8 down 72 to GO! Konfyttertjies

Apricot jam tartlets or Konfyttertjies as it is called in Afrikaans is a very simple and easy tartlet to make. The whole recipe calls for only three ingredients granted you have made the puff pastry ahead of time that is.

Konfyttertjies is basically puff pastry filled with the best apricot jam you can find, preferably homemade and then brushed with egg yolk. The pastry is baked and enjoyed with a cup of sweet Rooibos tea.

I am going to go out on a limb here but I am guessing before now I haven’t had this treat in at least 10 years. If there is a treat I have recently eaten that brought back long forgotten memories it is this.  

One thing comes to mind, Beaufort West and the spectacular beauty of the Great Karoo. I might have made a home for myself in Cape Town, but my heart will always belong to the Karoo.  I remember once or twice having konfyttertjies and for some reason one person always come to mind, my grandmother. The lady who still bakes pancakes for the church bazaar and recently gotten her Master’s degree for her theses:  "The interdisciplinary archaeological research of musical instruments of ancient Israel and Palestine during the Iron Age."  Not bad wouldn't you agree? 

My grandmother introduced me long ago to konfyttertjies and since then it has become one of my most beloved treats. Sometimes we need a push from the past to bring us back to our roots. For me that push was the taste of sweet and sticky homemade apricot jam in a puff pastry shell with the scent of Rooibos tea lingering in the air.

This might not be a five star dessert or treat, but it is definitely special and dear to me. Simplicity at its best! 

KONFYTTERTJIES

•  Puff pastry dough
• 1 egg yolk
• Apricot jam

Step 1 – Roll out the puff pastry dough until 5mm thick. Work quickly in order to keep the pastry cold.

Step 2 – With a teacup or circular cookie cutter, cut out little circles.

Step 3 – Wisk the egg yolk and with a pastry brush, brush the edges of the dough.

Step 4 – Place one teaspoon of apricot jam in the middle of the dough.

Step 5 – Fold the one side over on itself and with the tip of your finger push the edge of the pastry down.

Step 6 – Lightly brush the top of the pastry with some egg yolk

Step 7 – Bake in a preheated oven at 200-220 degree Celsius for 10 minutes or until golden on top.

Enjoy with a cup of Rooibos tea. 

7 down 73 to GO! General Hertzog and his ‘Hertzoggies’

“Barry Hertzog was a Boer general during the second Anglo-Boer War who became Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa from 1924 to 1939. He encouraged the development of Afrikaner culture in order to protect the Afrikaner from British influence.”

During the general election of 1924, supporters J.B.M Hertzog and the National Party showed their side and support by driving only Ford motor cars and baking Hertzoggies. The opposing party of Jun Smuts drove Chevrolets motor cars and baked Smutsies . Both these two desserts are very similar to one another and were named after the leader of the running party. Supporters of Jan Smuts would bake Smutsies and the supporters of J.B.M Hertzog took the Smutsies idea and made it ‘better’ by topping it off not with a light cake mix but with a coconut meringue filling. The dessert was named after J.B.M Hertzog. He himself used to love Hertzoggies.  

Hertzoggies are little tarts that consist out of a light nutmeg pastry base filled with delectable homemade apricot jam and topped off with a coconut meringue filling.  Hertzoggies are the perfect tea time treat but can also serve as a dessert after a light lunch or dinner.

Hertzoggies

DOUGH

• 60ml (¼ cup) sugar
• 30ml (2 tbs) butter
• 3 egg yolks
• 15ml (1 tbs) cold water
• 500ml (2 cups) self-rising flour   
• 1,25ml (¼ tsp) salt
• 1,25ml (¼ tsp) freshly grated nutmeg

Step 1 – Beat the sugar and butter together and stir in the whisked egg yolks and cold water.

Step 2 – Sift the self-rising flour, salt and nutmeg together.

Step 3 – Add the dry ingredients a little bit at a time to the sugar, butter and egg mixture.

