Nastar , Ananas Tarts

What is actually Nastar ? My American friends would wonder what is it ? They took a look at it and took a bite , all of them said it looks great , cute and petite and oh so yummy , mouth watering little cookies . Well , Nastar is Ananas Tarts . Ananas , i think is French for Pineapple . Indonesian calls it Nanas . Hence the word Nastar ( Ananas Tart ) Over 3 centuries Indonesia was occupied by the Dutch , and there were so many influenced over the 300 years in everything , including food and baked goods .

How does it taste like ? The best way to describe the flavor of this South East Asian sweet treats is like taking a bite of shortbread cookies , except with pineapple jam filling . Nastar ( also known as pineapple tarts ) was pretty much fancy cookies that i was only able to eat around holidays when i was younger . My mom never even made these little things , i guess i just found out couple hours ago , why she never bothered to make them . Don’t get me wrong , it is delicious sweet treats , it is special , they melt in your mouth type of cookies , and then the sweet pineapple jam .. especially if the jam itself is homemade , is really unbeatable .

I think i knew why i am here , typing this entry , after spending hours of baking this cookies , annoyed  . Prepping to be exact , the baking was only 20-25 minutes , the prepping is another story . I like baking cookies but not as much baking bread . During holidays , we always bake cookies , tons of cookies , at least we used to . We bake mexican wedding cookies , cut out butter cookies , butter horns , etc Yes a lot of work of cutting and shaping , but nothing compared to this Asian sweet treats , Nastar . This was a lot more work .

I made the pineapple jam couple of days ago , it was easy obviously , just a lot of standing and stirring , there is another entry , on how to make your homemade pineapple jam . And I was going to wait til weekend to bake this , but i chose to do it today . I had nothing to do this afternoon, figured , i might as well get this done . There i was standing and weighing and shaping the pineapple jam into small balls , weighed only 8 grams . And continued with making the cookie dough , the dough was easy to make . And afterwards , weighing and shaping the dough into another small balls , this time , about 11 grams size . I wasn’t complaining , i thought it was nothing to complain about . It was just fine , it’s like making mexican wedding cookies , except i was trying to be precise by weighing every single one of them .

Then came the part to put the filling into the dough .. wrapping the pineapple jam with the dough balls . I had a hard time in the beginning and after 4 cookies shaped , i started to regret why am i doing this . Why did i choose to do this . It was basically a tedious job , that took a long time to make . And within 3 hours , guess how many i made ? This recipe only produce 60 cookies .. yes 60 freaking cookies ! It should have been 120 instead of 60 !!

But anyway .. here it goes

Ingredients :

• 263 grams unsalted butter , about 2 sticks plus 3 Tbsp butter , room temperature
• 75 grams sweet condensed milk ( i used eagle brand )
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 383 grams all purpose flour , sifted
• 2 egg yolks
• 525 grams pineapple jam ( if you do homemade , do it separate day and let it chill in the fridge until ready to be used )
• 1 egg plus 1 tbsp milk to brush

Direction :

• In a mixing bowl , beat the butter and condensed milk until really light and fluffy , using paddle attachment , and high speed on the mixer for few minutes .
• Add the egg , one at a time until combine .
• Add the sifted flour and salt into the mixture .
• Mix with slow speed until combine .

Shaping

• When you’re ready to assemble the cookies , weigh the pineapple jam and shape it into small ball , about 8 grams each
• When the dough is ready , weigh and shape into 11 grams balls .
• I find it easier to flatten the dough without breaking or sticking to your hands by using plastic wrap . I would place the dough ball in between plastic wrap then flatten it out , and then i would place the jam on the cookie dough , and start wrapping it up .
• Roll the dough into smooth dough ball and place it on parchment paper , seam side down . Do the same with the rest
• Brush with egg yolks when you’re ready to bake .
• Bake at 325 F , about 20-25 minutes .
• Cool the cookies before tasting them or storing them .