Melt-in-Your-Mouth Pineapple Tarts 黄梨酥 - Chinese New Year Series

Woohoo, let the baking fun continue! Homemade Pineapple Jam - checked! Patience recharged overnight - checked! Baking motivation still intact - checked! Checked! lol. And now it's time to get the tarts rolled up! Another recipe from Wendy at Table for 2.....or More which she in turn had adapted from this recipe, you get just what the name promised - pineapple tarts that simply melt in your mouth!

To deal with a dough that has got the cream cheese and the whipping cream in it is not one that I'm familiar with. But I guess they are there to serve their ultimate purpose. The tarts are soft, fluffy, creamy and rich but not overly so, flaky and simply pretty and elegant to look at! Heavy on the diet yes, but hey, it's Chinese New Year! What can be a better time to let your guard down temporarily and indulge away? Lets just deal with that diet issue a bit later. Sign up for some runs! I had! So by hook or by crook, these extra calories will have to go sometime after the New Year! *evil laugh* lol.

Let's get the baking started!

Melt-in-Your-Mouth Pineapple Tarts  黄梨酥 
Adapted from Table for 2.....or More
Makes 105 pineapple tarts

Homemade Pineapple Jam from 2 large pineapples
2 egg yolks for glazing

Dough
75g caster sugar
170g UHT whipping cream
3 egg yolks
2 sticks (16 tbsps) salted butter, room temperature
2 tbsps unsalted butter, room temperature
50g cream cheese
400g cake flour
30g corn starch

sugar, whipping cream, yolks, butter and cream cheese

1. Cream sugar, butter and cream cheese until they come together.

2. Pour in the whipping cream and beat on low (speed 2 on a hand mixer). The mixture will appear to be lumpy as the cream starts to blend in. Scrape off the sides once in a while in between. Keep the beating going for about 10 minutes. It will eventually turn creamy at the end of it.

3. Add in the egg yolks and beat for about a minute. Sift the flours together and add in half of the flour mixture. Beat on low until they come together. Add in the remaining flour mixture and stop mixing as soon as they get combined. Let the dough rest for at least 10 minutes.

4. Work on the pineapple jam meanwhile. Roll the jam into tiny balls. This is when my OCD starts showing a little lol. Each of them weigh 0.2oz. Keep them chilled until ready to be used later. They are firmer and more manageable when refrigerated. With the dough quantity, I had used up only about 2/3 of the pineapple jam I made. Keep the rest of the jam for other purposes - use as a spread or make more cookies maybe?

5. Next - the dough. Roll the dough out into balls about 1.5 to 2 times larger than the jam balls. Again, mine weighs 0.3oz each. The initial rolling process can get a little messy in the beginning especially when it's still fresh and moist. But as they continue to firm up in the air, the rolling will get easier. Just be sure you work with clean hands to minimize the stickiness.

6. Wrapping time! Gently flatten a piece of dough. Place the jam right in the middle. Wrap the dough around the filling. I started mine with folding in the opposite sides. Continue to wrap around and enclose the jam. Lightly pinch the end point to seal the dough casing. Smooth out surface by rolling it into a ball. Repeat with the rest of the dough and jam.

7. Line the tarts on a baking sheet lined with a parchment paper. Glaze the tarts with the egg yolks. Do them nice and neat with a brush. Their final appearance depends very much on this.
8. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F for about 20 minutes. Mine took about 25 minutes before the glaze browns beautifully. So have a look after 20 minutes. Add a minute or two as needed. Let the cookies cool down completely before packing them away.

Yummmmmmmmm...