Nanas tart, more commonly known in the United States as Pineapple Tart, is a popular pastry that originated in Indonesia, and is popular in numerous Asian countries including Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, and Brunei.
A simple dish, there are a few variations on how it’s made, but generally pineapple tart includes two parts – the pineapple “jam”, or rather the cooked fruit combination that either fills or sits in a pastry of some form. This is a traditional Asian dish over several generations, and is especially popular as a holiday treat.
Ingredients
(for Pineapple Jam)
2 large pineapples (you can also use canned pineapples – about two large cans of pineapple chunks)
16 oz sugar
Lemon juice (to taste)
For Pastry
16 oz plain flour
2 oz corn flour
1/2 tsp fine salt
6 ounces cold, unsalted butter, cut into cubes.
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
3 egg yolks, beaten
3 tbsp cold water
6 tbsp icing sugar
For Glaze
Mix 2 egg yolks and 2 tbsp water.
Instructions
For Pineapple Jam
Peel the pineapple, and cut fruit (including the core) into medium-sized chunks
Add chunks into blender with a few ounces of water, and blend thoroughly.
Put blend into a large, flat pan where it can be laid out thinly and evenly. This is important in this step of the process that the mixture is not “stacked” at height. Allow it to evaporate some of the moisture for a half hour.
Reduce the pineapple blend with cinnamon stick under medium heat until it thickens into a paste.
Add sugar and stir while still over heat, stirring occasionally for a half hour.
Increase heat to medium-high for 4-5 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent burning. The mixture will thicken further, and darken in color a bit. Do not allow mixture to burn, but rather reduce and turn brownish-yellow.
Remove the mixture and allow it cool before placing back on a thin pan.
Roll into balls once cool. You can do this ahead of time (the night before) if you prefer.
For Pastry
Take a stick of butter and put it in the freezer for 15-20 minutes, until it firms a little but can still cut. The goal is to be able to cut cubes without the butter immediately melting.
Mix flour, salt, and icing sugar.
Rub the cubed butter into the flour mixture until looks like small crumbs covering the butter. The butter should break up, but not melt completely.
Beat egg yolks, cold water, and vanilla extract. Mix with the buttered flour, and mix into one large ball.
Knead dough thoroughly, separate into 2-3 large balls of dough to prevent too much oil from binding, then chill in refrigerator for 15 minutes.
Baking
Remove dough from refrigerator and roll out smoothly.
Using a tart cutter, cut pastry dough and place onto a baking tray a quarter-inch apart.
Glaze with the egg yolk and water mixture.
Bake it at 350 fahrenheit for 5 mins.
Remove tart dough, which is now partially cooked, and flatten pre-rolled pineapple jam ball onto each tartlet.
Bake until golden brown.
Feature image attribution: Alpha / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0) – https://flickr.com/people/10559879@N00
