Pine tart

Ingredients

The pastry

• 500 gplain flour
• 250 gcold butter, cubed
• 80 gsugar
• 1egg
• about 80 ml cold water
• 1 teaspoonsalt

The filling

• 1large pineapple
• peeled, cored and grated
• or 700 g crushed pineapple
• drained
• 250 gsugar
• 1 stickcinnamon
• 2cloves
• a strip of lime peel
• 1 tablespooncornflour, if needed

To finish

• 1egg, beaten
• a little sugar, to sprinkle

To bake

• a hot oven
• lined trays

Directions

1. Warm butter blends into the flour. Cold butter gives a short crumb. Cut the top and base off the pineapple. Stand it upright and cut the skin away. Cut down the sides in wide strips. Take the skin off in wide sections. Go deep enough to remove the eyes.
2. Cut them out in diagonal channels. Cut the pineapple into quarters. Cut the hard core from each one. Cut it right out and discard it. Grate the pineapple flesh coarsely. Chop it very finely if you prefer. Do not puree it down to a liquid.
3. Put the grated pineapple in a pan. Add the sugar and the whole spices. Add the strip of lime peel to them. Bring it up to a gentle simmer. Let it cook down until it is thick. It takes about thirty minutes.
4. Stir it regularly all the way through. It burns and turns bitter if it does. Stir right into all the corners. Judging it takes a spoon test. Mix cornflour with cold water first. Stir it in if it will not thicken. Mix it with cold water to avoid lumps.
5. Remove the lime peel from it as well. Take all of them right out of it. Let the filling cool completely. Hot filling melts the pastry butter. Cool it right down completely first. Put the flour, sugar and salt in a bowl. Add all of the cold cubed butter. Rub it in to a coarse crumb texture.
6. Rub it with your fingertips only. Lift the mixture up as you rub it. That keeps it cool and aerated. Beat the egg with the cold water. Add it gradually to the flour.
7. Add only enough to bring it together. Too much water makes it tough. Add it in just a splash at a time. Bring it into a dough with a knife. Stop the moment it holds together. Wrap it up and then refrigerate it. Give it at least thirty full minutes. Roll the pastry out on a floured surface.
8. Roll it about three millimetres thick. Thin enough to bake up quite crisp. Keep it even across the sheet. Cutting it is straightforward enough. Cut the sheet into even squares. About ten centimetres square is usual. Keep every one of them the same size.
9. Put a spoonful of filling in the centre. Do not overfill any of them at all. Leave a clear border all round. A generous tablespoon is enough. Brush the corners with beaten egg.
10. Fold three corners toward the centre. They do not cover the filling entirely. Press each corner down firmly. Press where they overlap each other. Set them out on lined baking trays. Refrigerate them for twenty minutes. Brush the pastry with beaten egg. Sprinkle a little sugar over them. Egg gives a deep golden shine. Brush the glaze on thinly and evenly. Heat the oven to two hundred degrees.
11. Bake them for about twenty-five minutes. The pastry must colour properly. Lift one to look at the underside. It should be golden rather than pale. Lift them out onto a wire rack. Let them cool at least a little. The fruit filling is extremely hot.

Technique

• Fresh pineapple is extremely watery, so the filling must be cooked down until a spoon dragged through the pan leaves a channel that stays open briefly. Raw or under-reduced filling floods the pastry and makes the base soggy. It thickens further as it cools, and cornflour mixed with cold water first will thicken a very juicy batch without more cooking.
• Let the filling cool completely before it meets the pastry: hot filling melts the butter and destroys the short texture, as well as making the corners impossible to seal.
• Fold three corners toward the centre so they overlap slightly but leave a gap open in the middle — that opening is deliberate, letting steam escape as well as showing the filling, and a fully sealed tart would burst instead. Brush the corners with egg and press them down firmly where they overlap, since loose ones unfold in the oven.

Substitutions

• Drained tinned crushed pineapple stands in for fresh and needs less reducing.
• Use whole cinnamon and cloves rather than ground, which makes the filling muddy, and fish them out before the filling cools — left in they turn bitter and someone would bite one.

Variations

• Fresh pineapple contains bromelain, the enzyme that causes the tingling from raw fruit, and cooking destroys it entirely — so the cooked filling causes none of that.
• Cut the skin off in wide strips deep enough to take the eyes, or cut those out afterwards in diagonal channels, and cut away the hard fibrous core, which stays hard however long it cooks.
• The fruit filling holds heat far longer than the pastry and can badly burn the mouth, so give them fifteen minutes before eating.

History

A British-influenced Guyanese bakery pastry made with local pineapple, baked for Christmas and afternoon tea.

Frequently asked questions

What is Pine tart?

Pine tart is a bread & pastry from Guyana: triangular pastry filled with sweet cooked pineapple. A British-influenced Guyanese bakery pastry made with local pineapple, baked for Christmas and afternoon tea.

How long does Pine tart take to make?

Pine tart takes 40 minutes plus resting of preparation and 30 minutes of cooking. The recipe makes about 16 tarts. It is rated medium to make.

What can I substitute in Pine tart?

Yes, within limits. Drained tinned crushed pineapple stands in for fresh and needs less reducing. Use whole cinnamon and cloves rather than ground, which makes the filling muddy, and fish them out before the filling cools — left in they turn bitter and someone would bite one.

What is the most important thing to get right in Pine tart?

Cut them out in diagonal channels. Cut the pineapple into quarters. Cut the hard core from each one. Cut it right out and discard it. Grate the pineapple flesh coarsely. Chop it very finely if you prefer. Do not puree it down to a liquid.