Flour was bought from the local mills, passing tradesmen or milled by the Boer wives themselves. Birthdays, funerals and christenings were very important  to the pioneers as were communion Sundays and for those occasions sweet dishes took pride of place. The women of the Karoo were excellent bakers, as they are today and their cakes and tarts are legendary. Koeksisters are a sweet and delicious treat and even though they didn’t originate in South Africa or belong exclusively to the Karoo, the Karoo produces the best koeksisters in the country. 

Ingredients

Syrup

Ingredients

• Syrup
• 375 ml water
• 750 g honey or sugar
• 2 ml cream of tartar
• 1 piece of cassia
• 6  cardamom
• 4 allspice

Dough

• 500 ml cake flour
• 30 ml baking powder
• 2 ml salt
• 60 ml butter
• 2 large eggs
• 250 ml milk
• Zest of 2 lemons
• loads of sunflower oil for frying

Method

Syrup

• To make the syrup, heat the water in a large pot, add the honey  or sugar.
• Stir briskly until everything is dissolved before adding  the cream of tartar, the cassia, the cardamom and the allspice and boil for about 10 minutes, uncovered – don’t stir.
• Remove from the stove and set aside to cool down.

The dough

• Sift all the dried ingredients together before adding  the zest to  incorporate; rub in the butter with your fingertips.
• Beat the eggs together and add to the flour mixture, kneading lightly for a few minutes so that the dough becomes workable and smooth – cover with was paper or cling film and allow to rest for an hour.
• Role out the dough into 1 cm thick pastry – cut out pieces of about 8 x 40 cm and then cut vertical slices to form a plait.
• (Usually two strips are folded over and a lovely thin ‘plait’ is made but often a plait is made from 3 strips.
• Leave about half a cm at the top of the slices and start plaiting strips to preferred length – return to the fridge if they are a bit soft.
• Heat the oil to 190 C and deep fry the koeksisters, a few at a time for about 2 to 4 minutes until a they are  golden and then remove from  the oil and drain well – immediately dunk into the cold syrup for about a minute and then allow them to drain on a wire rack on top of a large tray.

Important tip:

• It is very important that the syrup is cold – the colder, the better.
• One could divide the syrup into two bowls and use one while the other is in the fridge and then swop.
• Some bakers make the syrup the night before so that it can get really cold.
• Serve with coffee for desert, afternoon tea – or whenever you have coffee.