Feng Li Su.
Taiwanese Pineapple Shortcake
鳳梨酥 · feng li su · say it: fung LEE soo
Feng li su is a small rectangular pastry with a filling of pineapple cooked down until it is thick, chewy and sharply tart, sealed inside a shortbread so rich with butter and milk powder that it crumbles the moment you bite. The contrast is the whole design: dry, salty-sweet, sandy crust against a sticky fruit centre that tastes of concentrated pineapple rather than sugar. Each one is about two mouthfuls, meant to be eaten slowly with unsweetened tea, and Taiwanese bakeries sell them in gift boxes by the tens of thousands. It is not a difficult pastry, but it is a patient one — most of the work is standing over a pan reducing fruit.
- Gate
- TaiwanTaichung and the southern pineapple belt
- Prep
- 40 min
- Cook
- 1 hr 15 min
- Total time
- 2 hr 55 min incl. 1 hr rest
- Serves
- 16
- Status
- Medium
- Nutrition / serving · estimated
- Calories 245 kcal
- Protein 3 g
- Carbs 33 g
- Fat 11 g
- Fiber 1 g
- Sugar 19 g
- Sodium 95 mg
Why this recipe works.
- Cooks the filling down properly to a paste that holds its shape, instead of a loose jam that leaks and blows the pastry open.
- Blends pineapple with winter melon the way traditional bakeries do, and explains what each one contributes.
- A dough with milk powder and cornstarch, which is what gives the crumb its sandy, melting shortness.
- Works with square moulds or free-formed by hand, so no special equipment is strictly required.
Ingredients.
13 itemsFor the filling
For the pastry
Equipment
- Wide heavy frying pan or sauté pan for the jam
- Box grater or food processor
- Square pineapple cake moulds, about 4.5 cm
- Baking tray and paper
Instructions.
Grate and drain the fruit
Coarsely grate 800 g of pineapple, core included, and the winter melon into a bowl. Squeeze both hard through a sieve or muslin, catching every drop of juice in a separate pan — you should extract several hundred millilitres, and the pulp should feel damp rather than wet.
Tip The core is tougher and more fibrous than the flesh, and that fibre is exactly what gives the filling its chew.
Reduce the juice
Boil the collected juice hard over high heat until it has reduced to a scant 100 ml of thick, cloudy syrup that smells intensely of pineapple. This concentrates the flavour you would otherwise pour away.
Cook the filling down
Tip the squeezed pulp into a wide pan with the syrup, sugar, maltose, lemon juice and salt. Cook over medium heat, stirring often, for 40–50 minutes, until the mixture darkens to a deep amber, stops steaming freely and holds a clean furrow when you drag a spoon across the pan base.
Tip Lower the heat for the last ten minutes and stir constantly — this is when it catches and turns bitter.
Cool and portion the filling
Spread the filling on a plate to cool completely, then roll it into 16 balls of about 15 g each. They should hold their shape without sticking to your palms; if they slump, return the mixture to the pan and cook it further.
Make the pastry
Beat the soft butter with the icing sugar and salt until pale and fluffy, then work in the egg yolks one at a time. Sift in the milk powder, flour and cornflour and fold just until no dry patches remain — the dough should be soft and sandy, not smooth or elastic. Chill for 30 minutes.
Wrap the cakes
Divide the dough into 16 pieces of about 30 g. Flatten one into a disc in your palm, sit a ball of filling in the middle, and draw the pastry up around it, pinching the seam closed so no filling shows. Roll gently between your palms to smooth it.
Mould and rest
Set the square moulds on a lined tray, drop in each ball seam-side down and press it flat to the corners with your thumb or a small tamper. Chill the tray for 20 minutes so the butter firms up and the shapes hold in the oven.
Bake and cool in the moulds
Bake at 170°C for 12 minutes, then flip each cake in its mould with a palette knife and bake another 10–12 minutes, until both faces are a pale biscuit gold and the edges are just turning darker. Cool completely on the tray before unmoulding — they are extremely fragile while hot.
Tips from our kitchen.
- Squeeze the grated pineapple and keep the juice — reduce it separately to a syrup and stir it back in, so you lose water but not flavour.
- Cook the filling further than feels sensible. It should hold a furrow when you drag a spoon through it, or the cakes will burst in the oven.
- Weigh the filling and the dough into equal portions, around 15 g each. Eyeballing gives thin patches that split at the corners.
- Chill the dough until firm but not hard. Warm dough sticks to your palms and refuses to close around the ball of filling.
- Press the pastry down into the mould in the tin, then flip the whole tray halfway through baking so both faces colour evenly.
- Let them cool completely in the moulds before unmoulding, because hot shortbread has no structure and will collapse at the edges.
Substitutions.