Step 4 – Mix all the ingredients together to make a little dough ball.

Step 5 – Warp the dough with Clingfilm and let it cool in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

Step 6 – Roll the dough out until it is about 5mm thick.  

Step 7 – Cut circular shapes from the dough with a tea cup or a cookie cutter.

Step 8 – Line your pan with the cut out dough.

FILLING

• 60ml (4 tbs) smooth apricot jam
• 3 egg whites
• 250ml (1 cup) sugar
• 500ml (2 cups) dried coconut

Step 9 – Add one teaspoon at a time of the apricot jam to each of the little dough cups.

Step 10 – Whisk the egg whites and sugar until stiff peaks form. Fold in the coconut.

Step 11 – Add a tablespoon or more of the egg white and coconut mixture on top of the dough and jam cups.

Step 12 – Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 20 minutes until golden brown on top.

Step 13 – After 20 minutes take the Hertzoggie tarts out of the oven and let it rest and cool on an oven rack.  

6 down 74 to GO! Pannekoek – Traditional South African flat pancakes

“It’s baked at every fundraiser and sold at every school function. It has built church halls and bought a new school bus. It has built a new public swimming pool and paid for countless matric dances.”

“When rain pours down in the Boland it is a tradition to bake ‘pannekoek’. Outside it can be stormy weather but inside the toasty kitchen crunchy sugar melts under your teeth as the taste and smell of cinnamon softly kiss your senses. “

Traditional South African flat pancakes or ‘Pannekoek’ as it is known in South Africa is much like a Dutch/Belgian pancake. Pannekoek is usually much larger and thinner than an American or Scottish pancake. Pannekoek fillings can range from something as humble as cinnamon sugar and lemon juice or decadent as a banana, caramel and wiped cream combination.

In South Africa pannekoek is traditionally eaten as a sweet dessert on a cold and rainy day. It can also serve as a light meal with savoury fillings such as bolognaises or tuna and mayonnaise.

Pannekoek dusted with cinnamon sugar then rolled up into a tight little scroll is still my firm favourite. Fill a pannekoek with caramel, banana and whipped cream and I will be a very happy kid again. This is one of those desserts that can melt any grouchy girlfriend or unpleasant husband’s frigid disposition any day. 

My grandmother still bakes hundreds of these pancakes for the church bazaar every year. She and a couple of other ladies would have their 'set up' on a long aluminium table in the church hall. Armed with their little camping gas stoves and old school but trusty pancake skillets they will bake non-stop from 8am the Saturday morning until 12pm, finishing just before the Rugby starts. They always have their work cut out for them as hundreds of drooling customers anxious to get their hands on this delectable treat flock to the pancake tables. Without doubt the queues at the pancake tables put those at the Colosseum in Rome during the peak tourist season to shame. 

From all of the traditional South African desserts I have eaten, pannekoek is still my number one favorite. Give me pannkoek any day and I promise you I will never tire from it!  

 Pannekoek - South African flat pancakes

• 2 eggs
• 625ml (2 ½ cup) milk 
• 500ml (2 cups) cake flour
• 2,5ml (½ tsp) baking powder
• 2,5ml (½ tsp) salt
• 30ml (2 tbs) sunflower oil
• 15ml (1 tbs) good brandy 
• Nonstick cooking spray or oil for baking

Step 1 – Beat the eggs and the milk together

Step 2 – Bit by bit beat all of the dry ingredients into the egg and milk mixture.

Step 3 – Add the brandy and oil and mix everything together

Step 4 – Leave the pancake mix to rest for 30-60 minutes

Step 5 – Spray your skillet with non-stick cooking spray or add enough oil to cover most of the bottom.

Step 6 – Make sure your skillet is hot enough before pouring ¾ cup of pancake mix onto the hot skillet.

Step 7 – Tilt the skillet so that the pancake mix covers the bottom of the whole pan.

Step 8 – Bake the one side of the pancake until it is golden brown and turn over. Reap until both sides of the pancake are golden brown.

