Fresh pineapple is cooked and reduced to a very thick consistency and usually used to fill up Pineapple Tarts.
Pineapples were on sale few weeks ago and with 4 pineapples at home, I thought I would made a compote or what we usually selai nenas in Indonesia. They were easy to make but just need about one hour to get it to a thick consistency to be used in Kue Nastar (Pineapple Tarts) 😉
How do you pick a pineapple?
To be honest, I’m not an expert either. Usually you would be able to smell a nice pineapple aroma at its base. A stranger told me before that I should be albe to tug on one of the inner leaves. Those are the signs that the pineapple is ready.
Look at how much juice was squeezed out. This helps to reduce cooking time. All the cooking does is caramelizing the sugar to make it turn dark brown and to evaporate the liquid. My two kids were fighting for the juice!
The amount of juice that I squeezed out from the pineapple puree
The thickness of the pineapple jam is necessary when you are going to use it to make Kue Nastar. The jam is usually rolled into a ball and then wrapped with the dough.
After 30 minutes of cooking
After close to 1 hour of cooking
How To Make Pineapple Jam for Pineapple Tarts
Ingredients
- 1.3 kg pineapple (before trimming) see notes
- 90 gr sugar more or less to your taste
- 1 cinnamon stick or 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 3 cloves or 1/4 tsp ground cloves
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Optional:
- 20 gr maltose or golden syrup
Instructions
- Trim off the top and bottom of the pineapple. Start trimming the sides and then trim off the "eyes". Slice the pineapple vertically and cut off the core. Cut into little pieces. After trimmin it would be roughly about 800-900 grams. Use a blender to roughly chopped it.
- Optional: Use a strainer and use the back of the fork to squeeze out the juice. This helps to cut down on cooking time. You can save the juice for drinking or other use. If you choose to include the juice you just have to account for longer cooking time to cook off the liquid
- In a large pot, put in the chopped pineapple, sugar, and spices and cook over low heat. Stir every now and then and cook until they are a bit thicker, add the maltose or golden syrup if you choose to use. Continue to cook until it gets really thick, this may take about 1 hour or longer or about 2-2 1/2 hours if you include the pineapple juice in the cooking
How to store:
- Let the jam cools down completely. Store in glass container and keep in the refrigerator and it's good up to about 2 weeks and can be kept frozen for 1 month
Notes
Nutrition
Check out this melt-in-the-mouth Kue Nastar (Pineapple Tarts) recipe and video tutorial. It’s a must for Chinese New Year.
20 comments
Thanks for another lovely recipe! I cooked mines about 2 hours and it has the right consistency of jam but I didn’t get the beautiful caramelized deep brown colour you have in your pictures. I even added the golden syrup. Did I have to cook it longer to achieve this? But otherwise it tastes great and looking forward to making these into your other recipe – pineapple tarts over the weekend!
Hi Vicks, yes, the longer you cook, the “stiffer” the jam will be. The color deepens too. I usually cook it until really stiff to be used for pineapple tart. Depending on what you are going to use it for, for spreadable jam consistency, the color won’t be as deep as shown in the photo. I hope it makes sense 🙂
Can I use frozen pineapples? If so, how many grams of frozen pineapples?
Hi Lan, it should be the same amount for frozen pineapple
My pineapple was 1.3kgs (whole). I only made 136g of jam. Did you include the pineapple core in making the jam? Thanks.
Hi Sheena, no I didn’t include the core. Your yield amount sounds about right. I realize that the yield amount I had was for double recipe! Sorry for the confusion!
Am I able to use canned pineapple. It is difficult getting nice fresh pineapples here in Melbourne.
Hi Karine, yes, you can definitely use canned pineapple. Just make sure you drain the liquid and get the “dry” weight.
Hi! Could I ask you if there is a difference if I use a food processor or a blender to churn it? Or both will work? Thanks!
Hi Lilian, both should work 🙂
Btw, is there any reason to add additional sugar? I think the pineapple itself is sweet enough. What do you think omitting the sugar completely?
Hi Jos, the sugar caramelizes and makes the jam sticky and firm and suitable to use as a filling in tarts, etc. It’s hard to achieve this consistency without any sugar at all.
I’m lazy..can I make this using canned pineapple chunk?
Yes you can. In fact, I’m thinking of doing so myself last week, but I haven’t gotten any canned pineapple yet. I’m lazy to cut the pineapple too ha.ha..! It should work too!
Hi,
If you use canned pineapple, what is the equivalent quantity needed compared to the flesh of an untrimmed pineapple weighing 1.3 kg?
Hi, I would say roughly about 900 grams of pineapple chunks (without the juice that comes with it)
I know this is an utter sacrilegious questions, but…
I love these cakes, but my son is allergic to pineapple. Is it possible to do these with a different fruit?
Hi Ariadne, you certainly can cook a different kind of jam. I would think like apricot, orange, mango, apple, or whatever you have in mind will work too. Just make sure you cook it to a very thick consistency. I’ve once tried to use store-bought strawberry jam (because I was lazy to make the pineapple jam) because I need to experiment with this tart recipe, and it didn’t work out so well. The jam store-bought is not thick enough. Other than that, it should work with different fruit.
Seems easy enough! Now I won’t feel as intimidated:) I have heard a lot about the traditional pineapple tarts served around Chinese New Year and that you pretty much cannot celebrate without them. But as you point out, this jam can have multiple creative applications, I can see it pair well with certain cheeses and IPAs (lol), as well as be used as ingredient to various sauces for chicken or pork. Or like a glaze for grilled meat. Thank you for sharing how to make it!
I know you are going to work that IPAs wonder into anything 😉 and you are good at that!