Spotlight on Pineapple Tarts: The Star of CNY Snacks

With the celebration of the Chinese New Year right around the corner, homes and bakeries in Asia are laden with the fragranced of buttery pineapple tarts. These small and fancy pastries containing pineapple jam in the centre have rather become synonymous with celebration during the lunar new year celebrations. Pineapple tart, therefore, rose to popularity and is widely linked with prosperity and good fortunes, but why?

Pineapple tarts: Where do these little treats come from and what do they symbolise?

Pineapples themselves are a fruit known in China for a long time and associated with luxury. Their thorny leaves as if symbolize the nonsense ‘upward and onward’ in the Feng Shui theory. But it was only in the 16th century that pineapples entered Asia when explorers transported them from South America. At first they were an affordable food item, and were mostly consumed by the royalty.

The traceability of pineapples only became more common throughout Asia in the 19th century. Chinese bakers began to turn pineapple fillings for pastries into a novelty product. According to the European recipes, they developed small tarts which had a crisp, flaky dough made from butter and pineapple jam. Their shape was rather like an ingot, which is the traditional Chinese symbol of gold for the windfall. When their new mooncake flavor consisted of pineapple filling inside, encased in buttery-crust, these “pineapple tarts” caught the eyes for Chinese New Year to represent power, prestige, and prosperity for the year ahead.

The pineapple tart has since then become incorporated into the main menu of traditional festivities revolving around Lunar New Year across many Asians. They are offered to the guest in a home setting or given as token gifts. Love birds gift their friends and family members beautifully wrapped pineapple tarts as they celebrate the Chinese New Year. Not only that pineapple tart is delicious for its taste and filling, to receive a pineapple tart is to receive blessing and good wishes from the giver.

Variations Across Asia

While the basic elements of buttery pastry and pineapple filling remain consistent, pineapple tarts take on delightful regional variations:

• Singapore/Malaysia – Generally accompanied by a buttery shortcrust pastry with delicate garnet embossment of frosting border. The chunks in the jam vary from big chunks of pineapple right through to jam-like consistency.
• Indonesia – Flaky and dry pastry forming a crispy base for a gooey pineapple jam made special by the addition of honey. Rather than rectangular the biscuits were shaped into rounded tarts.
• Hong Kong – A solid pasty with a crispier coat and a less stiff and spicier jam in the middle. Popular types include those that have trace of salted egg yolk within the pastry skin or those filled with pineapple paste.
• Philippines – Pastry has little inclinations of Vanilla to give it an extra measure of fragrance. Jam inclined to be very finely chopped pineapple for paste like consistency as apose to chunky.
• Taiwan – Due to a large proportion of filling as compared to the thickness of the crust, the pineapple jam is predominant. Many are shaped from the basic rectangles to some very meaningful Chinese symbols.

The one constant is that both songs reference the sweet fruit of the pineapple, while one extols the drink’s welcome prosperity. In the middle of societies, cultures and celebrations, pineapple tarts are the unifying factor of Lunar New Year enjoyment.

Modern Twists

Nowadays you can even find pineapple tarts sold at normal bakery shops, or even food bloggers from overseas. There are, of course, classic recipes that are still popular today, but there are also new recipes, which contain the flavors of the moment. Some hip young bakers are preparing versions such as:

• Passionfruit pineapple tarts with white chocolate pastry
• Tropical Jackfruit Pineapple Filling: Black Sesame Dough
• Rum Raisined and Vodka Swirling Pineapple Tart