It’s Never Too Early to Plan for Prosperity
Pineapple tarts are no strangers during festive seasons in Malaysia, be it Chinese New Year or Hari Raya Aidilfitri or even Deepavali. It is also a staple “to-buy” whenever you are in Melaka as they would use gula Melaka to cook the pineapple jam. Year in, year out, we see lots of variations of pineapple tarts; enclosed, open faced, nastar, squares, and oblong and cut to shape. The list could be endless to the types and recipes that comes along with Pineapple Tart when you google it. Recipes of pineapple tarts could also be a sharing topic whenever families or friends (or aunties in the morning market) come together to discuss about. But I can tell you, the greatness of a recipe can only be enhanced by good quality ingredients. When it comes to CNY cookies or any bakes at home, I don’t skimp on quality.
To usher in the Year of the Ram this Chinese New Year, SCS takes on the ambitious task of upgrading a familiar festival classic, the pineapple tart. For over a century, SCS has remained Singapore’s top-selling butter brand and has secured its position in refrigerators everywhere as the preferred premium butter brand that everyone wants to have in their cakes, cookies, pastries, and on their toast as they dash off for another good day at work.
Renowned for its premium quality, taste, and texture, SCS butter is the definition of au naturel, free of artificial colourings, additives, preservatives and hormones. Produced in Australia, SCS butter is made from 100% Australian dairy cows’ milk, where the cattle are allowed to graze freely in green pastures. Just as the Swiss are with their watches, the dairy farms that supply the milk used to produce SCS butter undergo a strict selection process to comply with Australia’s top-notch production standards, whereby random samples are taken from each production batch to ensure that the taste, aroma, texture, and colour are of a premium grade.
With improved standards of living and the rise of an epicurean generation, people return to quality that they recognise and trust. The flavour of SCS butter as it melts on the tongue is unforgettable and irreplaceable, much like how its simple yet distinctive aluminium wrapping with a blue star logo is a necessary sight on supermarket shelves. Their absence is unthinkable.
As such, SCS takes a step further by introducing eight newly developed pineapple tarts, complemented with a variety of flavours, to enhance and update a much beloved classic. These new varietals include Pineapple Cream Cheese, Pecan Pineapple, Berrylicious Pineapple, Chocolate Brownie Pineapple, Caramel Pineapple, Creamy Mango and Pineapple White Chocolate, Oatmeal Pineapple, and Green Tea Pineapple.
“It is a risk we happily partake,” comments Michelle Lim, Chief Creative Officer of SCS Butter Malaysia. “If we don’t take risks to venture into new frontiers previously unexplored by others, we lose out on the opportunity to discover something exciting and wonderful. We know we can make great pineapple tarts with SCS butter, so now let’s try to push the envelope further.”
Some of my favourite tarts are the Cream Cheese Pineapple Tart (where SCS Cream Cheese is mixed in with the pineapple jam), Chocolate Pineapple Tart, Pecan Crumble Pineapple Tart and Mango Pineapple.
Cream Cheese Pineapple Tart; Cream de la creme
Mango Pineapple Tart; Lady in White
Chocolate Pineapple Tart; Dark Desire
Pecan Crumble Pineapple Tart; Pecans Please
I was happy to take on this project. If you’re a blogger or media representative and have received a box with 8 types of pineapple tarts, they were baked by yours truly. Baking pineapple tarts are easy. BUT it takes a lot of time as each ball of filling and dough, is measured to precise measurement to ensure they are all uniformed. Not just pineapple tarts, I always weigh cookie dough before baking and don’t think this is a ‘close-one-eye’ step. Having different weighed dough on a tray, may yield different baking times in the oven, thus a different result in colour and taste.
Coming from a baker’s point of view, when making cookie, the woe is in handling the dough. Some dough can be quite soft to handle as you want to retain a high percentage of fat in the dough, to give a melt-in-the-mouth texture. If you are working with a hard dough, it could be of the high ratio of flour, thus making the tart dense and hard. So, when I was making these tarts, I realized that the butter, when soft, makes the dough soft as well, but still pliable and doesn’t stick on your hand. If you work on cheaper butter (or even margarine) (PS I worked with a margarine brand to make some cookies before), the dough is seriously a nightmare to handle. So this year, why not, try to use a good quality butter to make your cookies. If making pineapple tart is not your thing, make the German Crunch Cookie. The butter fragrant really shines though in this cookie.
Now I will remake some for Chinese New Year this year but with my homemade jam. Homemade jam + good butter, I’m pretty sure it will finish fast!!
Here’s a recipe of a Lady in White; Mango and Pineapple open faced tart. To make this, cook mango puree and pineapple jam till it is dry again. I’m thinking maybe you can also use passionfruit puree for that extra tang. Great when paired with white chocolate.
For more information, explore:
SCS’s official website: http://www.scsdairy.com
SCS’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/scsdairymalaysia
SCS’s YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/SCSDairy
APGL’s corporate website: http://www.auricgroup.com