Pineapple Cookies (凤梨酥) are a Lunar New Year favorite. These bite sized balls of melt-in-your-mouth, buttery shortbread have a fruity pineapple jam center.
About this recipe
If the idea of making the homemade jam filling seems intimidating, you can relax. Making the filling is not only easy, but takes only about 30 minutes!
For ease and time saving, this recipe uses canned pineapple. The chunks are drained, then hand squeezed to remove as much moisture as possible.
The puree and some sugar is then stirred over medium heat until it thickens into jam. Easy.
The shortbread-like dough comes together quickly kneaded by hand, or even quicker with an electric mixer. The dough is smooth like playdough and easy to work with.
Recipe ingredients
Directions for jam
- Drain the canned pineapple, and then, using your hands squeeze out any additional juice.
- In a blender or food processor, puree the pineapple for 10 seconds.
- In a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, combine the puree and ¼ cup sugar.
- Mix continually with a wooden spoon until thickened (approximately 30 minutes). Set aside to cool.
Directions for cookies
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- In the bowl of an electric mixer (or in a food processor or by hand) combine the ingredients until a smooth dough forms.
- To prepare balls of pineapple filling, scoop ¼ heaping teaspoons of filling and roll into 16 balls.
- Scoop 1 tablespoon of dough and flatten into a disc shape. Place a filling ball in the center of the dough disc. Wrap the dough around the filling, and roll the dough into a ball.
- Place the filled dough balls on a parchment lined baking sheet at least 2" apart.
- Press the back of a butter knife into the dough ball to create a criss-cross pattern, then brush the top of each cookie with egg wash.
- Bake for 18-20 minutes or until the tops are golden brown and the bottom edge begins to brown.
FAQ's
The word for pineapple in Hokkien, the Chinese dialect spoken in Southeast Asia, also means "luck is coming". People eat pineapple tarts for good luck. There are many additional Chinese New Year food traditions.
Stored in an airtight container at room temperature, they can be kept for up to one week. The cookies can be stored for up to 2 weeks in the refrigerator.
Tips
- These cookies, like most Asian cookies are only mildly sweet. If a sweeter version is desired, add a sprinkling of decorating sugar or a drizzle of confectioners sugar glaze on top.
- Traditionally, no flavoring is added to the buttery cookie, but an optional bit of pineapple flavoring boosts the fruity flavor.
- When squeezing the pineapple before pureeing, it is important to remove as much juice as possible. The less moisture that remains, the less time it takes to cook down into jam.
- To keep the jam from burning, keep the heat at medium-low and stir continually.
More Chinese New Year recipes
Peanut Cookies are bite sized treats that will melt in your mouth!
Butter Cookie Dragons aren't traditional, but they are cute and tasty additions to a Lunar New Year celebration.
These traditional Chinese New Year Almond Cookies are crunchy butter cookies with wonderful almond flavor.
For more delicious recipe suggestions, take a look at this roundup of 10 Chinese New Year Treats.
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Pineapple Cookies (凤梨酥) for Chinese New Year
Ingredients
Pineapple Jam
- 20 ounce can pineapple slices or chunks packed in juice
- 8 ounce can pineapple slices or chunks packed in juice
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
Cookie Dough
- 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 4 tablespoons powdered sugar
- ½ cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 1 egg yolk
- ½ teaspoon pineapple flavoring optional
Egg Wash Coating
- 1 egg yolk
- ½ tablespoon condensed milk regular milk can be substituted but will produce a less shiny coating
Instructions
Pineapple Jam
- Drain the canned pineapple, and then, using your hands squeeze out any additional juice.
- In a blender or food processor, puree the pineapple for 10 seconds.
- In a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, combine the pineapple puree and ¼ cup sugar. Mix continually with a wooden spoon until thickened (approximately 30 minutes). Set aside to cool.
Cookie Dough
- Preheat the oven to 325°. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch, salt, and confectioners sugar.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer (or in a food processor or by hand) combine the flour mixture, butter, 1 egg yolk, and (optional) pineapple flavoring until a smooth dough forms.
- To make cookies, first prepare balls of pineapple filling. Scoop ¼ heaping teaspoon of filling and roll into a ball. Roll 16 filling balls.
- Use a small scoop or 1 tablespoon, to scoop a ball of dough. Flatten the scoop of dough into a disc shape and place a filling ball in the center of the dough disc. Wrap the dough around the filling, and roll the dough into a ball.
- Place the filled dough balls on the prepared cookie sheet at least 2" apart.
- Press the back of a butter knife into the top of the cookie dough ball to create a criss-cross pattern.
- Combine the egg yolk and condensed milk to make an egg wash.
- Brush the top of each cookie with the egg wash.
- Bake for 18-20 minutes or until the tops of the cookies are golden brown and the bottom edge begins to brown.
- Allow to cool on the baking pan for 5-10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Store cooled cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week.
Notes
- These cookies, like most Asian cookies are only mildly sweet. If a sweeter version is desired, add a sprinkling of decorating sugar or a drizzle of confectioners sugar glaze on top.
