Taiwanese Pineapple Cake/Cookies

I always like this cake. I am not sure why they called it cake as it tasted more like cookies. I bought it a few times from the Asian supermarket and also once at Hong Kong airport but they were not good. The pastry was so dried and the filling doesn’t taste like pineapple at all. I found out that they added winter melon to the filling….mmmmm no wonder it is not good. Anyway, I always wanted to try making these and finally did it a few months ago after buying more moulds from eBay. My friend Alan gave me some too. It cost me quite a bit of money and in order to justify spending so much I should make it more often :)

I used only pineapple for the filling instead of adding winter melon to it. I coarsely grated the pineapple so that I can still feel the bite of the filling. I tasted one once it cools down but the pastry was more on the crunchy and dry side so I let it sit for a day and the pastry turns out soft, rich and very buttery. It was really good. I think it tasted much better than the one I bought. As CNY is just around the corner, maybe you can making this instead of the usual pineapple tarts.

Ingredients for the pastry:

300 grams ready-made or homemade pineapple filling
150 gram butter – cold and cut into cubes
200 grams flour
45 grams icing sugar
3 tablespoons milk powder
2 tbsp custard powder

1. Line a baking pan with parchment paper. Arrange the pineapple cake mould on the baking pan. Divide the pineapple filling into 13-14 portions and roll it into balls. Set it aside.
2. Sift the flour, custard powder, icing sugar and milk powder together.
3. Add butter into the flour mixture and rub with fingertips until mixture resembles bread crumbs, continue mixing it until it form into dough. If it is too dry you can add a bit of cold water to it. Divide it into 13-14 pieces.
4. Flatten the dough with your hand and fill each of the dough with pineapple filling. Wrapped it up and make sure the filling is cover up by the dough.
5. Put into a pineapple pastry mould, press it in gently with your palm from top, turn it over and press the other side. Do the same to the rest of the dough and filling.
6. Bake in a preheated 375 degree F oven for about 25 minutes or until golden brown, Turn the mould over once halfway through the baking time.
7. Remove from oven and let it cool down for 10 minutes before removing them from the mould. Let it cool complete. The cake taste better if you let it sit for a day.

Ingredients for the pineapple jam:

800 grams of coarsely grated pineapple
200 grams sugar (more if you like it sweeter)

1. Put the pineapple into a wok or a large saucepan and cook over medium low heat, stirring from time to time until some of the juice evaporates. Add sugar and continue to cook for about an hour or until thicken and dry.
2. Remove and let it cool down completely before using.