Pineapple Cream Tarts

This week I’m sharing a super straightforward recipe for a batch of classic pineapple cream tarts.

These tarts are made up of only 4 different components; starting with the shortcrust pastry, a layer of pineapple jam, freshly whipped cream then a simple icing for the top (and more traditionally, you can add a few green 100’s and 1000’s on top but this is optional).

I’ll be completely honest with you, I hadn’t heard of these before my mom asked me to make them. I had to get her to tell me what they were and did a little bit of research on the internet (which didn’t result to much).

 They aren’t that hard to make as all the components are pretty easy to make and with a little time, you’ll have a batch of classic pineapple creams in no time.

Anyway, lets get started, shall we?

 

Ingredients:

Pineapple Jam:

432g Pineapple pieces, juice drained and reserved.

50g Sugar.

50g Water.

Cook on the hob over a medium-high heat.

 

Pastry:

1 Egg, large.

90g Granulated sugar.

225g Butter, cold.

375g Plain flour

Pinch of salt.

Once the dough is made, wrap in clingfilm and then chill in the fridge for about an hour, roll out to 5mm thickness then cut out 3 inch rounds and place into your cupcake tin. Bake the off at 180˚c/350˚f for around 25-30 minuets (or until golden brown round the edges).

Cream:

200ml Double cream.

50g Icing sugar.

1 tsp Vanilla extract.

 

Icing:

300g Icing sugar.

Pineapple juice (add a little at a time until you achieve the required thickness).

Yellow food paste (to colour the icing).

 

Methods:

Before you get into the recipe, you’re best to do some prep work.  Start by weighing up all your ingredients, preheating your oven to 180˚c/350˚f and get any equipment you may need, such as a saucepan and wooden spoon as well as a cupcake tin.

Pineapple Jam:

For the “jam”, you’ll obviously need pineapple. Seeing as it was winter when I made this recipe and fresh pineapple wasn’t in season and the one’s available in the supermarket weren’t very nice, so I went with canned/tinned pineapple pieces, these work equally as well.

Take your pineapple pieces and place into a sieve/drainer to separate the pineapple juice from the fruit – don’t discard the juice as you’ll need some later on.

Add the pieces of pineapple into a saucepan and then add in the water and granulated sugar and give a quick mix, then place this onto a medium heat and allow to come to a simmer.

You may notice that the fruit breaks down and this is normal. Once the mixture has become soft and will break when ‘mashed’ with a spoon.

Pour into a jar and allow to cool completely before you intend to use it.

Pastry:

The pastry isn’t exactly hard to make, all you need to do is beat the sugar and egg together, then set it aside until later on.

 Into a bowl or food processor place the flour, salt and butter then combine them together by either rubbing the butter into the flour or pulsing them together in a food processor (I went with the food processor method, purely for convenience plus I have warm hands).

Once they are combined, add in the egg/sugar mix and work it into the flour/butter mixture. This will bind the dough together, work them together until almost fully combined then tip out onto a floured surface to knead the pastry together.

You’re looking for a clear dough, with no traces of a single ingredient. Wrap in cling film/plastic wrap then chill in the fridge for around an hour, this is to allow the butter to firm up and the gluten to relax.

After the hour in the fridge, take your dough out of the fridge and chop it roughly in half, keeping half out and rewrapping the other half and placing back in the fridge until you need it later.

Roll out your dough until you’ve achieved 5mm in thickness, once achieved, cut out your circles of pastry for each pie. Use a 3-inch cookie cutter, this gets you the perfect shape/amount for each cup on the cupcake pan.

I made 12 tarts but feel free to make more or less to suit your occasion – bake in your preheated oven for 20-25 minutes (or until golden brown).

Once your pastry cases have baked, you’re best to allow them to cool completely before using.

 

Cream:

For the whipped cream, start by grabbing a medium size bowl, add in your double cream, icing sugar and vanilla extract and give it all a good whisk together until it’s stiff peaks.

This only takes a couple of minutes, so try not to take it too far otherwise you’ll over whip the mixture and it will have a granular mouthfeel and not look smooth.

Once whipped, place into a piping bag until needed later.

Next you can take your pastry cases and the pineapple jam (which is easiest to handle once it’s in a piping bag, but feel free to use spoons) and place a small amount of the mixture into the base of the case (you can use more pineapple but this will result in a smaller amount of whipped cream).

Then on-top of the pineapple, you can pipe on the whipped cream and level/smooth it off as best you can so you can finish them off.

Icing:

To make the final part of these tarts, you’ll want to get yourself a large bowl and place in the icing sugar and add a small amount of the pineapple juice that you reserved from earlier on and mix.

Then add a small amount of yellow food colouring paste. Add just enough liquid so the mixture is thick enough to flow but will hold its shape when piped on top of each tart. Allow the icing to set, then they are ready to eat.

That’s all for today guys, I hope you enjoyed. If you did, don’t forget to share this recipe with your family and friends and enjoy it. I’ll be back soon with another blog post and YouTube video, so join me then. In the meanwhile, don’t forget to check out my other social’s – Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube. The YouTube tutorial will be linked down below.