Taiwanese Pineapple Shortbreads 鳳梨酥
I love to eat Taiwanese Pineapple Shortbreads. They are quite similar to the Pineapple Tarts of Malaysia or Singapore. The only differences are that they are moulded shortbreads, usually square in shape (see the photo below of my Apple and Strawberry Shortbreads I baked last year for Mid-Autumn Festival), and their pineapple filling tastes milder and not as sharp because it includes winter melon. Some commercial fillings from Taiwan do not even contain pineapple, just winter melon flesh with pineapple essence!
I first learnt about making Taiwanese Pineapple Shortbreads from the Taiwanese website, 克萊兒的點心小棧, ooh about 4 or 5 years ago. The one recipe for the pastry that I used ever since to make them is posted there together with a very delicious pineapple filling also on that website. It is very short-textured and crumbles easily as soon as you bite into it, and the best shortbreads I have ever tasted. However the one shortcoming of that recipe is you must use the square moulds to bake them, or else the shortbreads will flop out of shape in the oven. And where can you buy the moulds? Only in Taiwan (maybe also in Hong Kong), I'm afraid. In the beginning, I even tried to make my own moulds using thick layers of aluminium foil… Then I was lucky a very kind boardmate there gave me a set of moulds as present all the way from Taiwan, so I can bake them whenever I wanted without having to resort to making the moulds as well. Another way to overcome the lack of moulds is to use tall-ish straight-edge metal cookie cutters to bake them. However you need one cutter for each shortbread you want to bake, so that means you need to not only be able to find the metal cookie cutters (which is hard in itself as most cookie cutters are made in plastic nowadays), but to get at least 20 of them for a comfortable bake.
Well, I was mucking around with baking these shortbreads a few days ago and came up with this recipe that you can shape using one cookie cutter and bake without the mould. Actually I made the pineapple filling a couple of months ago when I had an excess of winter melon, thinking that I was going to make these shortbreads for the Mid-Autumn festival a few weeks back as they were also one type of mooncakes served in Taiwan. However I ended up not making them for the festival and the filling is taking up spaces in my refrigerator. So I decided to make them now and did a bit of experimenting at the same time. I took my pastry recipe for making my Mango Tarts and adjusted it as I was very happy with the texture of those miniature tarts last time I made them. I crossed my fingers and baked them. I was prepared for the shortbreads to flop somewhat out of shape as they were quite 'tall'. Well, what do you know, they actually stood their ground in the oven and came out looking quite respectable indeed. OK, without the assistance of the moulds, they don't have sharp edges but at least they retained the shapes of the mould I used to shape them.
So for all of you who want to try baking these delicious Taiwanese Pineapple Shortbreads but without access to the moulds, here's my recipe for baking them using just one cookie cutter instead. Here I have used the flower shape cookie cutter of about 4.5cm across and 1.5cm tall to make them, so the amount indicated for each shortbread is based on this size. You can use whatever shapes of cookie cutters you desired, eg. heart-shaped, round-shaped, square-shaped, just don't try to use cutters with complicated shapes which will make it too difficult to shape the shortbreads.
Makes approx. 30 - 32 shortbreads.
[Ingredients]
Pastry:
240g plain flour, sifted
60g vanilla custard powder, sifted
pinch salt
50g icing sugar, sifted
180g ghee
1 egg yolk
Pineapple Filling:
1 x 440g-can sliced pineapple in natural juice
500g grated winter melon 冬瓜 or spaghetti melon 魚翅瓜
200g white sugar
200g maltose
pinch salt
1 - 2 clove 丁香 (optional)
http://cafeoftheeast.blogspot.com/
[Preparation]
Pineapple Filling:
1. Drain the sliced pineapple and reserve the natural juice. Grate the sliced pineapple.
2. Put the grated pineapple, juice, grated winter melon and clove in a saucepan and cook over medium to high heat to reduce the juice. When the mixture is quite dry, add the sugar, maltose and salt, and cook over low heat until the mixture is sticky and leave the side of the pan when you give it a stir. You must try to give the mixture a stir intermittently during the cooking period to prevent mixture burning on the bottom of the pan. Remove clove and cool. The mixture can be chilled in an airtight container for at least a couple of months in the refrigerator, or frozen for even longer period. Just remove however much you need to make the pineapple shortbreads, and store the rest back into the refrigerator for next time.
Pastry:
1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Cream ghee and egg yolk briefly. Add sifted flour, salt, custard powder and icing sugar. Knead into a soft and pliable dough.
2. Divide dough into approximately 15 to 20g pieces and divide the Pineapple Filling into approximately 15g pieces, or adjust according to the size of your cookie cutter. Wrap each portion of the filling inside each piece of dough. Round into a ball shape. Repeat with the rest of the dough pieces and filling portions.
3. Use your cookie cutter to shape the wrapped dough pieces. Place the round dough inside the cookie cutter on an ungreased baking sheet. Press down with the heel of your palm to make the dough fit into the cookie cutter shape. Carefully remove the cookie cutter. Finish moulding the rest of the wrapped dough pieces.
4. Bake for about 18 minutes (also depending on the size of your shortbreads), or until the shortbreads are light golden brown. Cool on the tray for about 10 minutes as the shortbreads are very fragile at this stage. Then use a flat spatula to remove the shortbreads to a wire rack to finish cooling. Store in airtight container.
