Enclosed Pineapple Tarts

With the pineapple jam/filling done and ready, it was time to make the pineapple tarts. I went with the enclosed version because I didn't have the piping mould for the rolled version, nor the cutter for the open-faced flower version.

Enclosed Pineapple Tarts

Since there was enough jam, I decided to try and test 2 different recipes for the pastry.

The first recipe that I chose was from Nasi Lemak Lover. Her recipe is touted and cited by many as the best melt-in-the-mouth pineapple tart recipe. I halved the original recipe and got about 36 pieces the size of Penang Tau Sar Pneah. This recipe uses a LOT of butter. For 36 pieces, I used three quarters of a 227 gm block of butter. It called for sweetened condensed milk for sweetness but no additional sugar, and the dough was soft and easy to handle. The baked tarts were very buttery... in fact, the aroma of butter was so strong that I worried that some may find it overwhelming. The pastry was firm, crumbly to the bite but not in the hands. It tasted buttery and quite bland on its own but when paired with the sweet-sour taste of the pineapple jam, the tart was delicious! I also find that they tasted better after a day, when the pastry has had time to soften.

The second recipe was from Table for 2... or more by WendyinKK. I couldn't resist this recipe because the pastry has cream cheese in it... must be good, right?! Again, I halved the original recipe and this time I made them smaller - bite-sized pieces, and got about 80 pieces. More to share :) Oh my, this recipe contains a LOT of fat - it uses less butter then NLL's but only to be replaced with cream cheese and heavy cream. This is not for weight conscious people! The dough was very, very soft and oily, which made it easy to shape around the jam ball but required quick and gentle handling to avoid a mess of dough and jam. The baked tarts gave out a milder aroma of butter but still very fragrant. The pastry was softer and more crumbly than NLL's, and slightly tastier. Other than that, I thought both recipes were very close in terms of taste, texture and flavour.

Pineapple Tarts - Tau Sar Pneah size vs. bite size

Choosing the perfect pineapple tart recipe is really a matter of personal preference. While these 2 recipes yielded aromatic and delicious tarts, I wouldn't use them if I were making tarts for someone who dislike the smell and taste of butter. NLL actually stated on her page that she used a butter blend instead of pure butter so as to not let the butter overwhelm the pineapple. I've tasted homemade pineapple tarts with pastry made with margarine, and they were equally good. Having said that, if you do love butter, as I do, you will love these 2 recipes. What I think will make or break your pineapple tart is the JAM. I know it's been said a million times but it is worth saying again - the homemade jam is superior. You just don't get the purity of taste and flavour with store-bought jam.

Enclosed Pineapple Tarts: Recipe 1

Adapted from Nasi Lemak Lover.
I halved the original recipe and got about 36 pieces the size of Penang Tau Sar Pneah.

Pastry
175 gm butter
50 gm sweetened condensed milk
255 gm all-purpose flour
1 egg yolk

Egg wash: 1 egg yolk + 1 tsp milk

Filling
About 350gm pineapple jam (homemade pineapple jam recipe here)

Making the Pastry

1. Cream butter and condensed milk until light.
2. Add in egg yolk and mix till combined.
3. Add in flour and mix till a soft dough forms. Don't overmix the dough.

Next, gather the dough into a ball, wrap it in cling wrap and put it in the refrigerator to chill while working on the jam. 

Making/Assembling the Tarts

To ensure all the tarts are consistent in size, I use measuring spoons - a tablespoon of dough with a teaspoon of jam. 

1 tart = 1 tablespoon of dough + 1 teaspoon of jam

Firstly, while the dough is chilling in the fridge, roll the jam into balls, a teaspoon each.

Measure the amount of jam with a teaspoon

Drop and roll into a ball

Next, using the same measuring technique for the dough:

• Roll a tablespoon of dough into a ball
• Flatten the dough ball into a disc
• Place a jam ball on dough disc
• Wrap the dough around the jam
• Make a gentle, final roll to even the shape and place it on the baking tray
• Score lines on the top to make them more attractive and pineapple-like

Ready for egg wash

Score lines to make them more pineapple-like

Finally, give the tarts an egg wash and they are ready to go into the oven. Bake at 160-170C for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. 

Baked pineapple tarts

Pure pineapple and pastry that melt in the mouth - delicious!

Enclosed Pineapple Tarts: Recipe 2

Adapted from Table for 2... or more by WendyinKK.
I halved the original recipe and got about 80 mini bite-sized pieces.

