How about Homemade Nastar – Pineapple Cakes for your Afternoon Coffee?

I had bought a fresh pineapple from my flying vegetable seller a few days ago, and wanted to prepare something for our afternoon coffee.

As I already wrote in my post about the Pis-Cok Lumpia, Indonesians seem to like abbreviations. That’s probably why the Pineapple Cake is called Nastar. It’s an abbreviation made from Nas (The Indonesian word for pineapple is nanas), and tar (the Indonesian word for cake is tar).

Surprisingly, it seems that fresh pineapple is quite a problem in baking because its enzymes tend to react with quite a few ingredients.

That’s why I decided to first make pineapple jam from my fresh pineapple, and then prepare cakes with it.

The homemade pineapple jam is amazingly delicious

Let’s have a look at the ingredients that I used for the Nastar:

Ingredients:

For the pineapple jam:

• 1 fresh pineapple
• 2 tablespoons sugar*
• 1 cinnamon stick

For the dough:

• 125 g margarine
• 25 g sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla powder
• 1 egg
• 185 g all-purpose flour
• 10 g corn starch

*depending on the sweetness of your pineapple, you may need/want to add more.

Preparation:

Firstly, we’ll prepare the pineapple jam. For this, wash and peel the pineapple, remove the chore, and cut it into chunks.

Place the pineapple chunks inside your blender, and shred them into a purée.

Pour the pineapple purée into a non-stick pan, add the sugar and the cinnamon stick, and cook on medium heat while stirring occasionally.

Cook until the mass has thickened pretty much, and there isn’t any liquid left. This took about 15 minutes in my case, but the cooking time may vary depending on your stove’s temperature and the size of your pineapple.

Pour the jam into a heat-resistant bowl, cover with a silicone lid, and let cool down completely.

Meanwhile, we’ll continue with the dough by placing the margarine inside a bowl, adding the sugar and vanilla powder, and whisking until both are mixed well.

Next, crack the egg into the margarine-sugar mass, and whisk again, until you have a homogeneous mass.

Sieve the flour and corn starch, and fold them into the dough with a spatula.

Knead shortly, and place on a slightly floured piece of parchment paper which is the size of your baking pan.

The Nastar (Pineapple Cakes) are ready to be enjoyed

Add some more flour to prevent the dough from sticking, and roll it into a square that covers your baking paper.

Scoop the pineapple jam in a long line on the bottom side of the dough, so that you can roll-up the dough into a roll.

Take a sharp knife, and cut the roll into slices of about 2.5 cm (1 inch) thickness. Arrange the slices on the baking paper, and place it on your baking pan.

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350 degrees Fahrenheit), and bake the cakes for 25 minutes on the middle rack, bottom heat only.

Turn on the top heat too, and bake for another 5 minutes.

Take the cakes out of the oven, let them cool down, and enjoy them while they are still slightly warm.

My family loved the Nastar very much. Especially the homemade pineapple jam was so much better than in the store-bought cakes or cookies.

Do you like pineapple in cookies or cakes? Have you already tried Nastar?

I’m looking forward to reading about your opinions and experiences.