[Note]
1. Please note this recipe uses 1 standard cup of 250ml, 1 tablespoon of 20ml and 1 teaspoon of 5ml.
2. The size of egg used is about 60g (includes shell) unless otherwise stated.
I first learnt about making Taiwanese Pineapple Shortbreads from the Taiwanese website, 克萊兒的點心小棧, ooh about 4 or 5 years ago. The one recipe for the pastry that I used ever since to make them is posted there together with a very delicious pineapple filling also on that website. It is very short-textured and crumbles easily as soon as you bite into it, and the best shortbreads I have ever tasted. However the one shortcoming of that recipe is you must use the square moulds to bake them, or else the shortbreads will flop out of shape in the oven. And where can you buy the moulds? Only in Taiwan (maybe also in Hong Kong), I'm afraid. In the beginning, I even tried to make my own moulds using thick layers of aluminium foil… Then I was lucky a very kind boardmate there gave me a set of moulds as present all the way from Taiwan, so I can bake them whenever I wanted without having to resort to making the moulds as well. Another way to overcome the lack of moulds is to use tall-ish straight-edge metal cookie cutters to bake them. However you need one cutter for each shortbread you want to bake, so that means you need to not only be able to find the metal cookie cutters (which is hard in itself as most cookie cutters are made in plastic nowadays), but to get at least 20 of them for a comfortable bake.
Well, I was mucking around with baking these shortbreads a few days ago and came up with this recipe that you can shape using one cookie cutter and bake without the mould. Actually I made the pineapple filling a couple of months ago when I had an excess of winter melon, thinking that I was going to make these shortbreads for the Mid-Autumn festival a few weeks back as they were also one type of mooncakes served in Taiwan. However I ended up not making them for the festival and the filling is taking up spaces in my refrigerator. So I decided to make them now and did a bit of experimenting at the same time. I took my pastry recipe for making my Mango Tarts and adjusted it as I was very happy with the texture of those miniature tarts last time I made them. I crossed my fingers and baked them. I was prepared for the shortbreads to flop somewhat out of shape as they were quite 'tall'. Well, what do you know, they actually stood their ground in the oven and came out looking quite respectable indeed. OK, without the assistance of the moulds, they don't have sharp edges but at least they retained the shapes of the mould I used to shape them.
So for all of you who want to try baking these delicious Taiwanese Pineapple Shortbreads but without access to the moulds, here's my recipe for baking them using just one cookie cutter instead. Here I have used the flower shape cookie cutter of about 4.5cm across and 1.5cm tall to make them, so the amount indicated for each shortbread is based on this size. You can use whatever shapes of cookie cutters you desired, eg. heart-shaped, round-shaped, square-shaped, just don't try to use cutters with complicated shapes which will make it too difficult to shape the shortbreads.
Makes approx. 30 - 32 shortbreads.
[Ingredients]
Pastry:
240g plain flour, sifted
60g vanilla custard powder, sifted
pinch salt
50g icing sugar, sifted
180g ghee
1 egg yolk
Pineapple Filling:
1 x 440g-can sliced pineapple in natural juice
500g grated winter melon 冬瓜 or spaghetti melon 魚翅瓜
200g white sugar
200g maltose
pinch salt
1 - 2 clove 丁香 (optional)
http://cafeoftheeast.blogspot.com/
[Preparation]
Pineapple Filling:
1. Drain the sliced pineapple and reserve the natural juice. Grate the sliced pineapple.
2. Put the grated pineapple, juice, grated winter melon and clove in a saucepan and cook over medium to high heat to reduce the juice. When the mixture is quite dry, add the sugar, maltose and salt, and cook over low heat until the mixture is sticky and leave the side of the pan when you give it a stir. You must try to give the mixture a stir intermittently during the cooking period to prevent mixture burning on the bottom of the pan. Remove clove and cool. The mixture can be chilled in an airtight container for at least a couple of months in the refrigerator, or frozen for even longer period. Just remove however much you need to make the pineapple shortbreads, and store the rest back into the refrigerator for next time.
Pastry:
1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Cream ghee and egg yolk briefly. Add sifted flour, salt, custard powder and icing sugar. Knead into a soft and pliable dough.
2. Divide dough into approximately 15 to 20g pieces and divide the Pineapple Filling into approximately 15g pieces, or adjust according to the size of your cookie cutter. Wrap each portion of the filling inside each piece of dough. Round into a ball shape. Repeat with the rest of the dough pieces and filling portions.
3. Use your cookie cutter to shape the wrapped dough pieces. Place the round dough inside the cookie cutter on an ungreased baking sheet. Press down with the heel of your palm to make the dough fit into the cookie cutter shape. Carefully remove the cookie cutter. Finish moulding the rest of the wrapped dough pieces.
4. Bake for about 18 minutes (also depending on the size of your shortbreads), or until the shortbreads are light golden brown. Cool on the tray for about 10 minutes as the shortbreads are very fragile at this stage. Then use a flat spatula to remove the shortbreads to a wire rack to finish cooling. Store in airtight container.
[Note]
1. Please note this recipe uses 1 standard cup of 250ml, 1 tablespoon of 20ml and 1 teaspoon of 5ml.
2. The size of egg used is about 60g (includes shell) unless otherwise stated.
Labels: Asian Pastries, Mooncakes
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posted by SeaDragon @ 7.10.05
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