Pineapple cookie

Chinese lunar new year is around the corner. This year we don't get to go back to Malaysia to celebrate. I missed the celebration with family and friends so much and really wish to bring my son back next year so he knows what people usually do for this festival.

CNY is a big festival in Malaysia just like Christmas in US. There is a lot of preparation to do for this festival. We need to do spring cleaning, decorate our house, change curtain and sofa cover, made different type of cookies, cook dishes, shopping for new clothes/shoes and also praying. I especially love the baking part. I used to help my mum doing that. We did a lot of cookies like kuih kapit, peanut cookies, pineapple cookies, coconut cookies, butter cookies etc. We usually did the cookies in a large amount as we need to give to our neighbors and relatives. Imagine that we only can do one cookie from morning to evening and with ~5-6 people to help up.

I missed the family gathering we had during this festival. Missed the time when we helped my parents to put money in Ang Pau packet, eating CNY eve dinner, playing fire crackers, praying and visiting relatives.

Another thing I missed a lot is friend gathering. We used to have gathering on 1st day of CNY starting at Shuan's house and then do house visiting for the rest of the day. It was really fun to meet everyone and catch up. Not to forget the lou sang dinner together. Time flying, I think we had been doing these gathering for more than a decade. But ever since I moved to US, I no longer able to join them every year. Gals, I missed you all so much! 


Wishing all my family and friends to have a great CNY celebration and all the best for coming new year!

This year I decided to do pineapple cookie for CNY. Here is the recipe adapted from rasa malaysia:

Pineapple filling:
2 pineapple
sugar to taste

For the pasty filling2 1/2 cups (350g) all-purpose flour2 sticks butter1/4 teaspoon salt2 egg yolks4 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar/icing sugar2 tablespoons cornstarch1 egg yolk (lightly beaten for egg wash)
Method:1. Cut pineapple into smaller cube and blend it until it is mushy.2. Cook it using medium heat till all liquid evaporated. it took me about 2 hours.3. Sieve the flour, cornstarch, salt and sugar into a bowl. Soften butter to room temperature. Add in egg yolks. Knead to form the dough. If dough is dry, add more butter.4. Flatten the pastry dough with palms and put the pineapple filling in the middle and cover the filling. Use your palms to round it up and shape it into a roll acout 1.5 inch long. Use fork to make criss-cross pattern and brush it with egg wash.5. Preheat the oven for 250F and bake for 20-25 minutes or until light brown.
Yummy!

Ingredients

Pineapple Jam

before bake

After bake