Step 9 – Flop the pancake onto a warm plate and dust with cinnamon sugar.  

Step 10 – With a fork roll the warm pancake into a little scroll and serve immediately. 

5 down 75 to GO! ‘Melktert’ - Milk Tart

Milk tart or ‘Melktert’ as it is known in Afrikaans is one of the most divine traditional South African desserts. Milk tart comes from South Africa, and has Dutch and Malay influences, both ingredients and the name. There are many desserts in Africa that have been acquired during the period of colonization. One such dessert of Dutch origin is ‘Melktert’. In this dessert the ratio of milk to egg is higher than the European or Chinese custard egg tart. This modification was brought about during the 17^th and 18^th century by the Cape Malays who were brought to South Africa as slaves.

Milk tart is one of those desserts that everyone loves but no one has the courage or time to make it themselves. Unless you have a very old recipe handed down by generations or you are a sweet old granny that is known for making the best milk tarts in town people tend not to dabble in the black magic of milk tart making. Everyone knows what a good milk tart should taste like and thou shall not challenge the unique recipe or you might have a “What brick through yonder window breaks?” situation on your hands.

I guess I am just over exaggerating a wee bit. People don’t often make milk tart because of the possibility of a projectile crashing through your window, it’s mostly because some recipes require the pastry shell to be made from puff pastry and secondly everyone knows how temperamental eggs, milk and sugar on a stovetop could be. Scrambled eggs anyone? And I know what you are thinking, store bought puff pastry is the answer. If you want to be thrown out of book club or chased around with torches and pitchforks at a church bazaar you dare make it with store bough ingredients.

Milk tart making in general is quite a process but the end result is always worth it. I am not talking about ‘shortcut’ recipes or ‘10 minute milk tarts’ that is NOT milk tart. It is ‘crap’ that doesn't even vaguely resemble the original.

This is my first time making a ‘Melktert’. It wasn't that bad making it, but I did break out in a cold sweat as soon as I started working with the puff pastry. The trick is to work fast, keep your pastry cold and do not overdo it. As for the milk, eggs and sugar on the stove, gently bring it to a boil, and just keep stirring. Use a flour sifter to get rid of any lumps. If those lumps are scrambled eggs then you might as well start again.

Although this recipe is quite allot of work. Trust me you MUST give it a try at home! You will not regret it! You can use store bought puff pastry if you like. It’s not the same but the end result is still mind blowing. So in the light of today’s crazy world I say go ahead! 

 

MELKTERT

•  500g puff pastry

 Filling:

• 1 litre full cream milk
• 2 cinnamon scrolls ‘sticks’
• 30ml (2 tbs) butter
• 60ml (4 tbs) cake flour
• 250ml (1 cup) sugar
• 250ml (1 cup) milk (keep aside)
• 4 eggs
• 5ml (1 tsp) vanilla essence
• Ground cinnamon for dusting

Step 1 – Roll out the puff pastry dough until it’s about 2cm thick and line two sprayed tart tins with the rolled out dough.   

Step 2 – Add the cinnamon scrolls, butter, and sugar to the milk and gently bring to a boil.

Step 3 – Combine the cake flour with 125ml (1/2 cup) milk into a smooth paste. Keep aside.

Step 4 – Separate your 4 eggs. Keep egg whites aside.

Step 5 – Whisk the 4 egg yolks and combine them with the rest of the 125ml (1/2 cup) milk.

Step 6 – Add the egg yolk and milk mixture to the simmering milk on the stove. Keep stirring!

Step 7 – Add the milk and flour paste to the simmering milk.

Step 8 – Finally add the vanilla essence and give everything a good stir. Take off heat.

Step 9 – Beat the egg whites until just before it becomes dry with stiff peaks.

Step 10 – Fold the beaten egg whites into the milk mixture.

Step 11 – Pour the milk mixture into two tart pans lined with the puff pastry dough.

Step 12 – Bake for 40 minutes at 180 degree Celsius.

