Golden Pineapple Balls

Pineapple tart is a very popular CNY goodies in Singapore and is almost like a must have. I always made my own pineapple tarts to give it as gifts for family, friends and colleagues. Usually I will do open tarts but for a change this year and make life easier for myself...lol! I did the close type.

Everyone has their own favourite pineapple tart recipes so do I and there are many good recipes on the net too. Most people prefer melt in the mouth pastry and some like cookie base type. My golden pineapple ball was a in between. Almost melt in the mouth but has a very light crisp and buttery texture.



I made it bitesize and pop one into your mouth, it's just crumble so well together with the filling and melted in the mouth, so yummy! Simply can't stop at one. Actually I was quite surprise it turn out so well, I done this recipe in the past before and I remembered it as good but not so impressive as now. I received many thumbs up from my testers (family & colleagues). Is it because of the ingredients I used? Most probably...



Last year I used Valerie's recipe (can't share) so this year I chose this recipe from my collection so I can share it on Aspiring Bakers #3 - My favourite CNY cookies (Jan 2011). This recipe was adapted from one of the Phoon Huat demo classes I attended years ago. The original recipe coated the balls with cornflakes and almond nibs but I do without. The recipe is simple and the pastry is rather easy to handle. Just remember not to over knead/handle it if you want a more melt in the mouth texture.


Today I finished baking my last batch of pineapple balls. Just for record, this year I used up 4 kg of pineapple jam and about 7 blocks of SCS butter... made almost 22 bottles!

CNY Bakes - Golden Pineapple Balls
Ingredients:(approx 62-65pcs)
230g Butter (SCS salted butter) - thawed for 15mins before beating.
35g Castor sugar
1tsp Icing sugar
2 Egg yolks (33-35g)
1tsp Vanilla
340g Top flour
25g Full cream milk (Nespray Everyday full cream milk powder)
500 Pineapple filling (Ailin's Sarawak pineapple jam)
1 no Beaten egg for egg wash (remove 1 tbsp of white & add 2 drops of oil)



Pineapple jam from Ailin Bakery House (845 Geylang Road #01-48 Tanjong Katong Complex S400845 Tel: 67432693), highly recommended by The Little Teochew. This was so far the best store bought I had tried from the past year. Very homemade taste and has a very good balance of sweet-sour taste. Slightly more expensive (about S$6+) than the rest but is worth it. In the past I always like to use Goldern churn butter for my CNY bakes but been told by so many that SCS yield a better buttery fragrant. So gave it a try and I never regret. Milk powder played a vital part too. It gave a very nice flavor to the pastry, so buy a good quality one.


Method:
Preheat oven at 170-180 C. Line the baking tray.
1. Beat butter, sugar, icing sugar & vanilla for 2 to 3 mins.
2. Add in egg yolks till well mix.
3. Add in sifted flour & milk powder by using a spatular. (do not overmix)
4. Divide the pineapple filling into 6g balls.
5. Split the dough into 8g and wrap the filling.
6. Egg wash & bake on the line tray at 170-180C for 20 mins.



I will be submitting this entry to Jess of J3ss Kitch3n who is hosting this month Aspiring Bakers #3 - My favourite CNY cookies (Jan 2011).



What to do when you don't have enough pineapple jam for your balance dough, don't worry just made it into a thumb cookie with jam. It's worked too!

4 more days to CNY 2011!