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Nastar ~ Pineapple Rolls/Tarts. CNY 2010


I just made these today ...... Nastar, the Indonesian version of Pineapple Tarts/Rolls.  This is a festive must have as it's symbolic.  Pineapple which is 'wong lai' in Cantonese carries a homonym that sounds like 'good luck, good fortune coming'!
I didn't make the pineapple jam as it's a tedious task of stirring and stirring for an hour or so and in this hot weather, it's definitely not for me.   Took the easy way out, bought the pineapple paste from the baking ingredients outlet.  Nevertheless, I've posted the recipe for the pineapple jam just in case some of you may like to have this home made.



The pineapple paste made into small balls to be used as filling for the roll.  The nastar mould which is used to press out the strip of dough.  Press out out into a strip of about 3.1/2 inches in length, place a ball of jam on one end and roll up the pastry as in a Swiss roll.







This melt-in-the-mouth pastry has always been a hot favourite amongst my family members and having them home made is definitely very much more economical ........  Yummy!


Recipe for Nastar ~ Pineapple Rolls/Tarts

Ingredients for Pastry
  • 130 gm butter
  • 100 gm margarine
  • 60 gm icing sugar
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 350 gm plain flour
  • 50 gm cornflour
Egg glaze
  • 1 whole egg and 1 egg yolk, lightly beaten with a tiny pinch of salt
Pineapple Filling (Best made a day or two before)
  • 2 pineapples, peeled, eyes removed, coarsely grated
  • 250 gm sugar
  • 2 cloves
  • A segment of star anise
  • 1 cm cinnamon stick
Preparation for Filling
  1. Squeeze out the juice from the grated pineapples but do not squeeze too dry.
  2. Place pineapples, sugar, cloves, cinnamon and star anise in a heavy-bottomed saucepan.
  3. Cook over moderate heat till almost dry, about 1 hour.  Continue cooking over low heat, till mixture is thick and gluey.  Keep stirring all the time.
  4. Cool.  Store overnight in refrigerator.
Preparation for Nastar
  1. Sift the flour with the salt, add in the cornflour, mix well.
  2. Cream butter, margarine with the icing sugar till light and creamy.
  3. Add in the egg yolks one at a time, mix well.
  4. Fold in the sifted flour and mix into a dough.
  5. Put the dough into the nastar mould and press out into a strip of about 3.1/2 inches length.
  6. Place a ball of jam on one end and roll it up like in a Swiss roll, enclosing the jam.
  7. Cut off excess pastry.  Place the rolls on a baking sheet.  Apply egg glaze.
  8. Bake in a preheated oven @ 180 deg. C for about 15 to 20 mins. or till golden brown.
  9. Cool on wire rack and store in cookie jar once they are completely cooled.

Comments

  1. These sound scrumptious with pineapple!

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  2. 5 Star Foodie
    These melt in the mouth pastries are real yummy!

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  3. Beautiful! I want some pineapple rolls for the CNY too!

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  4. wah!!! u and elin.. really torturing me with the pineapple tarts! those are my favorite.. i ordered this time, i didnt bake them myself this year.. pssst.. r they for sale?

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  5. This look really melt-in-mouth type, Wishing you a Happy CNY!

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  6. I love the pineapple filings....sweet!

    Wishing you and your family a Happy & Prosperous Chinese New Year!

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  7. How did you press out the dough...using the thumb?

    Thank you so much for the recipe.

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  8. Wow looks very complicated for me haha!

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  9. Hi Cheah! thanks for the lovely bangkit recipe ~ it was so good..but i had to bake it a little longer because my cookies were a little large....n tq for dropping by !! :)))

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  10. Wah wah, looks better than mine LOL! I love freshly baked pineapple tarts. Absolutely yummy!

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  11. Wah... the cookie cutter is so cool as well. I love pineapple tarts. Just made some over the wkend too.

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  12. Angie
    You are most welcome to have some!

    renaclaire
    But you've bought them already, right? Frankly speaking, it's rather time consuming making these and in this hot weather!

    Sonia
    Thanks. Happy New Year to you and your family too!

    Pete
    Happy New Year to you and your loved ones too!

    bamk
    Yes, with the thumb. Good exercise but after it's all over and done with, I find that my thumb is a bit stiff!

    3 hungry tummies
    No, it's not complicated. Quite easy to make provided you don't have to make the filling yourself!

    zurin
    You are most welcome. Yes your fishes look bigger but they're so cute and you have pictured them very well. Think can use that mould to make figurine mooncake with lotus paste filling, just thinking.

    Kristy, yours also look good. Different pastry. Mine is already half gone!

    penny
    Yes, pineapple tarts in any form is everybody's favourite!

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  13. Ooooh....my favourite cookies for Chinese New Year. These look so cute and delicious. Wish I can have some now! I'm just going to cook the pineapple jam later. What a last minute person :D

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  14. Thanks, Anncoo

    Mary
    It's ok for you, at least you don't have to sweat it out like what we're experiencing right now. It's like sauna!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Hi Aunty,
    Can I use the same pastry recipe to make the 'open face' pineapple tarts? I have the mold for it and looking to try other pastry recipes. I wonder whether this recipe will be too soft & crumbly.

    Aleena

    ReplyDelete
  16. Aleena
    No, not suitable for open tarts. For open tarts better to use short crust pastry. You can goggle for recipes for these open tarts. Hope this helps!

    ReplyDelete

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