Happy New Year! Commercially Available Homemade Pineapple Tarts
Happy New Year Everyone!
Pineapple tarts have been my favourite CNY tidbit since I was a kid. I remember how mom used to make her very own Pineapple Tarts every New Year. But soon commercially made ones became available and she stopped making her own. In fact, it would seem that lots of other mothers also stopped making their own since it was so much easier just to buy them ready made.
After a while people realized that the commercial ones are not that great, so the cottage industry emerged with Aunties making their own pineapple tarts for sale. Soon everyone had "homemade" pineapple tarts that were made by their Aunty to serve during CNY. As their orders got bigger, the Aunties started getting their maids to make the tarts while they inspect their manicures.
When they first started, the Aunties made their pineapple tarts from scratch. Each pineapple was carefully selected, the flesh was chopped up and caramalized into the pineapple paste. Soon, some enterprising Thai businessman saw the opportunity to provide ready made pineapple paste for the Aunties which would save them a lot of trouble having to do it themselves. This freed the Aunties from having to soak their hands into the acidic pineapple puree and so ruin their manicures.
Another CNY went by and another enterprising businessman whose Aunty is making the pineapple tarts thought that his Aunty's pastry was so good that every other Aunty should actually use his Aunty's dough. So, he set up a factory to produce his Aunty's pineapple tart dough and made it available to all the other Aunties.
So now, our Aunties don't have to make their pineapple paste or the dough. All they have to do is to sit down, inspect their manicures and direct their Indonesian maids, to put the Thai pineapple paste onto the commercial dough base and bake the tarts.
Guess what? The next thing that will happen is that someone will make commercially available pre-baked pineapple tarts so that all the Aunty needs to do is to direct the maid to put it in the oven to bake. Soon, this Aunty might start a small factory to do this and start to market her "Aunty's very own, commercially homemade pineapple tarts".
Well, happy New Year to all our Aunties out there, but please keep our pineapple tarts homemade and do continue to use SCS butter as it really does make it taste better!
Gong Xi Fa Cai everyone!
PS: So what is everyone's favourite CNY tidbit? Mine is Pineapple Tarts and Bak Kwa!
28 comments:
haha, that was so funny and true. My favorite NY titbid is pineapple tarts. Visiting relatives is all about trying their pineapple tarts and judge whose pineapple tart is the best. =P
Heard of 'horseshoe'?
It's the first time I've came across this novelty CNY goodie which has its name derived from its shape.
Very simple soft cake with nutella filling in it. Heaven!
To Leslie and the rest of the makankakis, Happy New Year! ~
Pineapple tarts and loveletters for me!...SCS butter....try Golden Churn! :) Have a blessed and peaceful Lunar New Year all!
YES i love pineapple tarts the most! I can finish a whole big tin by myself! And cashew cookies too! :D
Happy CNY everyone!
i love the green tea white choco cookie from pinegarden was great.. love the crunchy texture and the blend of mocha powder inside... YUmmiy
it is featured on straits time the week b4 cny also.. oiishii
bak gua and love letters..
I love bak gua... bengawan solo though is selling these cheese cookies that are so good this year!
Hhahaha!! my mum used to be one of those aunties selling pineapple tarts during CNY .. and she charges like 30 cents a piece. some 30 something years ago. Rich aunties would buy from her.. and they would complained.. about how expensive it was. And they wanted more pineapple and less pastry. If only they see how much works go into what my mom does.. they would think 30cents is nothing. My mum does the flowers on the dough one by one.. ! yes.. one by one..!! can you imagine.. how tiring it all was. Yes..! and 4 kids .. not getting proper food for 1 full month. Poor us..! so appreciate those aunties.. and appreciate those kids more.. hhahaha!!
my favourite is pineapple tarts and those cornflake cookies in mini cups!
Happy CNY!
For me ah, pineapple tarts & loveletters!!