Step 13 – Dust the milk tart with ground cinnamon as soon as it is taken out of the oven. 

4 down 76 to GO! 'Gemmerkoekkies'

Dozens are sold at church bazaars every year, teatime gossip isn’t the same without it, it’s used as ‘catnip’ for any difficult toddler and it’s that legendary snack enjoyed at the beach during the December Christmas holidays.  Ginger cookies have come a long way since the gingerbread made by ancient Greeks and Egyptians. Today it is made and enjoyed in every domestic home across South Africa.

Ginger cookies were the first thing I remember ever learning how to bake. My mom still bakes dozens of these little cookies before each and every Christmas holiday. For me ginger cookies reminds me of waking up at the beach house with the smell of the sea in the air and sitting outside with our coffees eating these for breakfast as we cheerfully watch holiday goers walk past on their way to spend the day at the beach.

I don’t think anyone know why ginger cookies stir up such fond memories. Is it the ginger and the spice that reminds us of Christmas? Is it the sweet, crunchy, grainy on your tongue like sugary sand that dissolves in your mouth when you bite into it that reminds us of that perfect day at the beach?   

I guess something’s in life just need to be enjoyed without knowing and understanding the ‘how’ and ‘why’.

The recipe below is one of many old traditional South African ginger cookie recipes out there. I have tested and tried this one and I have to be honest, it’s a beautiful recipe, not so strong on the spice but still brilliant. Give it a go and tell me what you think!

GINGER COOKIES 

• 250g butter
• 250ml (1 cup) Sugar
• 2 eggs
• 180ml (3/4 cup) golden syrup (Good quality syrup makes the world of difference!)   
• 500g (4 cups) cake flour
• 2,5ml (1/2 tsp) bicarbonate of soda
• 15ml (1 tbs) ground ginger (Add more according to personal taste)
• 2,5ml (1/2 tsp) mixed spice
• 7,5 ml (1/2 tbs) ground cinnamon
• 1,25ml (1/4 tsp) salt

Step 1 – Cream the butter and the sugar.

Step 2 – Whisk the eggs together and add it to the creamed butter and sugar mix.

Step 3 – Add the syrup to the creamed butter, sugar and egg mixture. Mix well.

Step 4 – Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda, salt and all the rest of the dry ingredients together.

Step 5 – Mix all the sifted dry ingredients into the creamed sugar, butter, egg and syrup mixture.

Step 6 – Preheat your oven to 180 – 190 degrees Celsius

Step 7 – Make little dough balls roughly the size of a walnut and space them 5cm from each other on a baking tray.

Step 8 – Take a fork and flatten the little dough balls.

Step 9 – Bake the cookies for about 10 minutes in your pre-heated oven.

If you want rolled out cookies with different shapes and sizes let the dough cool and harden in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours or overnight. When the dough has hardened, roll the dough out on a floured surface and cut-out your cookies and bake for the same amount of time at the same oven temperature.

NOTE: Store the cookies in an airtight container. This is very important! Unless you hate crunchy cookies it will become very soft and damp.

3 down 77 to GO! 'Melkkos van Frummels'

Ask a South African (especially an Afrikaans South African) if they know what Melkkos is and invariably they will go all misty eyed and flushed with pleasure and take you on a magical memory trip into their childhood.  

 “Melkkos (literal translation Milk Food) is that simple, easy to make, very cheap and cheerful comforting dish that can be classified as breakfast, supper or dessert. Melkkos is a traditional Afrikaans dish that most will recall with fond memories of mothers making and serving it to them on a Sunday evening when a simple quick meal was needed after the marathon midday sojourn around the dinner table groaning under the weight of roast meats, roast potatoes, rice, pumpkin and a selection of vegetables, always followed by a dessert or two.”

There is no English word for Melkkos and describing it as "meal made from milk" doesn't do justice to this wonderful dish that will warm up even the most dismal of winter days. Melkkos is comfort food at its best.