Pastry
125 gm salted butter
2 1/2 tbsp caster sugar
1 1/2 tbsp cream cheese
1/3 cup heavy cream
1 1/2 egg yolks (keep the remaining 1/2 for the egg wash)
200 gm all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tbsp corn flour

Egg wash: 1/2 egg yolk + 1/2 tsp milk

Filling
About 350gm pineapple jam (homemade pineapple jam recipe here)

Making the Pastry

1. Sift the flour and corn flour together.
2. Cream butter, sugar and cream cheese together until light.
3. Add in heavy cream and beat for 10 minutes.
4. Add in the flour and mix till a soft dough forms. Don't overmix the dough.

Gather the dough into a ball, wrap it in cling wrap and put it in the refrigerator to chill while working on the jam.

As with Recipe 1, I use measuring spoons to ensure a consistent size. To make the mini tarts, I use a teaspoon of dough with a 1/2 teaspoon of jam.

1 mini tart = 1 teaspoon of dough + 1/2 teaspoon of jam

The method for wrapping/assembling the tarts is the same as above, for Recipe 1.

Baked mini pineapple tarts

Crochet / Amigurumi Chinese New Year Doll

Gong Xi Fa Cai! 恭喜发财! Meet Amy, my Chinese New Year Amigurumi Doll.

Amigurumi Chinese New Year Doll: Gong Xi Fa Cai!

The pattern is from By Hook, By Hand: Free Spirit Amigurumi Doll Pattern, by Beth Webber. What an amazing and wonderful site this is! Beth makes the most beautiful dolls, and she shares her patterns for free.

The body is done with Bendigo Woollen Mills Luxury 8 ply. The doll has pipe cleaners/wires in its legs and arms that make its limbs bendable, hence the doll is poseable. I used Beth's technique for a movable neck, from her Bleuette Doll Pattern. I also made the head smaller - 36 stitches at its widest circumference instead of 40 stitches that is stated in the pattern, and followed Bleuette's face.

The CheongSam or Qipao (traditional Chinese dress for women) is my own design. The shoes are adapted from Beth's Mary Jane Shoes for Bleuette. Both are crocheted with cotton lace yarn from the local craft store.

Free Spirit Amigurumi Doll in CheongSam (Qipao)

Happy Chinese New Year!

Homemade Pineapple Jam (for Pineapple Tarts)

Homemade Pineapple Jam (for Pineapple Tarts)

For Chinese New Year 2015, I am making pineapple tarts. And why not make my own homemade pineapple jam too while I'm at it, right? Pineapple jam is actually very easy to make. All you need are pineapples, sugar, and 2 hours to spare. You can optionally add aromatics like cinnamon, cloves, even star anise or pandan leaves.

I use local pineapples (think they are called Morris) that are just ripe, maybe even a little under ripe. Some say honey pineapples or Josephine, make a more fragrant jam. But I have Morris, so Morris it is.

Peeled Morris Pineapples

Peel the skin and cut away the "eyes" by scoring diagonally. I enjoy peeling and scoring pineapples... put on some background music and it's therapeutic :)

Then cut into chunks, and blitz them in the food processor. I blitz them in batches. It only takes a few seconds.

Pour the mixture into a wok or a large heavy based pan. It is quite watery from its natural juices, and the colour of pale yellow. Turn the heat to medium-low and and let it boil. I check up on it and stir every 5 minutes or so.

Cooking the pineapple puree

After 30 minutes of gentle boiling, the liquid has evaporated a little. and the colour turns into a slightly deeper yellow. This is when I add the sugar.

Add the sugar

Almost immediately the mixture turns watery again as the sugar dissolves.

Turns watery again

After 1 hour, still very wet.

Slowly but surely getting there.

After close to 1.5 hours, I get impatient and turn up the heat a little to help it "move along" :) Keep a close watch now and stir so it doesn't get burned.

And finally it is done! Only 1 hour and 45 minutes :)

Finally, pineapple jam!

Turn off the heat, and let it cool completely before storing. The jam will continue to dry as it cools. And it tastes absolutely delicious - pure pineapple taste!

Store in an airtight container in the fridge until ready to use.

I also seal the jam, in the container, with a piece of cling wrap pressed onto the surface of the jam, to prevent any additional drying that might take place in the fridge.

Basic Homemade Pineapple Jam Recipe (for Pineapple Tarts)

2 large Morris pineapples

1 and 1/2 cups coarse sugar (adjust to your liking)

Makes about 750 gm of jam.