Looks like Pineapple Tarts are the undisputed favourite so far!
pineapple tarts from 100% freshly prepared and properly sourced pineapple and lurpak butter ... nothing comes close ... i dare say that my mum's one will be in the top 3 of all pineapple tarts anyone of u have tasted in your life .. trick is not too much flour and not too long baking time, mixture of different types of sugar at the right proportion (including pure vanilla sugar)
I used to slave away in my kitchen making pineapple tarts from scratch when the kids were little. They loved to play with the cookie cutter and dough. Of course, I soon realised that I could buy much better tasting tarts out there.
The kids keep asking me why I stopped making tarts. The answer is clearly spelt out in your blog. These days I get to eat other home-made tarts and the best thing is, I don't have to eat up my deformed ones anymore.
Wasting calories on bad food is a thing of the past!
Hi Leslie,
So have you try the homemade pineapple tart your "Aunty" given to u? How it is? I do help up to mould up the shape leh! - Doris
Actually ah... bakers generally will not use SCS butter cause the texture isn't very good~
For full flavoured butter taste, Golden Churn Butter (either Australia or NZ) will win hands down. Cowhead/ Falon is usually used for normal baking. Of course there are other brands out there~
That might be true but SCS butter still has the best known brand name in Singapore that is trusted by the baby boomers.
for normal cookies those butter will be good enough ... but lurpak has this lightness and smoothness about it that melts just nice to accentuate the fresh caramelised pineapple .. most importantly .. baking from frozen or chilled dough helps a lot ... and i fancy that other expensive butters like anchor are kinda overrated ... even cheap ones can do the job for normal cookies ... however SCS is more popular with the older generation who appreciate its saltiness ... and yes i do agree the texture is not the best ...
happy new year to all!!
i like pineapple tarts (those made by liverpool's mum were good, not too sweet!), bak kwa & almond cookies, not much a fan of love letters though..
my fav is kueh bangkit. The melt in the mouth and the fragrance and flavor of coconut make me crave for for more. The best I have tried so far are those in Bengawan Solo. Get those "odd shaped" ones, not the perfectly butterfly shaped ones. Yummy!
hi doc,
yes my fave is pineapple tarts (home-made or handmade) watever you wanna call it. haha. my perankan aunt makes one of the best tarts around, too bad, she 'retire' from tart making.
and yes..bak kwa my fave food too. and it really not healthy. causes lotsa breakout on my face.
which brand of bak kwa you like best? I only buy 'New Eastern' located @ Serangoon Garden.
Thats' a funny blog. Well said! My favourite CNY tidbit are the same as yours.
Hei Bee Hiam (fried prawn rolls)!!! And pineapple tarts...erm, i prefer the dough to the pineapple jam.
Anyone tried the gourmet bak kua from Mei Chun Xiang? It so nice....
Anyway Lurpak butter is pretty good too....
Hello, does any one know where to get good 福州 年糕？
Lurpak's good!!! French brands like President's pretty good too.. but these brands go better with bread, not for baking..
We decided to try something different this CNY- on top of the usual cny tidbits we served Indian Papaddam and it was quite a hit with frens and relatives!
I absolutely love making pineapple tarts! And I make them only once a year, and that's during Chinese New Year. I've tried many types of butter but have not found any strong differences among them. The only thing that really matters is that one MUST use unsalted butter because the sweetness of the butter comes through in the pastry of the pineapple tarts. Using commercially bought pineapple filling is a big no-no for me. They just aren't the same as the ones made from scratch at home. Homemade filling tastes so much fresher and better. I use honey pineapples (the ripe ones). I do not grate the pineapples - I juice them (in an electric juicer). I even cook the juice together with the pulp, because the juice has so much flavour in it, that when cooked with the pulp, the flavour in the final pineapple filling simply bursts through. There is no way commercially produced filling can come anyway close to homemade filling.
Ooooh, your tarts sound goooooood!
Dear Oi Lin, Any pineapple tarts left to spare for Dr. Les n gang.It is very hard to get pineapple tarts like yours.
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