- Winter melon → All pineapple, cooked slightly longer
- This gives the premium "tu feng li su" style: brighter and sharper, but looser and more fibrous. Reduce it further to compensate.
- Fresh pineapple → Canned pineapple in juice, very well drained
- Workable and much faster, though canned fruit is sweeter and less acidic, so cut the sugar by about a third and add a squeeze of lemon.
- Milk powder → An extra 20 g of flour plus a pinch more salt
- The pastry will be a little less fragrant and slightly less sandy, but still short and perfectly good.
- Maltose or honey in the filling → Golden syrup, or an extra spoon of sugar
- These are there for stickiness and chew rather than sweetness, so a syrup of some kind is better than plain sugar alone.
Variations.
- Egg yolk pineapple cake
- A salted duck egg yolk buried in the centre of the filling, so each cake has a rich, salty core. Common around Mid-Autumn Festival.
- Cranberry or mango filling
- Dried cranberries or mango cooked into the pineapple jam, sold widely as a modern bakery variation and noticeably sweeter.
- Round pineapple pastry
- The same filling in a rounder, taller shape called feng li su bing, sometimes finished with an egg wash for a glossy top.
Storage & reheating.
The pastries keep 5 days in an airtight tin at room temperature and are arguably better on day two, once the moisture from the filling has softened the crumb slightly. Refrigeration makes the shortbread hard and dulls the pineapple, so avoid it unless your kitchen is very warm. They freeze for 2 months wrapped individually; thaw at room temperature and refresh in a 150°C oven for 5 minutes. The filling alone keeps 2 weeks in a jar in the fridge and is worth making in a double batch.
Serve with
Strong unsweetened tea — a roasted Dong Ding oolong or a Wenshan baozhong — which is exactly how they are served in Taiwanese teahouses.
The story behind Feng Li Su.
Pineapple has been a Taiwanese export crop since the Japanese colonial period, when canneries along the western plain shipped it around the world, and the fruit is knitted into the language: in Taiwanese Hokkien the word for pineapple, ong-lai, sounds like "prosperity arrives". That pun is why pineapple motifs sit on shop counters and why a box of pineapple cakes is the default gift for a new business, a visit to someone's parents, or a colleague returning from a trip.
The pastry as sold today was standardised in the twentieth century by Taichung bakeries, and for decades most commercial fillings were not pure pineapple at all but mostly winter melon, a cheap, neutral gourd that cooks to a translucent, chewy jam and stretches expensive fruit a long way. Purists sneered; bakers pointed out that winter melon gives the filling its characteristic stringy chew and stops the acidity becoming punishing. The argument was settled commercially rather than aesthetically — around the late 2000s "tu feng li su", earth pineapple cake, made with 100 percent local fruit became a premium selling point, and today both styles are sold openly and labelled as such. Neither is fake; they are different products, and this recipe uses a blend so you can taste why.
The cake is also the centre of a serious craft scene. Taipei runs a competition for the best feng li su, bakeries advertise which cultivar they use — Tainong No. 17, the honey-scented golden diamond, is a favourite — and the small square moulds that give the pastry its brick shape are sold in every Taiwanese kitchenware shop. Made at home the pastry is softer and shorter than the shelf-stable commercial version, which is a fair trade: what you lose in tidiness you gain in butter.
Questions, answered.
Why do many pineapple cakes contain winter melon?
Winter melon is a cheap, mild gourd that cooks down to a chewy translucent jam. Taiwanese bakeries have long used it to stretch expensive pineapple and, just as importantly, to give the filling its characteristic stringy chew and to soften pineapple's sharp acidity. Cakes made with fruit only are sold as tu feng li su and are brighter and more tart.
Why did my pineapple cakes crack or leak in the oven?
Usually the filling was not reduced far enough, so it turned to liquid in the heat and forced the pastry apart. It should be thick enough to roll into a ball that holds its shape at room temperature. Cracking can also come from pastry wrapped too thinly at the corners or from a dough that was too cold and brittle when shaped.
Do I need the square moulds to make feng li su?
No. The small square rings give the classic brick shape and keep the edges sharp, but you can shape the cakes by hand into flattened rectangles and bake them on a lined tray. They will spread a little more and look rustic, and the taste is identical.
Can I make the filling ahead of time?
Yes, and it is the sensible way to split the work. The cooked pineapple jam keeps for about two weeks refrigerated in a clean jar and several months frozen. Bring it back to room temperature before portioning, since cold filling tears the pastry as you wrap it.
What kind of pineapple should I use?
A ripe, aromatic pineapple with a strong smell at the base — Taiwanese bakers often use the golden diamond cultivar, Tainong No. 17. Underripe fruit is too acidic and cooks down grey rather than gold. Include some of the firm core, finely grated, because it contributes much of the chew in the finished filling.
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Recipe by The DishRoute Kitchen · published August 21, 2026 · updated August 21, 2026