Piggy Pineapple Tarts 小猪猪黄梨挞

Since we would be ushering the Lunar Year of Pig in Year 2019, I think it would be trendy to shape my pineapple tarts into little piggies 🐽 🐖 The main challenge I faced was how to prevent the tarts from developing crack lines. That is something I am searching for an answer to overcome 💪💪😉

Meanwhile just enjoy these delicious melt-in-your-mouth tarts in piggy form 😋


Update: 1 Feb 2019
I shaped the pineapple tarts into piggy bank with a coin slot, instead of a plain piggy head.

The piggies were given thread-like tails, which were very challenging to roll 😅

Update: 13 March 2019
I used the remain dough which has been kept in the chiller for 6 weeks, to shape and bake into pineapple balls. The process was much simpler and faster 😍
Dough weight: 12g each, Pineapple jam ball weight: 8g each
Baking: Bake at 200℃ for 10 minutes, take out and brush with egg yolks mixed with a little egg white to make it easier to apply. Return to oven and bake at 180℃ for another 8 to 10 minutes 😊

Yield: about 39 to 45 pineapple tarts

Ingredients

200g unsalted butter, softened
40g icing sugar
1/2 tsp low-sodium fine salt

1 egg yolk
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

300g Prima Plain Flour Plus*/plain flour
25g corn starch


320~360g pineapple jam/paste #

* Prima Plain Flour Plus has 25% of superfine wholegrain flour added
# I use ready pineapple jam

Directions

1. Allow the unsalted butter to soften in room temperature.

2. Cream the softened butter slightly, and combine icing sugar and salt to it.

Cream the butter till it becomes smooth.

3. Blend in the yolk and vanilla extract.

4. Combine plain flour plus with corn starch in a bowl.

Sieve the flour mixture, in a few batches, to the butter cream,

and combine using a spatula.

The cookie dough is ready when no dry flour can be seen.

5. If you are not making the cookie immediately, you can store it in plastic bags and refrigerate it. Just thaw the cold cookie dough for about 1 hour before use.
I prefer to split the dough into 2 portions, so I can make a small batch of pineapple tarts whenever I have the time.

6. Divide and roll the pineapple jam/paste into balls of about 8g each.
I wet the palms with a little cool boiled water, so the pineapple jam would not be too sticky to handle.

Similarly, divide the cookie dough into 13g or 15g each. Roll them into balls.
If you can handle thin crust during shaping, then you can use 13g per ball. 15g cookie dough ball would give a better allowance to shape.

7. Pinch about 10 to 20% of the cookie dough ball, to reserve for making the nose and ears later.

Further divide the smaller portion into 3 equal parts for the nose and ears. Roll the other bigger portion into a ball again.

Sandwich the bigger dough ball between two plastic sheets, and compress it using a plate or flat face of a dough cutter.

Place a pineapple ball in the middle of the dough and wrap it up.

And shape into a smooth ball.

Place two black sesame seeds as eyes. Use the pointed end of a tooth pick to move and position the black sesame seeds. Use the rounded end of a chopstick to create indentation around the eyes.
Shape the smaller pieces of the dough into a nose and a pair of ears.
Positions the smaller parts to the appropriate "locations". Poke two holes as nostrils.

Done 💪

Arrange on a baking tray lined with parchment paper.

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You can also create different expressions using the tools shown below.

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8. Bake at middle rack of a pre-heated oven at 180℃ for 10 minutes, lower the temperature to 170℃ for 5~7 minutes. Turn off the oven and let the tarts sit in the oven for about 7 to 10 minutes, or till the nose and ears became slightly tanned.

9. Allow the tarts to cool down completely before keeping in air-tight container. Enjoy 😋

Piggies with different expressions 😊