If it’s two things that go together like fish and chips or salt and pepper, it’s pineapple and rum. The Plantation Stiggins Plneapple Rum is a good exemplification of how well these two go together, so much so this particular rum has won a slew of awards since its launch. And it’s no secret that pineapple juice works wonders with rum in a cocktail. Over in Asia, pineapple tarts are a staple during the annual Lunar Chinese New Year celebrations, and recipes abound for those tasty morsels, often made as bite sized pastries encasing a ball of pineapple jam filling, or open tarts with a ball of jam filling sitting atop it. I’ve seen tarts made with pineapple jam infused with the Stiggins pineapple rum, but to be honest, when i tried replicating it, I felt the rum got lost a little. After playing around with different styles of rums in the jam, it was the funky Hampden Overproof that I felt struck that balance between introducing a different dimension to the flavour of the jam without overpowering it at the same time. The Hampden OP isn’t one for sipping at the best of times, and for its part, the jam softens the funkiness of the rum while still letting those tropical banana ester notes that is so typical of Hampden shine through. Another thing that i stumbled upon? Brushing the top of the tarts as soon as it comes out of the over with some falernum liqueur adds another layer of complexity to the tarts…and basically gives you a Corn n Oil cocktail in edible form! The John D Taylor Velvet Falernum liqueur I used is a liqueur sweetened with sugar cane and infused with lime peels, almonds and cloves - flavours that all complement pineapple well too!

The recipe I used to make the tarts is based off this recipe from Rasa Malaysia but I’ve adapted it to accommodate the Hampden rum infusion, as well as make the pastry feel more buttery.

How to make the Pineapple Rum Tarts

Ingredients

Pastry

• 350g salted butter

• 105ml sweetened condensed milk

• 2 egg yolks

• 500g plain flour

• 1/4 teaspoon salt (sift with flour)

Wash for pastry

• 2 egg yolks

• 1/4 teaspoon sweetened condensed milk

• 1/2 teaspoon oil

• John D Taylor Velvet Falernum (for brushing after the pastry is cooked)

Pineapple jam filling

• 2 whole pineapples (make sure they are ripe)

• 250g to 300g sugar (tweak based on how sweet your pineapple is)

• 1 tablespoon lemon juice

• Hampden rum

Method

To make the pineapple jam filling

• Core pineapple, remove the “eyes” and cut into pieces

• Blend pineapple in a blender until it is pureed. Transfer into big pan or wok.

• Cook pureed pineapple over medium heat, stirring constantly so it doesn’t stick.

• When the pineapple is nearly dry, add the sugar and lemon juice then stir again to combine.

• Lower the heat to a simmer, then simmer the pineapple jam filling until it is sticky and really dry. As we will be infusing this later with rum, you’ll want to stir out almost all of the liquid.

• Transfer the pineapple jam filling into a container and chill in fridge until ready to use.

• Some 12 hours (or the night before) you are going to make the pastry, pour the rum into the jam filling, stir to combine and leave in fridge to infuse. You don’t want to pour too much rum because if it is too runny, the jam won’t stay in the pastry. As a rough guide, I worked off around 30ml rum to around a 2/3 cup of jam filling. Two pineapples yielded me around 2 cups and bit of jam filling, so I used around 120ml rum all up - I suggest you don’t pour in all the rum at one go but do it in increments of 30ml so you can gauge how liquidy the mix is before you add more.

To make the pastry

• Combine butter and condensed milk in mixer and cream until light and fluffy.

• Add in egg yolks and mix to combine.

• Mix flour to make a dough. It’ll be slightly sticky to the touch but it should come off the bowl cleanly.

• Refrigerate dough until ready to start shaping. If you are in a hot climate, I’d suggest you take out a chunk of the dough at a tim to shape. That’s because it is so buttery, it will melt if left out for too long.

To assemble the tarts

• Take out the jam and shape into tiny balls

• Shape the dough into similarly sized tiny balls.

• Flatten each ball of dough and place a ball of pineapple jam filling into the centre.

• Fold the edges of the dough to cover the jam then roll it so it is rounded. Use the back of a knife to score criss cross patterns on top of each ball.

• Combine all the wash ingredients except the falernum liqueur and use it to wash the top of each ball

• Bake for around 20 minutes in a pre-heated oven at 165C until the top is golden.

• Once it comes out of the oven, use a pastry brush to brush the top of each tart with the John D Taylor falernum liqueur.