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Susan Jung

I love pineapple desserts but they rarely feature on restaurant menus. With its crown of spikes and rough, tough skin, the pineapple looks rather formidable but the flesh is sweet. To tone down the pineapple's inherent acidity and bring out the sweetness, it's essential that the fruit has been salted (and rinsed off).
Pineapple jam
With most preserves, I cook the fruit and sugar as quickly as possible, to maintain the fresh flavour. Pineapple jam needs to be cooked for about five hours, so the fruit becomes tender. One large pineapple fills only about two 200-gram jam jars.
Rough-flaked sea salt
1 large pineapple (weighing at least 1kg)
500 grams sugar
6-8 cloves
1 cinnamon stick (about 5cm long), broken into several pieces
Half a vanilla bean
Water, as needed
Use a sturdy bread knife to cut off the top and bottom of the pineapple. Stand it up on one flat end and, using a sawing motion, cut off the skin from the top to the bottom, following the contour of the fruit. Once all the skin has been trimmed off, examine the pineapple - you'll see that the 'eyes' run in a diagonal pattern across the flesh. Following the diagonal, remove the eyes by cutting shallow V-shaped wedges around them. Quarter the pineapple lengthwise and cut out and discard the core. Cut the pineapple into 1cm chunks and place them in a large colander. Sprinkle the fruit with salt (about 50 grams) and mix with your hands so the fruit is evenly coated. Put the colander over a bowl and leave for about an hour, mixing occasionally. Rinse the fruit thoroughly with cold water to wash away all of the salt - taste several pieces of the pineapple to make sure it doesn't taste salty. Drain the fruit then weigh it - you should have at least 750 grams. If you have more or less than 750 grams of pineapple, adjust the amount of sugar proportionately (two parts sugar to three parts fruit).
Put the fruit into a large, sturdy pan. Slit the vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape out the tiny seeds. Put the seeds and scraped-out pod into the pan, along with the sugar, cloves, cinnamon and about 150ml of water. Place the pan over a low flame and heat, stirring frequently, until all the sugar is dissolved. Continue to cook the ingredients over a low flame for about five hours, stirring frequently and adding water if necessary to prevent the jam from sticking to the pan. When it's ready, the fruit will be broken down into small pieces and the jam will be thick and deep golden brown. Fish out the vanilla pod and the pieces of cinnamon stick, ladle the jam into jars, cool completely, then store in the fridge.
Pineapple tarts (pictured)
In Singapore, pineapple tarts come in many shapes, from small rounds, or ovals, that are entirely pastry-encased, with only a small amount of jam inside, to two-layer cookies with jam at the centre. These tartlet-shaped pineapple tarts contain a lot more jam than you'll find in commercial offerings.
The dough recipe is based on one in the book Mes Tartes by Christine Ferber.
500 grams plain (all-purpose) flour
10 grams sugar
375 grams slightly softened butter
3/4 tsp fine sea salt
150ml ice water
Pineapple jam, at room temperature
Dissolve the salt in the ice water. In a large bowl, mix the flour with the sugar. Use your fingertips to break the butter into small chunks and add them to the flour mixture. Use your fingertips to combine all the ingredients and pinch the butter into smaller and smaller flour-coated pieces. When the mixture resembles coarse meal, drizzle the water over the ingredients. Mix with your hand until the dry ingredients are evenly moistened, then knead the dough lightly and briefly. Divide the dough into two even pieces, flatten each one into a disc, wrap in a double layer of cling-film then refrigerate for at least an hour.
Pinch off 1.5cm chunks of dough and shape them into balls. Press the balls into tartlet pans that are about 3cm in diameter. The dough should be about 2mm thick at the sides and a little thinner at the base. Roll some of the scraps of dough about 2mm thick between two layers of cling-film, then use a small pizza cutter to cut the dough into strands that are about 2mm wide and 2cm long. Refrigerate the tartlets and dough strands for about 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Spoon some of the pineapple jam into each tartlet mould, mounding it at the centre. Put two strands of dough in a criss-cross shape over the jam. Place the tartlets on a tray and bake for about 10 minutes, or until they're golden brown. Cool before removing them from the pans.
Pineapple sorbet
This is one of my favourite sorbets. Even people who dislike raw pineapple enjoy it. Vodka prevents the sorbet from freezing too hard while the egg white gives it a lighter texture.
1 large pineapple
200 grams granulated sugar
300ml water
About 30ml fresh lemon juice
15ml vodka
1/2 tsp egg white (optional)
Bring the water to the boil, then stir in the sugar until it's dissolved. Let the sugar syrup cool completely. Salt and rinse the pineapple as in the first recipe. Pur?e it in a food processor then put the mixture through a fine-meshed food mill. Weigh the juice and add two-thirds of the amount of sugar syrup (the proportions are three parts juice to two parts syrup). Whisk in lemon juice to taste then stir in the vodka and egg white. Chill overnight in the fridge then process in an ice-cream freezer according to the manufacturer's directions (you might need to churn the sorbet in two batches).
Pack into airtight containers and freeze for at least two hours.
Styling: Corner Kitchen Cooking School
 


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Lifestyle

Food & Drink

Behind the tough and spiky exterior lies a sweet, versatile fruit that deserves more credit than it is given


Susan Jung's recipes

Three pineapple dessert recipes: tarts, jam and sorbet

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Behind the tough and spiky exterior lies a sweet, versatile fruit that deserves more credit than it is given

Behind the tough and spiky exterior lies a sweet, versatile fruit that deserves more credit than it is given