja taste bud likes:) I would say, it taste like having thick almost chewy fruit jam on a shortbread. Something like that. Oh, and the cloves, made a world of difference in taste, that is if you like cloves:)

I first made them on Oct 14th with successful alteration last night, Oct 17th, 2009. So here goes, my avid reader.

Pineapple Tart. ~by FreezerNinja.

Pineapple Jam
1 Large Pineapple (ripe)
1/2 cup of sugar
1/2 tsp of salt
6 cloves
1 cinnamon stick
2 tablespoon of cornflour

Peel, get rid of the core and grate or put them in your food processor.
Put the grated pineapple into a pot with sugar, salt, cloves and cinnamon and mixing them well, bring them to boil. Cook them till it gets thick, no more juice and add in the cornflour. Mix well, simmer and let it cook till further thickens, making sure to stir them from time to time.  This process took me about half an hour or so. I divided this to 4. The Tart dough below uses only a quarter of this Jam recipe.

Tart dough (makes 25 tart or cookie)

4 oz of butter
2 tbsp confectioners sugar
1 egg
1 pinch of salt
3 tbsp cornflour
1 1/2 cup of all purpose flour

Beat butter till creamy.
Add in confectioners sugar and salt.  Mix well.
Add in egg. Mix well.
Add in flour and cornflour.

Mix well till the dough forms into a ball and do not stick to the bowl.

Heat your oven to 350ºF. My recipe will use only a quarter of the jam that has been produced from one large pineapple. So you know what to do if you want to finish the jam:)

Divide the dough into 25 small portions.
Roll them in an oval shape, about 1/8" thick.
Put about 1/2 of a teaspoon pineapple jam in the middle of the dough and roll.
Put them about and inch apart on a parchment paper lined baking tray.

NOTE: If you like to add egg wash on the tart, this is the time to do it, just beat 1 egg and brush them before you put them into the oven.

Some of the tart/cookie, I stick one clove in, just because I love the taste of clove in my pineapple tart. I have a bit of a weird taste buds. This is optional.

Bake them about 30 mins or until the tart has turned a bit golden.

Happy Baking! Enjoy.