Kue Nastar (Indonesian Pineapple Cookie)

These cookies are very popular in Indonesia and you can find them everywhere. My family never baked 'nastar' at home. I had always thought that it will take at least a whole day to prepare the pineapple jam, dough, and bake them. 

Anyway, I was so curious how difficult it is to make 'nastar'. I searched the recipe online and found one from this link.

I tried to bake 'nastar' and it was surprisingly simple. Yes... I had to start from making the pineapple jam but the result was very satisfying. I was very glad with my first 'nastar' attempt. I recommend those who are challenged to bake these cookies to use the recipe from the link above. It is in Indonesian though, but I have it translated here.

Ingredients:

• 250 g soft wheat flour/ Indonesian flour (brand: cap kunci). You can find this in Kingsford/Randwick asian groceries 
• 30 g cornstarch 
• 200 g unsalted butter/margarine (I used 150 g unsalted butter + 50 g margarine) 
• 20 g skim-milk powder 
• 60 g caster sugar 
• 2 egg yolks 
• 1/4 tsp salt 
• Clove for decoration. You can find this in any asian groceries.

Pineapple jam:

• 400 gr fresh pineapple, grated 
• 200 g sugar 
• 3 cloves 
• 5 cm cinnamon/ 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon 
• 1/4 tsp salt

For last touch before placing them into oven, mix:

• 3 egg yolks 
• 2 tbs skim milk/ 1 tbs skim milk powder dissolved in 2 tbs water
  

How to bake 

1. Mix soft wheat flour, cornstarch and milk powder, shifted. 
2. Add caster sugar, egg yolks, butter/margarine and salt into the flour mixture. Mix with mixer (low speed) until they become grainy. 
3. Press the dough together. Massage the dough with hand/ wodden spoon until the dough is ready to be rolled using rolling spin. 
4. Shape the dough with a round cookie cutter/ use a particular lid with diameter around 7 cm. 
5. Put some pinneaple jam on it. Shape the dough into a round ball. 
6. Brush the nastar with the egg yolk mixture and put a clove on it. 
7. Bake at 150 celcius degrees for 20 mins. Until they turn slightly golden.  
8. Pineapple jam: Mix grated pineapple, sugar, cinnamon, clove and salt, mix well. Cook in a wok with slow heat until it become thick. Cool the jam for 1 hour.   

Tips: 
Do not overmix the dough with hand. The butter will become slightly warm and hence the cookie will turn very hard. A good nastar should be hard outside but the dough inside should be soft and melt in your mouth. You can change the pineapple jam with other jams. Original version is using pineapple jam. Many Indonesians use durian paste. This is very delicious too!! They cost much more than the pineapple ones in the shop.