During Chinese New Year, tangerine is the official fruit. Every Chinese family will surely have tangerines. Tangerine in Cantonese is ‘kum’ which has the same pronunciation as gold in Cantonese. So, tangerine is an auspicious fruit during this festive season.

It is the Chinese customs to visit families and friends during the 15 days of Chinese New Year celebration. During such visits, the visitor will bring gifts which always include tangerines.

I saw this Tangerine Cookies in a recipe book which Ben brought back from Malaysia and its just perfect for Chinese New Year celebration. Unfortunately, the Tangerine Cookies did not turn out as pretty as those in the recipe book. I think its the temperature of the oven which caused the cookies to be slightly burn. Anyway, if you would like to try this recipe, I’ll recommend you lower the oven temperature.

Since the first batch of the Tangerine Cookies did not turn out as I expected, I used the rest of the pastry to make Pineapple Tarts. Actually its more to a Thump Print Pineapple Cookies because I do not have a pineapple tart cutter.

The Pineapple Tart turned out pretty good. Of course, I bake them in lower temperature that the recipe book recommended. I have always love the tartness of the pineapple in a slightly sweet pastry cookie.

Ingredients

• Pineapple filling (I will blog about this tomorrow)
• 300g plain flour
• 50g custard powder
• 1 tablespoon milk powder
• 180g butter
• 70g icing sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 beaten egg yolk
• Cloves for decoration

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 400F (I would recommend 350F).

Divide the pineapple filling into small balls. I will blog on how to make the pineapple filling tomorrow.

Sift plain flour, custard powder and milk powder together.

Put butter, icing sugar and egg in a bowl and beat with an electric mixer until the sugar is just dissolved.

Add the sifted ingredients into the butter/sugar/egg mixture. Mix until the dough holds together.

Remove and divide into small balls.

Slightly flatten the dough and wrap the pineapple filling with the dough. Shape into the shape of a tangerine. As for the Pineapple Tart, slightly flatten the dough into a disc and use your thumb to make a dent in the center of the disc. Put a small mound of pineapple filling in the center.

Arrange on a parchment lined baking tray. Brush with beaten egg yolk and stick a piece of clove on top. Bake at 400F (recommend 350F) for about 10 to 12 minutes.