Nastar
Nastar, short for Ananastaartjes, are Indonesian version of the popular Pineapple Tarts from Malaysia and Singapore. The most telling differences in this Indonesian version are the inclusion of Dutch edam cheese (can be substituted with matured cheddar if edam is not available) in the pastry and also from its full Dutch name, Ananastaartjes, a legacy of the Dutch influences in that country.
There are a number of different ways all these miniature Pineapple Tarts (be it Malaysian, Singaporean or Indonesian) can be shaped – open-tart shape, open-ended roll shape, ball shape or fruit shape. Nonetheless in whichever guises, these biscuit-sized tarts are very popularly served during Chinese New Year in this part of the world because the word ‘pineapple’ in Chinese Hokkien dialect has the same sounding as ‘prosperity comes’, an auspicious symbol for the New Year! Here I have made them into the popular shape of miniature oranges or mandarins, as these are also lucky fruits for the Chinese. So, prosperity and good luck for the New Year, what more can any person ask!
Makes approx. 48 tarts.
[Ingredients]
Pastry:
200g plain flour
40g vanilla custard powder
20g milk powder
40g edam or cheddar (preferably matured) cheese, grated
160g reduced-salt butter, softened
60g icing sugar
1 egg yolk
Filling:
400g Pineapple Tarts Filling, but cooked a bit longer to make it dryer so can be rolled into small balls
Topping:
48 cloves
1 beaten egg yolk for glazing
http://cafeoftheeast.blogspot.com/
[Preparation]
Filling:
Divide filling into 4 equal portions of 100g each. Roll each 100g portion into a log and divide equally into 12 small pieces. Roll each piece into a small ball for use as filling.
Pastry:
1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Sift together plain flour, custard powder and milk powder. Grate cheese finely.
2. Cream softened butter and icing sugar til pale and creamy. Mix in grated cheese. Beat in egg yolk to combine. Fold in sifted flour mixture to form a soft dough.
3. Divide dough into 4 equal portions, which will be approximately 135g each. Roll each portion into a log and divide equally into 12 small pieces.
To make Nastar:
1. Wrap each ball of pineapple filling inside each piece of pastry dough. Roll into ball shape. Place apart onto a biscuit/cookie tray.
2. Brush top of each Nastar with the beaten egg yolk. Stick a clove on each Nastar to resemble the stem of a miniature orange.
3. Bake on middle shelf of the preheated oven for about 15 minutes, or until the pastry is light golden brown in colour. Remove, cool then store in airtight tins.
[Note]
The size of egg used is about 60g (includes shell) unless otherwise stated.
There are a number of different ways all these miniature Pineapple Tarts (be it Malaysian, Singaporean or Indonesian) can be shaped – open-tart shape, open-ended roll shape, ball shape or fruit shape. Nonetheless in whichever guises, these biscuit-sized tarts are very popularly served during Chinese New Year in this part of the world because the word ‘pineapple’ in Chinese Hokkien dialect has the same sounding as ‘prosperity comes’, an auspicious symbol for the New Year! Here I have made them into the popular shape of miniature oranges or mandarins, as these are also lucky fruits for the Chinese. So, prosperity and good luck for the New Year, what more can any person ask!
Makes approx. 48 tarts.
[Ingredients]
Pastry:
200g plain flour
40g vanilla custard powder
20g milk powder
40g edam or cheddar (preferably matured) cheese, grated
160g reduced-salt butter, softened
60g icing sugar
1 egg yolk
Filling:
400g Pineapple Tarts Filling, but cooked a bit longer to make it dryer so can be rolled into small balls
Topping:
48 cloves
1 beaten egg yolk for glazing
http://cafeoftheeast.blogspot.com/
[Preparation]
Filling:
Divide filling into 4 equal portions of 100g each. Roll each 100g portion into a log and divide equally into 12 small pieces. Roll each piece into a small ball for use as filling.
Pastry:
1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Sift together plain flour, custard powder and milk powder. Grate cheese finely.
2. Cream softened butter and icing sugar til pale and creamy. Mix in grated cheese. Beat in egg yolk to combine. Fold in sifted flour mixture to form a soft dough.
3. Divide dough into 4 equal portions, which will be approximately 135g each. Roll each portion into a log and divide equally into 12 small pieces.
To make Nastar:
1. Wrap each ball of pineapple filling inside each piece of pastry dough. Roll into ball shape. Place apart onto a biscuit/cookie tray.
2. Brush top of each Nastar with the beaten egg yolk. Stick a clove on each Nastar to resemble the stem of a miniature orange.
3. Bake on middle shelf of the preheated oven for about 15 minutes, or until the pastry is light golden brown in colour. Remove, cool then store in airtight tins.
[Note]
The size of egg used is about 60g (includes shell) unless otherwise stated.
Labels: Biscuits (Cookies), Festives
posted by SeaDragon @ 16.2.05
8 Comments:
法浪客: 真棒的新年點心又吉祥有討喜,婷也在她家新貼她過去作過的黃梨糕,我發現在南洋地區,光是鳳梨餡的調料李就要比台灣的多出很多的"香料".
沒想到印尼版的nastar 里還特別會用cheese在它的皮的配方里, 現在我做的台式版的鳳黎酥也一定會加上一定比例的cream cheese. 口感味道也跟過去不同,更受大伙的喜愛.
I love your website and great recipes! I miss pineapple tarts for Chinese New Year this year :( I read in many of your recipes you use pandan paste. I cannot find pandan leaves now that I've moved out of Asia, is there a replacement I can use? Thanks!
Sarah,
呵呵，是啊，南洋的黃梨糕餡多少都會加入香料的～這個加入切達的我想應該會比妳加cream cheese的乳酪味道較重一點，看個人口味喜好可以試試看加哪一種乳酪吧。
Anonymous,
Glad you enjoy my little site here. If you cannot get fresh pandan leaves, can you find frozen ones at your local Asian shops? Or you can try to see if your local Chinese/Asian shops stock the pandan essence in paste form (labelled as 'Aroma Pasta Pandan', brandname is 'Koepoe-Koepoe' from Indonesia, comes in 30ml or 60ml small bottle). If all else failed, I would suggest substituting pandan with vanilla extract/essence (plus a little green food-colouring if you really want the colour). :)
thank you for your suggestion. will pandan essence be alright too?
Anonymous,
Sure can! :)
Hi sliverfawn,
Hmmm, I remembered reading something about that before, it is like a milk essence or something available only in Taiwan as far as I know. Is it just for a small amount? If so, I remembered reading in one of the Taiwanese forums that someone used 'coffee-mate' to substitute the naixiangfen. So you can try that, or I think milk powder should do the same job with no problem since it is just to provide a milky aroma. HTH.
Hi SeaDragon,
Thanks for the recipe. Tasted great but my pineapple tarts cracked during baking. Was it because the pastry dried out or the pastry skin too thin or some other reason? Thanks.
Flora,
Glad you liked the recipe. Small cracks are normal. But if there are a lot of cracks, it may be that you had over baked, as everyone's oven is different, you have to adjust the baking time next time. It may be also as you said, your pastry skin was made thinner, so less baking time required. Taking too long to wrap will dry out the unused pastry, so you need to wrap them up to prevent drying out.
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