Sweet: Delectable vanilla, caramel, chocolate and fruit treats, by Sam Linsell

Sweet: Delectable vanilla, caramel, chocolate and fruit treats, by Samantha Linsell. Penguin Random House South Africa, Struik Lifestyle. Cape Town, South Africa 2015. ISBN 9781432303358 / ISBN 978-1-4323-0335-8

In Sweet: Delectable vanilla, caramel, chocolate and fruit treats, Samantha Linsell's special cookbook filled with delectable sweet treats, You will want to dive straight into its tempting pages. Whatever your indulgence, your sweet tooth will be satisfied.

Sam Linsell  

Koeksisters

Koeksisters are one of the most traditional South African confections. A good friend and one of my food mentors, Michael Olivier, gave me this recipe. He says: A fond childhood memory was waking up on a Saturday morning when koeksisters were being made for a church cake sale. The syrup was always made on Friday nights and allowed to get really cold overnight, one of the secrets of success of koeksisters. Even during use it was surrounded with ice cubes so that the hot koeksisters would suck in the cinnamon and lemons also could not be too hot (180 °C) otherwise they would be dark outside and not properly cooked on the inside. Koeksisters, or as some would have it, koesisters, were originally from Batavia and are generally plaited, though often in Malay homes will be made with mashed potato, called hollas, cooked in an oblong shape and not plaited, and served rolled in coconut.

Recipe: Koeksisters

Syrup for Koeksisters
1 kg granulated white sugar
500 ml water
4 quills stick cinnamon (± 4 cm in length)
6 whole cloves
6 allspice berries
2 pieces (thumb size) fresh green ginger, well bruised with a rolling pin
3 strips (4-cm long) lemon peel
30 ml lemon juice
a pinch of salt
a knifepoint of cream of tartar
5 ml glycerine (add just before dipping to give the koeksisters a shiny coat)

Koeksisters (makes 24)
500 g cake flour
20 ml baking powder
5 ml mixed spice
3 ml salt
60 ml butter, frozen and cut into tiny squares
250 ml milk
125 ml buttermilk
sunflower oil, for deep-frying

Prepare the syrup the day before. Combine all the ingredients in a saucepan and heat gently while dissolving the sugar, then bring to the boil for 5 minutes. Set aside to cool. Leave the spices and peel in the syrup and, when sufficiently cold, strain and pour into a glass bowl to refrigerate overnight. Shortly before use, place it in the freezer to get really cold. For the koeksisters, keep 2 slotted spoons ready; one for lifting them out of the hot fat and another for putting them into and removing them from the syrup. Also have a baking tray lined with paper towel and another with a cake rack to drain the koeksisters after dipping them in syrup. Fill a large bowl with ice in which to stand the bowl with the strained syrup. Sift the flour, baking powder, mixed spice and salt into the bowl of a food processor. Add the butter and pulse until the mixture resembles a coarse meal. Add the milk and buttermilk and pulse until combined. Turn out onto a floured board and knead gently until the mixture forms a soft dough. Divide it in 2, place in a bowl and cover with a damp tea towel. Leave it for 30 minutes to rest. Pat one of the balls of dough out on a floured board into a rectangular shape about 2.5 cm thick. Using a floured rolling pin, roll it out into a rectangle 20 x 10 cm and 1 cm thick. Cut the rectangle into 4 strips across the width and 6 strips across the length (for 12 koeksisters). Cut each into 3 strips, leaving them joined across the top. [...]

This is an excerpt from the cookbook Sweet: Delectable vanilla, caramel, chocolate and fruit treats, by Samantha Linsell.

Title: Sweet
Subtitle: Delectable vanilla, caramel, chocolate and fruit treats
Author: Samantha Linsell
Publisher: Penguin Random House South Africa
Imprint: Struik Lifestyle
Cape Town, South Africa 2015
ISBN 9781432303358 / ISBN 978-1-4323-0335-8
Hardcover, 21 x 26 cm, 192 pages, 100 photographs