MELKKOS 

• 2 litre milk
• 250ml (1 cup) flour
• 2,5 ml (1/2 tsp) salt
• 15 ml (1 tbs) soft butter

Step 1 – Bring the milk to a boil. (Keep an eye on your milk, don’t let it burn or boil over)

Step 2 – Sift the flour and the salt together. 

Step 3 – Rub the soft butter with your fingertips into the flour until it resembles bread crumbs.

Step 4 – Bit by bit add the butter and flour ‘crumbs’ to the boiling milk while constantly stirring. 

Step 5 – Turn the heat down and let it simmer for 8-10 minutes.

AND THAT’S IT!

Serve hot with a generous sprinkle of cinnamon sugar. 

2 down 78 to GO! Tasty politics - Smuts vs. Hertzog

"Smutsies vs. Hertzoggies the desserts that proudly represented the two South African political parties prior to the 1924 elections.”  

Who said politics couldn’t be tasty? Today we represent our political parties with t-shirts, flags, badges and ‘toyi-toying’. The winning party is usually the one who served the most ‘free’ food.

It wasn’t any different back in 1924, instead of burning tires, chucking stones and stabbing members of the opposing parties, Jan Smuts and J.B.M Hertzog had an infamous ‘food fight’ of their own.

In the countryside it was easy to spot the two different opposing parties and their followers. Supporters of the South African party of Jan Smuts were known as the ‘Sappe’. They drove pimped out Chevy's and if you supported the party you made and served Smutsies, so named after Jan Smuts.

‘A Smutsie is a little tartlet baked in a cup cake pan filled with apricot jam and topped off with a light cake mix’.  

Supporters of J.B.M Hertzog and the National Party on the other hand were known as the ‘Natte’. They were seen driving flashy Ford’s, I’m talking spinning rims and ear deafening bass yawl. Their supporters also made and served the exact same dessert but with a little twist. Instead of topping the Smutsie off with cake mix it was topped off with an egg white/coconut filling. It was no longer a Smutsie but a Hertzoggie, so called after J.B.M Hertzog.

Enough about politics and history back to cooking! Today we are talking less ‘toyi-toying’ and more SMUTSIES.

If you are a lover of all things baked especially jam filled treats then this dessert is for you. A sweet Nutmeg base filled with homemade sticky apricot jam and finally topped off with a light buttery cake mix is what this dessert is all about. Nothing gourmet and nothing fancy just plain baked goodness.    

SMUTSIES

• 125g butter
• 200g (1 cup) sugar
• 1 egg
• 375 ml (1 ½ cup) self-rising flour
• 1,25 ml (1/4 tsp) salt
• 1,25 ml (1/4 tsp) freshly ground nutmeg 

Step 1 – Cream the butter and the sugar and add the egg.

Step 2 – Sift the flour, salt and nutmeg and add bit by bit to the butter, sugar and egg mix.

Step 3 – Mix everything together and leave to cool in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

Step 4 – Roll out the cookie dough about 5mm thick on some floured cling wrap.

Step 5 – Use a round cookie cutter to cut-out the cookies

Step 6 – Line the bottom of your sprayed cup cake pan with the cut-out cookies

Filling 

• 125g butter
• 180 ml (3/4 cup) sugar
• 2 eggs
• 5 ml (1 tsp) vanilla essence
• 250 ml (1 cup) self-rising flour
• 125ml  (1/2 cup) smooth apricot jam  

Step 7 – Cream the butter and sugar together and add the eggs and vanilla essence. 

Step 8 – Sift the self-rising flour and add it bit by bit to the creamed butter and sugar mixture. Mix well. 

Step 9 – Add a teaspoon of apricot jam to each of the cut-out cookies in the cup cake pan.

Step 10 – Add a tablespoon of the filling mixture on top of the apricot jam.

Step 11 – Bake the tartlets in a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees for 20 minutes or until golden brown.

Step 12 – Remove from the oven and let it cool for a moment before taking it out of the pan and storing it in an airtight container.