I had attended the hands on pineapple tarts baking class today with my buddy and learnt a lot on how to make nice pineapple tarts. Today class is quite different from what I had attended earlier on (in my earlier post) as I got a chance to practice how to make the tarts and the students also share their baking experience with I and my friend. The teacher is very friendly and experience in baking. She shared a lot of tips in making good pineapple paste and the pastry crust. A very interactive session indeed as she will answer any uncertainties that we had.
I will share with you all the tips that I had learned today. 
Students listening to Mrs Fong on the making of the dough
Preparation of the Pineapple paste
What are the types of pineapples that we use to make pineapple tarts? We can either buy the Malaysian pineapple (that cost $1-$1.20 each) or the honey pineapple. The Malaysian pineapple will be a better choice as it is not that sweet as the honey ones and thus more sugar could be added to the make paste. Sugar act as a natural preservative to make the paste last longer. The paste taste better if we are to shred the pineapple using the shredder rather than chopping or blending the pineapple. The corn of the pineapple should not be added as it makes the paste hard. Please do remember to wear rubber glove when shredding the pineapple as it may ‘bite’your hand. Mrs Fong mentioned that using the copper wok to cook the paste, it will taste better and the appearance of the paste will be golden brown. Copper is a good conductor of heat and it will speed up the cooking time without compromising on taste and appearance.
Making of the pastry crust
Today we had learnt to make 3 kinds of pastry crust. The recipe for making those traditional open pineapple crusts is different from those pineapple wrap with the crust. The open kind crust is harder than the closed type. The crust used to wrap the pineapple paste will have a melt in the mouth taste which is softer. It depends on individual preference on the kind of tarts they preferred. We can also add some rum to the crust too. The dough is not difficult to make as compare to making the pineapple paste. In my next post, I will share the recipe for making the pastry used to wrap the pineapple paste.
Open type of crust
The golden pineapple paste cook in the copper wok
As you see from the picture above, we are really amateur in moulding shapes like the pineapple, orange, apple and rose. Practice make perfect and it is really good for us to hand on in moulding the shape as we can learn from the mistake and improve on our techniques.
Yummy…….
The nice sea view view from Mrs Fong’s living room
Finally, a picture of the pineapple tarts that we had baked and of course we are allowed to bring home for our family to try. I had really enjoyed myself and will definitely try to make them too.
