My mother and I have been working on a recipe for Taiwanese pineapple cakes and I think that we've finally cracked it. I'm going to write about the recipe later, but in this post I'm going to write about a different dessert I made with some leftover pineapple jam I had on hand after making pineapple cakes. While my mother makes her pineapple jam from just pineapple with nothing else added, I prefer a different approach. I make my jam from diced pineapple, water, and sugar in a roughly 100:25:10 ratio by weight; precision isn't critical. I just cook everything for about three hours, mashing the fruit occasionally, until the liquid has cooked off and the mixture has a jammy consistency. My mom freezes her extra jam but I enjoy the challenge of using up leftover ingredients.
So I decided to try Luisa Weiss' recipe for "Schwäbischer Prasselkuchen," which are streusel-jam slices from the Swabia region of Germany, with a layer of jam sandwiched between a buttery crust and almond streusel. While the recipe is written for apricot jam, Weiss suggests redcurrant or raspberry as other options, emphasizing the importance of using a jam on the tart side. Pineapple jam qualifies and it goes very well with almonds, so I was confident it would work.
The bars don't require a mixer. You make the crust by working together flour, sugar, salt, softened butter, an egg yolk, lemon zest, and water with your hands. You chill the dough for an hour before rolling it out to fit the bottom of a parchment-lined 9-inch by 13-inch pan. The recipe says that you should form raised edges, but I didn't have enough dough to build up the edges. I docked the dough and baked it until light golden, which took longer than the recipe specified; I never like to have an underbaked crust.
I let the crust cool (the recipe doesn't actually mention whether you should cool the crust or not) and spread on a thin layer of pineapple jam. The recipe calls for 300 grams of jam, but I used all of the pineapple jam I had on hand, which was 360 grams. Pineapple jam is fibrous and difficult to spread thinly; I had just enough to cover the crust in its entirely. I topped the bars with a layer of almond streusel made by mixing slivered almonds (that I had crushed with my fingers), flour, sugar, cinnamon, salt, and softened butter.
The recipe says to bake the bars until the jam is bubbling and the streusel is lightly colored. I went strictly by the color of the streusel, since my fibrous jam wasn't bubbling. I cut the bars into strips after they were completely cool and was delighted with how beautifully the slices came out, with no crumbling or broken pieces of crust. The crust was nicely cooked through and the bars were nice and sturdy.
I really loved these bars. The crust was perfect -- buttery and firm and crisp without being crumbly. Plus, the lemon zest in the crust added a bit of lovely brightness. The pineapple jam was slightly tart and very flavorful. And the streusel was wonderful with the crunch from the small pieces of almonds. The recipe calls for high-fat European butter in both the crust and the streusel but I didn't have any and used Land O'Lakes; I didn't find the final product wanting from using American butter.
Recipe: "Schwäbischer Prasselkuchen" from Classic German Baking by Luisa Weiss.
Previous Post: "Failed Tarts Beget Great Ones: Pineapple Jam Tart with Almond Crumble," November 10, 2015.
So I decided to try Luisa Weiss' recipe for "Schwäbischer Prasselkuchen," which are streusel-jam slices from the Swabia region of Germany, with a layer of jam sandwiched between a buttery crust and almond streusel. While the recipe is written for apricot jam, Weiss suggests redcurrant or raspberry as other options, emphasizing the importance of using a jam on the tart side. Pineapple jam qualifies and it goes very well with almonds, so I was confident it would work.
The bars don't require a mixer. You make the crust by working together flour, sugar, salt, softened butter, an egg yolk, lemon zest, and water with your hands. You chill the dough for an hour before rolling it out to fit the bottom of a parchment-lined 9-inch by 13-inch pan. The recipe says that you should form raised edges, but I didn't have enough dough to build up the edges. I docked the dough and baked it until light golden, which took longer than the recipe specified; I never like to have an underbaked crust.
I let the crust cool (the recipe doesn't actually mention whether you should cool the crust or not) and spread on a thin layer of pineapple jam. The recipe calls for 300 grams of jam, but I used all of the pineapple jam I had on hand, which was 360 grams. Pineapple jam is fibrous and difficult to spread thinly; I had just enough to cover the crust in its entirely. I topped the bars with a layer of almond streusel made by mixing slivered almonds (that I had crushed with my fingers), flour, sugar, cinnamon, salt, and softened butter.
I really loved these bars. The crust was perfect -- buttery and firm and crisp without being crumbly. Plus, the lemon zest in the crust added a bit of lovely brightness. The pineapple jam was slightly tart and very flavorful. And the streusel was wonderful with the crunch from the small pieces of almonds. The recipe calls for high-fat European butter in both the crust and the streusel but I didn't have any and used Land O'Lakes; I didn't find the final product wanting from using American butter.
Recipe: "Schwäbischer Prasselkuchen" from Classic German Baking by Luisa Weiss.
Previous Post: "Failed Tarts Beget Great Ones: Pineapple Jam Tart with Almond Crumble," November 10, 2015.
Comments