Nastar (Pineapple Cookies)

5.0 from 7 reviews

Author: Anita Jacobson

Courses: Desserts

Cuisines: Chinese

Ingredients: Fruits

Prep Time: 4 hours

Cook Time: 3 hours

Total Time: 7 hours

Serves: 100 cookies

Ingredients

• Pineapple jam (make 700 gram)
• 1 ripe pineapple, flesh only, about 1.5 kilogram
• 1 cinnamon stick (optional)
• 3 cloves (optional)
• 200 gram brown sugar, or to taste
• Cookie dough (make 1 kilogram)
• 350 gram unsalted butter, room temperature
• 100 gram sweet condensed milk
• 2 egg yolks
• 510 gram all purpose flour
• Egg wash
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 teaspoon milk

Instructions

• Pineapple jam
  1. In a food processor/blender, puree pineapple. Transfer pineapple puree into a heavy bottom pot along with cinnamon stick, cloves, and brown sugar.
  2. Turn on heat to medium and cook until boiling. Reduce heat to a simmer and continue cooking until the jam is really thick. Add more sugar if needed. Near the end, be sure to stir and scrap frequently to prevent burning.
  3. Transfer jam to a mixing bowl to cool. To speed up the cooling process, you can wrap the bowl with a saran wrap and chill in the fridge.
  4. Once the jam is cool to touch, line a baking tray with parchment paper, scoop a bit of jam (roughly 7 gram each) and make round ball, then place it on the prepared tray. Repeat until the jam is used up. If you prepare are going to prepare the cookie dough on the next day, you can cover the baking tray with a saran wrap and return the tray to the fridge.
• Cookie dough
  1. Beat together butter and condensed milk until light and fluffy. Add egg, one and a time, beat until well mixed. Slowly add all purpose flour in batches into the mixture, beat until the dough becomes smooth, but not sticky. I find it easier if I just use my hand to incorporate the last batch of flour into the dough.
  2. Scoop 10 gram of dough and make a round ball. Repeat until dough is used up.
  3. Prepare 2 baking sheets, each lined with a parchment paper.
  4. Flatten each dough, place the pineapple jam filling at the center, gather the edges of the dough and wrap the filling with the dough. Roll into a round ball, then place on prepared baking sheet. Repeat for the rest of dough and jam filling.
  5. Mix egg yolk and milk together to make the egg wash. Brush the top of cookies with egg wash.
  6. Preheat oven to 160 Celsius (320 Fahrenheit). Bake the cookies for 30-40 minutes until golden brown.
  7. Let the cookies cool completely before storing them in nice looking jars.