Yes, the never ending quest for the perfect pineapple tarts has brought me to this. I've blogged about my Melaka aunt's pineapple tarts several
times and knowing she has stopped selling them altogether, I asked her to teach me last year. I targeted to learn it sometime in the middle of the year but it never materialized. I was to understand later why it never happened in the middle of the year.
You see, the tarts are usually made and consumed during the Chinese New Year season. And I doubt if she wanted to make a whole batch in the middle of the year. And when I say a whole batch, I'm talking a minimum of 30 pineapples and even this wouldn't have been worth the while of all the labour involved.
Last weekend, one of the cousins asked this aunty to make a small batch. Just for about 5 families. So she gathered some of the relatives over the weekend to do this batch. Consisting of 120 pineapples, a huge coconut shredder that easily shredded the prepared pineapples, a huge industrial mixer, endless numbers of cookie trays, giant pans to reduce the pineapples into jam, manpower of about 12 - 15 people over two days. Yup, this was a
small batch. Now I know why it's important to have large families when one does business.
My arms and back are aching from standing, sitting, stirring, reducing the pineapples (which took 4 - 4.5 hours per 30 pineapples), rolling and glazing the cookie. I'm proud to say I was part of the cookie making process. And would I know how to make them all over again? Alone? I've gotta be kidding myself. I'll probably attempt this once before next year when we're slated to do a larger batch. Yup, we have already booked the Aunty for a larger batch next year :)
Here are some pictures from the weekend:
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| Pineapples! |
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| Mashed pineapples from the coconut shredder |
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| Reducing the pineapples |
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| Until they become a sticky golden jam |
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| Industrial mixer for the dough |
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| Many hands make light work. Factory line style. |
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| Eggwashed tarts |
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| Trays waiting their turn for the oven |
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| Tarts being baked |
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| Putting the pineapple tarts into jars |
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| Ta-daaah! |
My personal batch is strictly
mine... My presssssciousssss!! Each family will get just enough for personal consumption this time around. (I personally can finish 2-3 tubs of this on my own).
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