MUZIChinese Matrix
Pastries · FFET10288
Feng li su is a Taiwanese pastry of buttery crumbly shortcrust around cooked pineapple jam, often given as a gift.
A round white porcelain plate holds golden pastries with crumbly crusts made from butter, egg yolk and condensed milk, enclosing amber pineapple jam visible through the pastry, with wooden chopsticks resting beside the plate.
Cakes and pastries of every kind, baked, steamed or fried.
Feng li su is a Taiwanese pastry in which buttery shortcrust wraps cooked pineapple jam, often pressed in a rectangular or round mold. Fillings documented in 2017 include pure pineapple (the local pineapple) and blends with winter melon. Its description as a traditional Taiwanese pastry lacks a cited source, and no dated text was found, so this entry gives no origin year.
Feng li su is a small pastry: a buttery, crumbly shortcrust around a sweet-tart cooked pineapple jam, often pressed in a rectangular or round mold.1,3,4
Taiwan, where bakeries across the island sell it and giving it as a gift is a common custom.1,2,3,4
Pineapple is cooked down with sugar and butter to a jam, and a butter dough with milk powder and egg yolk wraps it. The 2 recipes bake it at about 170 degrees Celsius and flip the cakes halfway through baking.3,4
In Taiwanese the word for pineapple sounds like a phrase meaning that prosperity arrives, so the cake is a lucky gift, notably at the Lunar New Year.1,3,4
It is a common gift pastry in Taiwan. Fillings documented in 2017 vary by maker, from pure pineapple (the local pineapple) to a winter-melon blend, with shop-made versions often using winter melon.1,2,3,4
It is said that the Taiwanese word for pineapple sounds like a phrase meaning that prosperity arrives, so people give the cake as a wish for luck at the New Year and bring a box home as a gift. This is wordplay, not a history.
Told in: A Taiwanese wordplay telling, found in Chinese Wikipedia and in a recipe author's article.
Grandma Li
This is a simplified home version, not the traditional restaurant method.
This is the simpler way I make pineapple cakes at home. The pastry amounts follow recipe A, a signed recipe with amounts and 18 numbered steps. It says the pineapple jam may be bought or homemade, and I use bought jam, which is my simplification. Recipe B is another author's, and it cooks its own jam from fresh pineapple (660 g pineapple, 220 g sugar and 80 g butter, cooked for about 30 minutes); use it if you want to make the jam yourself. Both recipes bake at 170 degrees Celsius. The baking times follow recipe A, and I then judge by color. The way I shape and wrap is my own.
Allergens: wheat, milk, egg
