Lunar New Year Recipe: Taiwanese Pineapple Cakes
TAIWANESE PINEAPPLE CAKES
(FROM MEHGAN Y.)
Overview:
Pineapple cakes (鳳梨酥, pronounced “feng li su”) are a famous pastry in Taiwan. They are usually square shaped with a buttery, shortbread-like casing with a pineapple filling similar to a very thick jam. It is often served and gifted around the Lunar New Year.
Servings: 22
Prep time: 40 minutes
Cook time: 1 hour
Total time: 1 hour and 40 minutes
Ingredients:
Pineapple Filling
2 (20 oz) cans crushed and drained pineapples
⅓ cup granulated sugar
½ cup corn syrup
2 tbsp honey
⅓ cup brown sugar
Pineapple Pastry
275 grams cake flour
60 grams icing sugar
¼ cup fat-free milk powder
¼ cup custard powder
2 sticks cold unsalted butter cut into small pieces
3 egg yolks
40 grams brown sugar
1 tbsp salt
Steps:
In a medium, nonstick saucepan, add drained crushed pineapples. Bring to a simmer on the stove and cook, uncovered, for about 20 minutes or until most of the excess liquid evaporates and mixture thickens.
Stir in sugar, corn syrup, and honey. Cook mixture at a low simmer for about 40 minutes, until it becomes quite thick, with very little liquid. Stir occasionally. You may also want to taste it a few minutes after everything is mixed together to see if the filling is sweet enough. If not, you can add a little more sugar. Stir in the flour and cook for an additional 15 minutes. Pour filling into a glass bowl, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least one hour. You can leave it for several hours or even make it the day before. You want the filling to be completely cooled when you work with it.
To make the pastry, add all ingredients except egg yolks into a food processor. Turn on and let it mix for about 2 minutes or until it becomes little balls of dough. See photo above; they look like dippin dots. At first the dough will turn very crumbly as your food processor breaks down the butter, but it will eventually turn soft into the little dough balls. If you want to try the recipe without egg yolks (as discussed in my notes), you can just squeeze these dough balls together to form one big ball of dough. Otherwise, add egg yolks in and pulse for about 1 minute, until smooth dough forms (shown in photo above).
Scoop out 1.5 tbsp dough balls and shape between palms to form round balls. Continue until all dough is used up. Set aside.
Take pineapple filling from the fridge. Scoop out 1 tbsp of filling and compress between palms. Filling will be sticky and wet to work with. Gently roll between palms to shape into balls. Make enough filling balls to match the dough balls.
Lightly grease the inside of your square molds, by brushing them with oil.
Take a sheet of plastic wrap and stretch over a flat surface, keeping it as smooth as possible. I found that plastic wrap really helped to make these cakes pretty. You want the plastic wrap to be smooth because your dough will have creases if your plastic wrap has creases. Take one of your dough balls and place it on top of the plastic wrap. Press down with your palm until it spreads out to a thin round. You want the round to be just big enough that it will wrap over the filling. It may take a few tries to determine the best length to stretch your To make to. The round should be thin because the pastry is supposed to be only a thin layer of crust. However, keep the middle section of your round slightly thicker and thin out more on the edges. This way, when you bunch all the edges together to seal your pastry, the bunched edges won't become too thick, which would make one side of your cake uneven.
Place a pineapple filling ball in the middle of your round. Lift one side of plastic wrap and peel the round from that side. You should be able to easily peel it off and the bottom side of the round should be completely smooth. Lift the round completely from plastic wrap and then cover your pineapple filling with the dough, sealing the edges on top, attempting to smooth them as much as possible.
Place your square mold on top of the plastic wrap. Place your dough ball inside the square, with the bunch up ends side facing up, smooth side facing down. Carefully push and spread your ball until it spreads out completely across the square mold. It may take a few tries to get the hang of it. The dough should fit completely inside the mold. Try to smooth the surface of the dough as much as possible. Flip over. The underside of your dough should look nearly completely smooth and should fill the entire square mold. One of the photos above show both the finished smooth side and the side with the bunched edges.
Place mold, with the smooth side facing up, on a baking sheet lined with silicone mats or parchment paper. Preheat your oven to 375°F. While your oven is heating up, finish making the rest of your pineapple cakes.
Bake for about 13 minutes or until the tops turn a light golden brown. Remove from the oven and let cool for a few minutes. After about 15 minutes, gently push the cakes out the molds. You can eat immediately or wait for them to finish cooling. Store any uneaten ones in an airtight container at room temperature. Because these have a fruit filling, do not store for too many days.
For Lunar New Year, Asian Girls Ignite celebrated with sắp sửa and Red Boat Fish Sauce! sắp sửa is an innovative Vietnamese restaurant in Denver, Colorado run by the husband-and-wife team of Ni and Anna. It was recently named one of the Best New Restaurants in 2023 by Esquire Magazine!
Lucky for us, they prepared the most delicious 4-course, pre-fixe, Lunar New Year dinner with proceeds from the meal going towards Asian Girls Ignite’s student programming. We are so grateful for their support and the support of everyone who joined this special dinner.
As a token of appreciation, compiled a number of favorite Lunar New Year recipes from our community. Feel free to recreate the recipes at home or share it with friends and family.
If you’d also like to support Asian Girls Ignite’s mission, we welcome your generosity! Your donation will empower us to continue our mission of igniting the power of AAPI girls and gender-expansive youth.
As the Year of the Dragon unfolds, may you spread your wings and soar high, embracing great power and good fortune ahead!