- Traditionally, no flavoring is added to the buttery cookie, but an optional bit of pineapple flavoring boosts the fruity flavor.
- When squeezing the pineapple before pureeing, it is important to remove as much juice as possible. The less moisture that remains, the less time it takes to cook down into jam.
- To keep the jam from burning, keep the heat at medium-low and stir continually.
Nutrition
First Published: February 6, 2016 Last Updated: January 25, 2021 Updated for additional information and improved photographs.
Marin
I was excited to try this recipe because the idea of the pineapple jam centre seemed delightful and they seemed fairly easy to make (dough in the food processor?). I followed the recipe to a T except that when I made the heaping 1/4tsp jam balls I ended up with 98! not 16. The jam was pretty tasty at least! So then I quadrupled the dough recipe, but was too crumbly to work with so I had to add a few tbsp of pineapple juice to end up with the 'playdough' consistency. I also added the optional pineapple flavouring but I only used half the amount because I was worried about a strong artificial flavour. Eventually I got them all stuffed (wow that was a lot of cookies to stuff) and ended up with everything looking right - my cookies looked just like the picture. But we were really disappointed when they were done. So dry and incredibly bland. All the pineapple flavour disappeared when they cooked - all the moisture was sucked out of the jam and they were still so dry they suck the moisture right out of your mouth. It was a lot of work for a very cute but rather unpleasant cookie.
Wendy Sondov
This is one recipe I've made many times, so I know it works as written. I will try to guess at what might have caused your unsatifsfactory results. Your description sounds like several things went wrong. Starting with the jam, if you were working with the indicated 28 ounces of pineapple chunks, it sounds like you didn't cook the jam down nearly enough. The consistency of the jam should be almost dough like. You might have some jam left over but certainly not 6 times the indicated amount. Please refer to the detailed photos in the post to see exactly how reduced the jam should be. The jam flavor intensifies as it cooks down which is the probable cause of your cookies not having much flavor. The dough is a basic shortbread and should be very buttery. I've never tried multiplying this dough all at once. Many recipes don't work well when multiplied in that way because the ingredients can't combine properly. The main cause of crumbly dough is too much flour which can happen if flour is measured incorrectly by scooping the flour into the measuring cup. That will compact the flour and you end up with too much.
Holly
Question, it says condensed milk, is that sweetened condensed milk?
Wendy Sondov
Yes, the recipe calls for sweetened condensed milk. Condensed milk is always sweetened. That is what makes it different from evaporated milk which is unsweetened. 🙂
Surelean
Do you really use 2 cans of pineapple?
Wendy Sondov
The pineapple cooks down into a jam. The liquid condenses and evaportates. Yes, you do need the amount of pineapple indicated in the recipe.
Cindy
Love this post Wendy. The photos and recipe are so detailed. Love homemade jam. You get to control the sweetness.
Shirley Wood
Goodness these look so delicious! So glad you shared this recipe with us at Merry Monday. Pinned. Hope to see ya next week.
Miz Helen
Congratulations!
Your post is on The Top Ten for Full Plate Thursday! Thanks so much for sharing with us and hope you enjoy your new Red Plate, I am pinning your post to our Features Board!
Miz Helen
Karren
You know I love all of your baking and these look really special!!
I have chosen your post from Friday Features Linky Party 2/16 to feature on this week's party. It is also going to get a boost on my Instagram account, so watch for it. And it is pinned on my Friday Features Pinterest Board!!!
I appreciate that you stop by to share your awesome blog with us each week!
Wishing you a lovely weekend!!
Best
Karren
Jenny Thompson
I’m making these for a late Chinese New Years party Saturday(sickness prevented a party on the actual day). My filling turned out ok but the dough is really really dry and crumbing. Any suggestions? Thank you!
The Monday Box
Hi Jenny. I am sorry to hear that your dough isn't holding together. It sounds like maybe you used too much flour? Unfortunately, American recipes are in volume rather than in weight. If we all used kitchen scales, the outcomes would be more consistent. The best way to measure flour is to spoon it into your measuring cup and then level off the top. Scooping flour packs it into the measuring cup and then you end up with more flour than required by weight. I am not sure what happened to your dough, but you need to add a little bit of moisture (bit by bit) until your dough comes together. You could use water, milk, juice, vegetable oil (or a combination). I hope this helps and your cookies are rescued for your party!
April J Harris
Your Pineapple Cookies look lovely, Wendy! I'm always looking for a light, fruity dessert to serve after Chinese food - and these are perfect. Sharing on the Hearth and Soul Facebook page tomorrow. Thank you so much for being a part of the Hearth and Soul Link Party.
Joyce @ My Stay At Home Adventures
These look amazing and my teen will love making them for her class. Thank you!
The Monday Box
Thank you, Joyce! I hope your daughter has fun making these and her classmates enjoy them. I was a little intimidated by the idea of making pineapple jam, but it's actually really quick and simple!