Malaysian Pineapple Tarts

Updated January 2025

Pineapple tarts are little short-crust pastry tarts with homemade pineapple jam. In Malaysia, these are made for special occasions like Chinese New Year, Deepavali and Hari Raya (Eid). Families used to make these themselves but in this age of “I don’t know how she does it”, we tend to buy them from the many cottage industry vendors in town.

If you are planning to make these for Chinese New Year, plan ahead and make them about a week or two before.

This is not a difficult bake. If you don’t want to make the pastry, you can use shop bought short crust pastry. If you want to elevate it, you can use better quality ingredients like an artisan flour and organic butter. The only concession that I made was to use a star-shaped cookie cutter instead of the usual round ones.

Everyone has their own favourite version of these tarts. I like them with a crumbly buttery, short-crust pastry and a sweet but tangy and lightly spiced pineapple jam. You can cheat by buying in the jam instead of making it yourself but it is quite easy to make. It just takes a bit of time but well worth the effort.

In Taiwan, they have a different version of these pineapple tarts. They are more like a biscuit with soft pastry wrapped around a pineapple jam centre.

Step by steps instructions on how to make Malaysian pineapple tarts

Firstly, the jam. Pineapple jam for this recipe is made quite dry without too much of the jelly. A dryer texture makes it easier to form into a shape that will fit the pastry. To make the jam, it is just a matter of cooking all the ingredients over a low to medium heat until it reaches the consistency of a dense jam. Then set aside to cook.

Once cooled, roll into little balls and place on a tray with baking parchment ready for the next step.

For the pastry, I like to use a very short and crumbly short crust pastry, which uses some good organic butter. If you are not a regular baker, this is a good recipe to practice the “rubbing in” method of making pastry where you rub the butter into the flour until you get to the bread crumb stage. (This is the same way that you make the crumble topping for an apple crumble).

Then use some beaten egg to bind the crumble mixture. Roll into a ball, wrap in cling film and place in the fridge for at least an hour. When you are ready to assemble the tarts, remove the pastry and let it get to room temperature. Then roll out flat on a floured surface to a thickness or about 5mm or a pound coin.

Use a round cookie cutter and cut out as many as you can from the rolled out pastry and set aside.

Make an indent in the middle of the pastry and place one of the balls of the pineapple jam in the middle and press down lightly. You can then choose to egg wash the pastry if you like. A lot of traditional recipes skip this step.

Then bake for about 15-120 minutes until lightly browned, not a golden brown. The pastry is usually quite pale. Set the pastries on a wire rack to cool before storing.

They will keep for a couple of weeks in an airtight container but usually, they will be long gone before then. For gifts, package them on a flat tray or a cookie box. If you made an extra crumbly short-crust pastry, they might be quite fragile and can crumble easily so be careful when you pack them for gifts.

Here are some other recipes for Chinese New Year

Steamed sea bass

Braised belly pork

Crispy ~Roast Pork

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Malaysian Pineapple Tarts

Delicious Pineapple Tarts for any ocassion.

Prep Time30 minutes mins

Cook Time1 hour hr 30 minutes mins

Total Time2 hours hrs

Ingredients

For the Pineapple Jam

• 500 g grated fresh pineapple. If you can’t find fresh pineapple you can use the equivalent tinned pineapple in juice (remember to drain away the juice)
• 250 g caster sugar. Adjust to your taste but reduce the sugar if you’re using tinned pineapples in syrup
• 4 cloves optional
• 2 cinnamon sticks

For the Short Crust Pastry

• 300 g plain flour
• 175 g salted organic butter
• 2 eggs
• 1 egg yolk for egg wash

Instructions

To make the pineapple jam

• Cook the grated pineapple, spices and sugar in a saucepan on medium heat until it starts to bubble, stirring as you go. Note, you can use an electronic chopper instead of grating if you prefer.
• Once the mixture is bubbling, reduce the heat to low and stir regularly for about 1 hour or until pineapple jam has reached a sticky consistency. You need the jam to be quite dry or it will run all over the pastry when you bake it.
• Make sure you keep stirring the jam as it burns quite easily. Once the jam has thickened, turn off the heat, remove the spices and allow to cool completely. You can bottle this for use later.

To make the pastry

• Rub in the butter and flour until the mix resembles bread crumbs.
• Add in the beaten eggs to bind but don’t work it too much as the pastry will get too hard. If it is too dry, you can drizzle a few drops of water (ala Delia). Don’t be tempted to make it too wet.
• The dough should all come together into a ball. When it does, wrap in cling film and put it in the fridge for a couple of hours.
• About an hour before you are ready to roll out the pastry, take the dough out of the fridge and let it get to room temperature or it will be too hard to roll out.

Putting the tarts together

• Preheat oven to 180°C. Using lightly oiled hands, roll out about a teaspoon of the pineapple jam into balls and place aside. Don't be tempted to make the balls of jam too big as they will overflow over the pastry.
• Roll out the pastry dough to a 0.5cm thickness (pound coin) between two sheets of non stick baking sheet or use a lightly floured rolling pin. Remove the top sheet of paper and use your pineapple tart or cookie cutter mould to cut out shapes of your pastry. Use the handle of a wooden spoon to make a small circular dent in the middle. You can then either remove the excess dough and slide the baking paper with the pastry onto your baking tray or remove each cut piece and place it on a baking sheet.
• Place the prepared balls of pineapple jam into the middle of each tart and place decorative pastry on top of jam if you want. Traditionally, small pieces if dough will be rolled out and placed as a cross across the jam. In this case, I used some star shaped sprinkles to match the cookie shape after the tarts were cooked.
• Brush pastry with egg wash and bake on the top shelf of the oven for 15-20 minutes until the pastry is slightly golden. Cool on a wire rack to allow the pastry to crisp up and store in an airtight container.

Tip: Make a massive batch to give away for Chinese New Year, Christmas or Hari Raya. Everyone loves them. They are always better than the shop bought ones.