As a lifelong lover of anything that involves sugar, one of my favorite things to do when traveling is popping into bakeries to see different kinds of pastries. It is amazing how many different ways flour, sugar, eggs, butter, cream, etc. can be transformed into countless possibilities of desserts. This one is fried, this one is baked, this one is risen, this one is baked in a water bath, that one is simply chilled to set. The reasons for why all these things are done have to make sense chemically. That is how you achieve the different results. When certain ingredients are put together to react in a specific way, magic happens. Simply put, that’s baking and pastry. The fact different countries have different desserts that are eaten at certain times of day, during certain celebrations, or for different reasons fascinates me.
Recently, my sister became engaged to a man who happens to be South African, so naturally, when his father found out that I studied pastry, he immediately emailed me a recipe for a South African treat called koeksister. After too much procrastination, I finally had the chance to make the mess of my kitchen and bust out the recipe for a family get together. It was my first trial run, so I was a bit intimidated taking it over to a house full of South African, soon-to-be-family members, but turns out, I was pretty darn close.
Koeksister is braided dough that is fried and then dipped into very cold sugar syrup traditionally flavored with fresh, crushed ginger and lemon. The syrup can be flavored with pretty much anything, but ginger and lemon are the flavorings in the recipe he gave me so I figured I’d stick to that for my first go around. To put it in American terms: They are sticky, syrupy donuts in a braided shape. Some very important things when making them:
- Keeping syrup cold and the koeksisters hot when dipping is key to get the right amount to syrup drawn into the koeksisters to achieve that sweet pop that all South Africans love and crave. A good trick to keeping the syrup cold is to place the syrup bowl into a container of iced water
- Oil temperature when frying them is extremely important. You don’t want the oil to be too cool or you’re koeksister will come out very oily, so make sure you use a thermometer or test one or two scrap pieces before you start frying.
- Even after you fry them and soak them in the syrup, they are even better the next day after spending the night in the fridge.
In South Africa, they are eaten with coffee or tea, and once you make them, eat them and serve them, you will quickly be welcoming this South African tradition into your home. Warning: they are extremely addicting.
Ingredients
- 5 cups sugar
- 2 cups water
- 2 pieces fresh ginger (each 2 inches), peeled and crushed
- ½ teaspoon cream of tartar
- Pinch of salt
- Grated rind and juice of ½ lemon
- 4 cups flour
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons baking powder
- 4 tablespoons chilled butter, grated
- 1 egg
- 1-1½ cups milk or water
Instructions
- To make the syrup, put all the ingredients in a saucepan.
- Heat (stirring) until the sugar has completely dissolved.
- Cover the mixture and boil for 1 minute.
- Remove the saucepan lid and boil the syrup for a further 5 minutes, but do not stir it.
- Remove the syrup from the stove and allow it to cool for at least 2 hours in a refrigerator, or overnight.
- To make the dough, sieve together the dry ingredients and rub in the grated butter with your fingertips, or cut it in with a pastry cutter.
- Beat the egg, add 1 cup of the milk or water and mix lightly with the dry ingredients to a soft dough. Add more milk or water if the dough is too stiff.
- Knead well until small bubbles form under the surface of the dough.
- Cover with a damp cloth and allow to stand for 30 minutes –1 hour.
- Roll out the dough to a thickness of ½ inch, then form koeksisters in either of the following ways:
- Cut strips ½ inch wide and braid 3 strips together, cutting the twisted, or plaited lengths at 3 inches intervals and pinching the ends together.
- Heat about 3 inches deep oil to 180-190°C – a cube of bread should turn golden-brown in a minute. Fry the koeksisters for 1-2 minutes, or until golden-brown, then turn them over with a fork and fry until golden-brown on the other side.
- Remove the koeksisters with a lifter or slotted spoon, drain them for a moment on paper towel and then plunge them into the cold syrup for 1-2 minutes.
- Stand the container of syrup in a bowl of ice so that the syrup will stay cold.
- Remove the koeksisters from the syrup with a lifter or slotted spoon, allowing the excess syrup to flow back into the basin, then drain them slightly on a wire rack.
- Serve cold with coffee or tea
Looking for more South African goodness? Head to Jafflz! Pocket sandwiches based off of a true South African snack.