Pineapple Tarts

Jam
1 whole Malaysia pineapple, grated
90g sugar (or more to taste)
3 cloves
1 Tbsp lemon juice

My short-cut: Cook in a non-stick pan over high heat to evaporate water asap. Have the fan turned up high to speed process & keep yourself cool. Stir often till whole thing is stiff, sticky & golden brown (~ 30 mins). Note that the proper way is to stir jam over very low heat for many hours. 

Pastry
8 oz plain flour
5 oz cold butter - diced
2 egg yolks (save whites for other stuff, like pavlova)
2 tsp castor sugar
0.5 Tbsp ice-cold water
1 tsp vanilla essence

My short-cut: use a plastic bag to cut down on cleaning

Sift flour into a large sandwich bag. Put in butter pieces. Close the bag top loosely & press bag contents till they resemble breadcrumbs. Pour in the rest of the ingredients & give a few quick squeezes till a nice dough is obtained. Don't over-knead. The cooler everything is (so butter doesn't melt), the lighter the pastry will turn out. Chill 30 mins.

While still keeping dough in bag, roll out the dough flat to slightly less than 1/2" thick. Cut away the plastic top to expose pastry & stamp out tart shapes onto a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper. I use a special spring-loaded stamper.

Turn oven on to pre-heat to 160 dec C. While oven is getting hot, press little balls of pineapple jam onto tarts.

Bake for 20 - 30 mins till pastry is lightly browned. Cool before storing. Makes about 40+ tarts.