PROJECT Pineapple Tarts

I have been hoping to bake pineapple tarts and today, I managed to squeeze in a little bit of time. I rumaged through my old collection of recipes and chance upon one, which I copied down from a forgotten source. I tried baking pineapple tarts the last lunar new year, except that the paste was ready-made ones from convenient stores. I thought the paste was good, but not homely enough..

So today, I put my hands on, and made my own pineapple jam. I did some changes to the recipe I found:

• 2 grated pineapples (drained)
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 120g caster sugar

First, cook grated pineapples and lemon juice is a large saucepan and some sugar, stirring constantly. Left to simmer and when most liquid is visibly gone but mixture is still damp, add in the rest of the sugar. Cook till mixture is dry and set aside to cool. Well, I wasnt very satisfied with the pineapple jam at first. The first try tasted sour, followed by a sweet after taste. The sugar seems to separate itself from the pineapple pulp. Fortunately, the pineapple jam taste excellent with the pastry:

• 250g plain flour
• 125g butter
• 2tbsp caster sugar
• 1tsp baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 1 egg yolk
• 2tbsp cold pineapple juice
• 1 egg - for glazing

I'm quite happy with the overall results. Mum & Dad say it's nice. But the pineapple tarts can be further improvised by making the pastry more crumbly. Sis's bf says the pastry is abit hard. King's mum says the colour is too light and looks raw. Should bake a little longer. I'll bake more for this coming "chu er" since dad is expecting guests as usual. From then, I'll try and explore other types of pineapple tarts. I wanna try the round ones!