Pineapple Tart – Opened – Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year is once again around the corner and this time I tried making opened-shape Pineapple Tarts. It wasn’t a good experience, people who knows how to make Pineapple Tarts knows that it is a tedious work.

There are many types of Pineapple Tarts in Singapore and the 2 most popular types are the opened flower-shape Pineapple Tarts (which is this recipe) and the enclosed pineapple balls. I am more of a ball person but this year I came to love opened Pineapple Tarts. It took me lots of tried and errors to get this recipes right. 

I will share some tips and tricks so that you will get a crumbly buttery crust that everyone loves.

It is a must to add salt into the crust’s dough. Salt will enhance the butter flavor and will give you a fragrant and buttery crust. Omission of salt will give you a dull and blend crust. For Pineapple Tarts, you are looking for a salty crust, not a sweet one. 

You must not overwork the dough. Overworking or adding too much flour are the keys to tough and floury crust, you won’t want that. As I said, you want a crumbly buttery salty crust and flour is your enemy. But less flour means, harder to handle the dough. So I would recommend to chill your dough and doing this in batches of 4, leave your dough in the fridge while you roll out a portion of the dough.  Another thing to take note, if possible roll out your dough between 2 parchment papers to avoid adding additional flour.

Though it may be tiring to make your own Pineapple Tarts, it’s really easy to make your own. I have been making Pineapple Tarts myself for the past 3 years.