Manju with Pineapple Filling

Inspired by Big Island Candies' Pineapple Manju, I decided to try and make my own even though I never made a manju before in my life. I ended up with only about 10 decent pieces, of all shapes and sizes, some with the filling oozing out, but overall with a pretty ono taste.



I bought this from Foodland for about $3.50.


First time using this Magic Bullet, and OMG talk about panic. I didn't know you could just pulse the thing. After cutting up my pineapple into smaller pieces and putting half into the container, I locked it into place. At first it just whirred and wasn't doing anything. So I shook the bloody thing to death until the pieces finally started swirling around. But then it started working too good and liquefied them. Oi vay, what a way to start. Luckily, I still had the other half of the pineapple, so I was more careful with the second batch.


I put my "pulp" on the stove to reduce the liquid. I added a few shakes of cinnamon . . .


and 3 tablespoons of sugar. I think maybe coulda used more sugar.


I cooked it until it looked like this.


I decided it still looked a little too watery so I strained it in our 50-year-old strainer pressing out the liquid with a spoon.

I ended up with only a small dish of filling.



The dough gave me more problems. I wanted a shortbread kinda crust so I found a recipe and halved it thinking that since I didn't have that much filling, I didn't need too much dough. I used 1 block of butter, 1/4 c. sugar and 1 1/4 c. flour. It came out soooo crumbly, I had to grab a handful and squeeze, squeeze, squeeze it until it would hold together and I could pat out a flattened circle. No pictures of the process 'cause I was too busy cussing.


Pinching the edges together caused cracks to form so this is the best I could do. I ended up with crusts thicker than I wanted and hence, less pieces. I actually ended up throwing away some of the filling. I was supposed to brush the top with an egg wash, but forget that. I wasn't about to brush nothing with no egg wash.


All in all though, I was happy with the end result. It tasted good. I'm gonna try again. I think with canned pineapple next time. I have a question though . . . does anyone know how to cut the acidity of the pineapple?