The first time I ate my Mother-in-law’s Pineapple Roll (Malaysian style), I was shocked by taste and texture. It’s nothing like my favorite Taiwanese pineapple pastry that’s square / rectangle with a powdery milky crust. The pastry was more like shortbread, while the only similar taste is the fresh pineapple filling. I finally managed to make my first batch. Despite it’s lots of work and time involved (eg. 3 hours of cooking the pineapple filling), it’s very satisfactory to make your own pineapple pastry.
Let me share the basic differences between the two types after I studied a dozen of different recipes:
Taiwanese: because of mass production, the filling usually is not just pineapple, but mixed with wintermelon for the texture. The crust: requires milk powder and parmesan cheese powder for its powdery texture and salty taste. You need to bake the finished pastry INSIDE a metallic (aluminum / tin / stainless steel) mould in the oven, and requires flipping during baking. Thus you need to buy at least 10 square / rectangle moulds to make a batch.
Malaysian: Never have filling mixed with wintermelon, thus the filling tends to be more sour depending how well you portion the sugar / maltose.
Crust: requires egg yolk / a good portion of custard powder for its yellow color, while they also treat the crust like a shortbread / cookie type dough: add vanilla or even baking powder / soda while never add milk + cheese powder. There are many ways to shape the dough, most commonly to be rolled up with filling in the center. And there is the cutest shape: a small pineapple with spikes like a porcupine. That’s my motivation to make a pineapple cake!
Porcupine shape Pineapple Cake
Traditional square shape Taiwanese Pineapple Cake, and I love putting personalized words on my goodies
Any cookie moulds (as long as it’s metal, not plastic ones) can be used to shape pineapple cakes
Don’t throw away the leftover pastry dough. Use it to make mini cookies!
Grace's Kitchen 