Pineapple Cake (Fenglisu)
Taiwan's signature gift confection — and the filling in a traditional one is mostly winter melon rather than pineapple. Cooked down on its own, pineapple stays fibrous and sharply sour and gives off juice in the oven that soaks the pastry under it; winter melon tastes of almost nothing but reduces to something soft and stiff enough to hold a cube. The pineapple goes in for aroma. All-pineapple filling is the more recent revival, and it has a name of its own.
Ingredients
- Filling (makes 16)
- winter melon · daikon or courgette will stand in, with a different aroma600 g
- pineapple · fresh or tinned; squeeze the juice out and keep it300 g
- sugar120 g
- glucose or corn syrup · helps it set stiff2 tbsp
- lemon juice1 tsp
- Pastry
- butter · soft150 g
- icing sugar50 g
- full-fat milk powder · do not leave it out; the reason is in the tips30 g
- egg · at room temperature1
- cake flour200 g
- cornflour30 g
- salt1 pinch
- Equipment
- square moulds · about 4.5cm; shaping by hand also works16
Steps
- ⏲ 15 min
Peel and seed the winter melon, grate it coarsely and wring it out in a cloth — no salt. Grate the pineapple too and squeeze its juice out, keeping the juice.
- ⏲ 45 min
Put the wrung melon, the pineapple flesh, sugar, syrup and lemon juice in a wide pan and cook down over medium-low heat for 40 to 50 minutes. It has to be a wide pan or the water has nowhere to go.
- ⏲ 5 min
It is ready when a spatula drawn through the middle leaves a channel that stays open and does not fill with juice. Looser than that and the pastry under it goes wet in the oven; stiffer and it cracks.
- ⏲ 30 min
Stir in 3 tablespoons of the reserved pineapple juice at the very end and cook one minute, to put the aroma back. Spread it out, cool it completely and roll into 16 balls.
- ⏲ 5 min
Beat the butter and icing sugar 3-4 minutes until pale, then mix in the milk powder and the egg. Do not whip it long — this pastry is not supposed to rise.
- ⏲ 30 min
Sift in the flour, cornflour and salt and mix only until no dry flour shows. Divide into 16 and chill 30 minutes.
- ⏲ 20 min
Flatten a piece of dough in your palm, wrap it round a ball of filling and seal it, then set it in a square mould and press down so it fills the corners.
- ⏲ 27 min
15 minutes at 170°C, then turn the moulds over and give it 12 minutes more. Both faces should be pale gold — deep brown is overdone for this cake.
- ⏲ 30 min
Do not turn them out hot. Let them cool completely in the moulds or the corners collapse.
Tips & Variations
Variations
- Tu fenglisu (土鳳梨酥): made with pineapple alone and no winter melon, the name meaning "native pineapple cake". Much sharper and more fibrous, with a distinct acidity. It is a recent revival rather than the tradition, which is why it has a separate name.
- With salted egg yolk: a salted duck egg yolk set in the middle of the filling, doing the same job as it does in a mooncake.
- Cranberry or lychee: the same pastry with a different reduced filling; gift boxes usually mix several.
- Round or cylindrical: square is the standard but the mould shape is free. What matters is pressing it in, not the shape.
- With Bündner Nusstorte and Linzer torte: all three bake a stiff filling inside a short pastry, and they differ in what makes the filling stiff — caramel, high-pectin jam, and here a vegetable cooked dry.
Tips
- The traditional filling is mostly winter melon, and knowing that explains everything else. Pineapple cooked down on its own stays fibrous and sharply sour, and above all it will not set stiff, so it gives off juice in the oven. Winter melon tastes of almost nothing and reduces to something soft and firm. The pineapple is in it for aroma, part of which comes from the juice stirred back in at the end.
- The stiffness of the filling decides the cake. A channel drawn through it with a spatula has to stay open. Looser and the pastry beneath goes soggy in the oven; stiffer and it cracks as it cools. The same condition Linzer torte sets out for its jam.
- Do not leave out the milk powder. The milk solids are what give this pastry its sandy mouthfeel and its dairy aroma. Replaced with the same weight of flour it is just a plain biscuit.
- It is built not to rise. No baking powder, and the butter is not beaten long. A pastry that puffs pulls away from the filling and the filling rattles about inside.
- Bake it turned over. Heated only from below, the base darkens while the top stays pale. Flipping the moulds after 15 minutes is the only way to get both faces the same colour.
- Stop at pale gold. Deep brown is close to burnt for this cake: the milk powder means the Maillard reaction browning describes happens quickly.
- Turn them out cold. Hot, the corners collapse. This pastry sets its shape as the butter solidifies again.
- They are better the next day, as a little moisture moves from the filling into the pastry, the sandiness softens and the aromas mix. Airtight, at room temperature.
The basics behind this dish
- Eggs: Coagulation Temperatures and What They DecideWhite sets at 62°C, yolk at 68°C. Those two numbers explain scrambled eggs, boiled eggs, steamed custard and crème anglaise all at once.
- Why Sauces Split: Emulsions and Pan SaucesA cream sauce breaking and a carbonara scrambling are the same failure. Temperature and emulsifiers — plus how to bring a split sauce back.
- Knife Skills: Grip, Cuts, and Why Size MattersHow you hold the knife matters more than how fast you cut. The pinch grip, the claw hand, and why uniform size is a cooking decision rather than a cosmetic one.
More of the same kind
More from this country
Sign in to edit.
AI-drafted, editor-reviewed · edits: 0 ·Edit history
https://cookiki.com/en/r/pineapple-cake · cookiki · User contributions are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.