Time itself doesn’t change. But when you live knowing that your time with your loved ones are measured, it becomes far more precious. Festivals or occasions become opportunities to celebrate, chat and catch up. Dinners are treasured food gatherings. An occasion missed is an opportunity to love, lost- at least until a later date.
Knowing that this could possibly be our last Chinese New Year with our friends and family for a while, before we head out to serve, it weighed on my heart to take this chance to bless friends and family who had journeyed with us through this challenging period.
With Chinese New Year round the corner, Cliff and I decided to seize the opportunity of giving traditional treats to our loved ones, as part of the Chinese New Year culture. Instead of buying them ( a little box of pineapple tarts can cost more than $20!), we decided to bake some pineapple tarts together. Cliff says that it was really I who made them, but I think his role in patiently accompanying me to buy and lug the ingredients home (twice!), cleaning up and of course, being the Royal Food Taster was crucial! This time, he even came up with the idea of making a video of some of the more important steps, heh.
Food for Love:
– Butter- 1 block or 225grams
– Cake Flour- 300 grams
– Skimmed Milk powder- 50 grams
– Caster sugar- 25 grams will do!
– Vanilla essence- 1 teaspoon
– Salt- 1 teaspoon
– 2 egg yolks, and an extra egg yolk for egg wash
– Pineapple jam/paste (You should be able to get this easily at any baking store at this time of year, or if you have more time, feel free to make your own!)
These make a great hand-made gift when you arrange them in a plastic container.
The Act:
- Mix the butter, softened to room temperature, sugar and vanilla essence together with a whisk.
Then add the sifted cake flour and milk powder in.
When the dough starts to come together, fold in two egg yolks with a spatula.
You’ll get a really nice golden dough that is fairly easy to work with.
2. Most recipes will tell you to weigh out the exact weight of each ball of dough and pineapple filling,
but I really think all that precise mathematics takes out the fun!
Using the skill of guess-timation, roughly roll your dough balls and pineapple-paste balls and arrange them on a plate.
What I found really handy was to snip just a tiny snip off the corner of the pineapple-paste packet,
so the pineapple paste came out like toothpaste!
I find using a scoop to spoon the paste out far too messy.
A good tip would be to handle the dough and pineapple filling separately,
and to wash your hands in between handling each of them.
You don’t want your sticky pineapply-fingers to be mucking around the dough balls and
making them all stick together too!
3. And now, to further explain the subsequent steps of transforming these little lifeless balls into
bouncing pineapple bunny tarts,
here’s Cliff’s video (entirely his idea- I know, he is such a funny man)
of how these Bunny Tarts can be made easily.
Make sure to watch till the very end!
Additional Tips:
Just remember, that before you bake the bunnies,
give them firm baking instructions not to bounce around in the oven.
That will cause irreparable damage not only to themselves but to your heart as well.
This batch behaved quite well!
Keep an eye on them!
When they’ve popped out of the oven (150 degrees Celsius) after about 15 minutes,
persuade them to keep calm, so they can cool down!
As soon as they were cool and I wasn’t looking, they gathered for a meeting!
Cliff said they were re-enacting the scene of “The Last Supper”.
I couldn’t tell the male bunnies apart from the female bunnies until they started communicating within their groups!
Male bunnies, obviously.
And female bunnies!
Enjoy this fun Chinese New Year treat,
and bless your loved ones with this hand-made delight!
