Joyce's Pineapple tarts

Pastry Ingredients:

450g plain flour

50g milk powder

250g butter

1 egg (lightly beaten)

2 tbsp iced water

a few drops of yellow colouring (optional)

Filling ingredients:

4 cups finely-grated pineapple (gently squeeze out some juice)

3 cups sugar

2 cloves

1/2 inch stick cinnamon

Method:

1. To prepare filling. Place all ingredients in a wok/heavy pan.

Cook over medium heat, stir occassionally till mixture turns thick and sticky. Cook for about an hour. Allow to cool; use a cling film to seal and chill in the refrigerator. (can prepare one day in advance)

2. To prepare the pastry. Rub butter into flour, milk powder lightly with fingertips till mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add beaten egg, water and colouring. Mix lightly. (do not overmix)

Turn out onto lightly floured surface and roll out thinly (about 7mm thickness). Cut with round pastry cutter. Roll out remaining pastry and use a knife to cut it into thin strips. Place a teaspoonful of pineapple filling in the centre of each pastry. Place the pastry strips over the tarts.

Bake in preheated oven at 160 deg C and bake for about 15 minutes. Rotate the tray and reduce the heat to 150 deg C and bake another 10-15 minutes till light brown. Let it cool completely before storing in the sealed container.

Note: For festive season, Chinese New Year, I will make 120 small tarts (0r 56 big tarts). So I need to double the recipe above. So I'll use 900g plain flour, 100g milk powder and 5 pineapples (makes 2kg of filling).