Golden Pineapple Roll

Now I understand why Pineapple tarts/rolls are sold more expensive than other Chinese New Year cookies. It involves 2 main effort - the filling and the pastry. After making the filling (pineapple jam) and the pastry dough, we need to shape the dough, using a cookie presser (for pineapple tarts) or pipe it into rectangular piece (for pineapple roll) or roll it into a small ball (for pineapple cookie). Then place the filling on top or in the dough and bake it. The steps are more tedious than the other cookies and the ingredients cost more too.

I got the original recipe from Fresh from the Oven. I made some modifications for a more moist dough so that it's easier to pipe and roll/shape it.

Ingredients:
Pastry:
220g butter
360g all purpose flour
2 egg yolks
25g icing sugar
25g castor sugar
1 egg yolk, for egg wash

Filling:
2 cans cube pineapple, drained and crushed
1/4 cup castor sugar
1.5 teaspoon cornstarch

Method:
Pineapple filling:
I used Ayam brand canned pineapple, the drained weight for 1 can is 245g. I crushed the pineapples using blender for just a few second, not too fine.
Using medium heat, cook the drained crushed pineapple and sugar until most liquid has evaporated, and the mixture turned golden. Stirring constantly using a wooden spoon to avoid burning. Taste, and add more sugar when needed. Add in 1.5 teaspoon of cornstarch to thicken the mixture.

Pastry:
Sieve all purpose flour and sugar into a medium bowl. Beat butter in a mixer until it turns light in color and fluffy. Add in egg yolks until well combined. Mix in the flour mixture with wooden spoon until just combined. The dough should be moist but doesn't stick to the bowl.

Pipe the dough into a long piece, place an adequate amount of filling on the dough piece then roll it. Apply egg wash on each roll and bake it at 160°C for 15 mins or until the color turns lightly brown.

I followed the step-by-step instruction for assembling the pineapple rolls here.

With this recipe, I made about 64 cookies.

It's a messy and time consuming process but the end result is worthy :)