Pineapple tarts

I didn't think I was going to make pineapple tarts for this Chinese New Year, but here I am again.  Must have been the guilt trip from the boys.  They LOVE pineapple tarts.  Okay, I love them too - but it just takes SO much effort to make them!

First off, you have to cook down the pineapple.  It's quicker with 2 pans, but even so - it takes over an hour. Yikes!

That pretty much sucked up all of my energy for the afternoon, so I'm waiting until the next day to actually make the tarts.

In the meantime, I figured the boys could learn how to make Chinese pancakes.  My grandmother used to make this all the time:

It's a good thing I had my "team" set up here to make it!  The boys thought that this one looked like Bob Ross - obviously it's not perfectly round. LOL!

Hmmm... I think I see him! It's that big hair, isn't it??  :-)

Charlie became unwell the next day.  Bad cough and sniffly nose.  I think he has been spending too much time in the cold, except Bobby will tell me that it's not the cold that makes you sick, it's the germs.  But there is a theory that when it's cold, the immunity in your nose almost drops by half and you can get more sick easily!  Well, that's my theory and I'm sticking to it :-P

Anyway, after making his concoction of pineapple, lemon, ginger, and honey smoothie - I had Charlie help me out with some Origami.  I volunteered to teach an after-school class once a week for the month this February.  I don't know why I decided to do it.  I guess so I can spend more time with Charlie? It will be my last year volunteering anyhow.  There won't be much going on in middle school.  Can't believe Charlie will be in 6th Grade next year!

I'm glad that Charlie is at least participating. Maybe he isn't so sick after all??

He was unwell enough to decide not to go to school and skip the last of his basketball game though.  But he is still going to help me make pineapple tarts.  Is this what Dragon-moms are like?? LOL!!

This is such the production!  You have to first grab tiny bits of just the pineapple puree, like on that plate to the left in the photo above. And then with the dough (lots of butter with condensed milk and flour), you take a little chunk of it and roll it into a ball in your palm. You then flatten it out on your palm. Once you've done that, you use your thumb to push into the middle part of that flattened dough in your palm to create a little well. That's where you put the pineapple puree.  Then, you close it up and roll everything into a ball. Did that make any sense? 

Charlie is getting quite good at it, but he uses a lot of dough so his pineapple "tarts" are really big compared to mine.  Ha! But I'm just happy he is willing to help.  Here's what they look like in the end:

I make criss-cross patterns with the back of a knife and brush it with a mix of egg white and some more condensed milk.  And in about 22~25 minutes later in the oven, VOILA!

We've already polished off 1.5 batches of these.  The other 1/2 batch was given to our friends that invited us for the Chinese New Year dinner party a couple of weekends ago.  I still have plenty of pineapple puree left. So I'm thinking about using it to make a different type of tart.  A good friend is celebrating her birthday this weekend, so it might be a Birthday-Valentine combo goody gift.  And of course, I'm sure Graham and Charlie will want some more too. Who doesn't... YUMMMM...!!  My waistline is definitely "happy" too but gosh, I think I'm at my heaviest weight in my entire life since moving here! Perhaps life is good here :-D