Sweet Decadenze

I’m feeling happy and troubled at the same time; happy because my tarts apparently taste good enough to warrant unsolicited sales enquiries, but troubled because I am running on such a tight schedule.  It doesn’t help that the coming Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday nights have been reserved for reunion dinners and that I’m flying off to Japan on Friday night!

So anyhow, my mum wants 9 tubs, some colleagues want 3 tubs or more (I daren’t let the rest of them know I’m taking orders because I know I cannot manage more orders) and I need 4 tubs for other relatives and 2 tubs for our home (for myself, really :P).

That is a grand total of 18 tubs of pineapple tarts I must bake over the next week or so.  And excluding the 8 pineapples now lying in my fridge, I need to get another 8 pineapples.  Gosh!  Poor Hubby has to grate 18 pineapples for me within these 2 days.  It’s really no small feat; anyone who has tried grating the pineapples will know that it’s a very tough job, but it is such an essential step to making good pineapple tarts!

How much should I charge per tub of 35 tarts?  $18 or $20?  I know that my Ah Kim was charging like 50 cents per tart about 10 years ago.  I don’t know what’s the market rate for good homemade pineapple tarts (with homemade pineapple jam) nowadays, but I know I will not short-change myself.  Making pineapple tarts my style is a lot of hard work.

 Pineapple Tart Pastry
350g butter
600 all-purpose flour
some salt

I have received quite a number of queries on the recipe for the pineapple tart pastry.  I won’t be sharing nor emailing the recipe because I think it’s not very fair to Valerie.  She’s still conducting lessons, so go sign up if you want to get her fantastic recipe.  However, I’ve listed down the major ingredients used in the recipe but not the minor ones.  The minor ingredients are those that will not affect your pastry adversely if they are not present, but they are the ones that makes the pastry different.