Koeksister, A South African Sweet

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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.Koeksister Dishing PC

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.

Koeksister recipe  Koeksister

Looking for more South African goodness? Head to Jafflz! Pocket sandwiches based off of a true South African snack.

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