1. Peel the pineapples.
2. Cut into chunks with the core, and blitz in the food processor.
3. Pour the puree into a wok or large heavy based pan.
4. Boil gently on low-medium heat, stirring occasionally.
5. When most of the juices have evaporated (after about 1 hour), add the sugar and stir. The mixture will become watery again.
6. Continue to boil gently, stirring occasionally, until most of the juices have evaporated.
7. Now keep a close watch and cook/stir until the jam is quite dry but not too dry. It will continue to dry after taken off heat.
8. Cool completely before storing in an airtight container in the fridge.

Another Crochet / Amigurumi Baby Groot

This Baby Groot (from Guardians of the Galaxy) is adapted from Twinkie Chan's Baby Groot pattern.

(I have previously made another one based on Smartapple Creations' pattern.)

Crochet / Amigurumi Baby Groot

This was also made with the inexpensive, acrylic Minlon brand yarn. Because the yarn is of DK weight, the pattern when followed exactly, produced a very tiny Baby Groot, and I only had 8mm eyes which were way too big for the tiny head.

After several iterations, this is my final adapted version of the pattern. I used 3.0 mm hook.

Head
Rnd 1: 6 sts magic ring (6)
Rnd 2: Inc 6 sts evenly (12)
Rnd 3: Inc 6 sts evenly (18)
Rnd 4: Inc 6 sts evenly (24)
Rnd 5: Inc 6 sts evenly (30)
Rnd 6: Inc 6 sts evenly (36)
Rnd 7: Inc 3 sts evenly (39)
Rnds 8-13: sc around (39)
*Rnd 14: Dec 3 sts evenly (36)
Continue until you reach the desired length for head, then continue to make the head accents.

*This was completely unnecessary. I was tinkering with the shape and got lazy to frog and redo. I should just continue evenly from Round 7 all the way to achieve a squarer/less rounded head.

Head Accents
I followed the pattern but made them bigger, with 4-6 sts pieces instead of the 3-4 sts in the original pattern.

Body
Rnd 1: 6 sts magic ring (6)
Rnd 2: Inc 6 sts evenly (12)
Rnd 3: Inc 6 sts evenly (18)
Rnd 4: Inc 6 sts evenly (24)
Rnd 5: Inc 6 sts evenly (30)
Rnd 6: Inc 6 sts evenly (36)
Rnds 7-8: Even (36)
Rnd 9: Dec 6 sts evenly (30)
Rnd 10: Dec 6 sts evenly (24)
Rnd 11: Dec 3 sts evenly (21)
Rnds 12-13: Even (21)
Rnd 14: Dec 3 sts evenly (18)
Rnds 15-16: Even (18)
Rnd 17: Dec 3 sts evenly (15)
Continue evenly (15 sts) until desired length.

I put a piece of twisted pipe cleaner in the body, and crochet around it, stuffing as I go. At the top of the neck, I leave about 1.5-2cm piece of the twisted pipe cleaner sticking out, and poke that through the hole in the magic ring of the head, and sew the body to the head.

Arms
I made 6 sts circumference arms.
Chain 6, slip stitch to 1st chain to join, and continue sc around in a spiral until you reach your desired length. Finish off with the fingers, and sew arms to body.

The rest as per original pattern.

If I make this again, I would try a few things differently.

1. Make the body and head in one piece. After the body, simply increase sts to 18, then 24, and so on for the head. No need to sew.
2. Squarer head (see note in pattern for head above).
3. Use Smartapple Creations' pattern for arms. Since the arms are not stuffed, there is no risk of the stuffing showing through, and the ribbing makes them naturally twisty and look vine-like.

We are Groot!

Crochet / Amigurumi Baby Groot

This is my amigurumi Baby Groot (character from Guardians of the Galaxy), based on the free pattern by Smartapple Creations.

Crochet / Amigurumi Baby Groot

Since this was my first Baby Groot, I used the local Malaysian made acrylic Minlon brand yarn. It's acrylic, DK weight and really inexpensive at only 2 ringgit (about 50 US cents) per roll of 40gm. This yarn is very rough and scratchy, and falls apart when worked on too much. But it is very cheap. I use it for experiments, prototypes, and for making things that won't get handled too much or worn next to the skin.

I really like the ribbed look on the body and arms that was achieved through crocheting through Back Loops Only and combination of hdc, sc and sl st - very clever. Gives it a natural vine-like look.

When I first finished the body, I was worried about holes. The fabric was stretchier than normal because of the BLO, and when I turned the piece to increase stitches for the head, the holes were enormous no matter how I winged it! In the end, I decided to make the head separately and sew it to the body instead.

The rest were all done as per pattern.

We are Groot!

The one on the right is based on Twinkie Chan's free pattern - more here.
Which Baby Groot do you like?