Pineapple tarts

Step 1: Squeeze about half the juice out of the grated 2 ripe pineapples (drink it or save it). Put the pulp in a wide, heavy pan with 7 oz sugar, 1 cinnamon stick, 2 star anise and 4 cloves.

Step 2: Cook over a medium heat, stirring often, until it bubbles, then turn to medium-low and keep cooking, stirring more often as it thickens. It goes from pale yellow and watery to deep amber, sticky and fragrant. Wet jam is the common mistake: it leaks and splits the pastry. It's ready when a spoon dragged across the pan leaves a clear path that doesn't flood back.

Step 3: Stir in 1 tbsp lemon juice, pick out the whole spices and cool the jam completely; it firms up more as it cools. You can make it up to a week ahead and keep it in the fridge.

Step 4: Rub 10 ½ oz plain flour, 1 oz cornflour, 1 oz icing sugar, ¼ tsp salt and 7 oz cold butter together with your fingertips until it looks like fine breadcrumbs. Mix in 2 egg yolks and as much 1 tbsp ice-cold water as needed to bring it together into a soft dough. Don't knead; chill for 20 minutes.

Step 5: Heat the oven to 350°F (300°F fan) and line two baking trays. Roll the jam into 8 g balls, about the size of a hazelnut.

Step 6: Flatten a 12 g piece of dough in your palm, put a jam ball in the middle and wrap the dough around it, rolling into a smooth ball or a small log. You should get about 48 tarts, two per serving. Set on the trays 2 cm apart.

Step 7: Beat 1 egg yolk with 1 tsp milk and brush thinly over the tarts. Bake one tray at a time for 20–22 minutes, until shiny and golden with no pale patches. Cool on the tray for 10 minutes; they're fragile when hot.

Step 8: Cool completely on a rack and store in an airtight tin for up to 2 weeks; they get more crumbly and tender after a day.