South African Koeksister Recipe

It all started when I was missing the tastes and smells of South Africa.
I had this idea of enjoying some sticky koeksisters - and since no shop sells them here in New Zealand (that I know of), I scoured the internet looking for an easy recipe.

What you see here is my version of the four or so recipes that made sense to me - so here I'll show you step-by-step how I made koeksisters.

Pete's koeksister recipe with photos!.

WARNING:
You have to be well prepared and organised for making these, notwithstanding the time factor involved - but it is definitely worth the effort...

Ingredients for koeksister syrup
* zest of lemon (or orange if you prefer)
* 4 cups sugar
* 2 cups water
* large pinch (1/4 teaspoon) cream of tartar
* large pinch dried ginger powder
* 1 tablespoon golden syrup
* squeeze of half a lemon (or orange)

Method for koeksister syrup
1) grate some lemon or orange peel into a saucepan

2) add the sugar, cream of tartar, ginger powder and water
some recipes had a cinnamon quill in there as well, but I don't like too much cinnamon in my food

3) dissolve over warm heat

4) add the juice of half a lemon and the golden syrup

5) stir until boiling, put a lid on the saucepan and boil for 1 minute

6) remove the lid and reduce the heat - enough to keep boiling for another 5 minutes - don't stir - just let it boil

7) leave the syrup to cool

8) place cooled syrup into 2 separate bowls and chill in the fridge for at least 6 hours (in my case - overnight)

The 2 bowls make it easier to have chilled syrup on hand later on - when the fried koeksisters warms the syrup in one bowl, you have a chilled one spare. Apparently, having chilled syrup is the secret to it being absorbed by the dough and keeping it crunchy on the outside.


Ingredients for Koeksister Dough
* 2 cups flour
* ½ teaspoon salt
* 1 tablespoon baking powder
* 1 tablespoon butter (or margarine)
* 1 teaspoon sugar
* 1 egg
* half a cup of water mixed with a dash of milk
* 500 – 750ml cooking oil (I used Rice Bran Oil) - for frying

Method for Koeksister Dough

1) sift dry ingredients into a mixing bowl

2) rub butter (or margarine) into the dry ingredients

3) add the egg and water mix

here I got lazy and decided to let our breadmaking machine do the work for me

4) knead the dough until it is soft (5 minutes by hand - or ten minutes in the bread machine)

breadmaker koeksister dough

5) wrap dough in clingwrap and let rest (for 3 or more hours - or in my case, overnight)

Now comes the fun part - making the tasty Koeksisters...

1) unwrap the dough and place it on a sheet of waxpaper - I rubbed a bit of the Rice Bran Oil on the paper
so the dough didn't stick to anything

koeksister dough

2) roll out the dough to about 5mm thickness

3) cut the dough into strips (about an inch wide, or whatever width you want) - I used the handy pizza cutter for this

cutting koeksister dough

A)
The strips can be twisted from opposite ends

Then fold the ends back on themselves

And twist again

B)
Or, cut one strip of dough into two lengths - leaving one end joined
- some koeksister recipes I've seen cut the strips into 3 and plat, but I did what seemed easier to me

cross each strand over each other - like a plat

When it came time to fry the koeksister doughs, there didn't seem to be much variation between the platted or twisted dough.

Personally, twisted is easier and less fuss to make...

4) set the twisted or platted raw dough aside

raw koeksister dough - shaped

here I had to cut these twisted dough bits in the middle to fit my frypan

5) heat oil over a medium heat - if the oil is too hot, they will brown too quickly and not cook enough on the inside

6) while oil is heating, get a deep plate and cover it with a wire rack so the syrup can drain off the cooked
koeksisters

7) take one bowl of syrup out of the fridge and place it in a larger bowl with ice around it

8) place four raw koeksisters in the oil at a time. They will puff up after a few seconds and start to float. Make sure you turn them gently so they brown on all sides.

koeksisters frying

This whole cooking process should take around a minute for each batch - or until the koeksisters brown nicely (golden brown is what you're after. red-brick brown is probably too long)

9) remove the koeksisters from the frypan and place in the bowl of syrup as quickly as you can, making sure they all get a good coating of syrup. Keep them submerged in the syrup until they have absorbed a fair bit of it.

10) remove the koeksisters from the syrup and place on the wire rack so the syrup can drip off

11) repeat the cooking process 4 at a time and soak in syrup

12) when half the batch of raw koeksister dough is cooked, get the next bowl of chilled syrup out of the fridge, and continue the process

Serve and enjoy...

Koeksisters

To keep any leftovers crisp (as if...), keep them covered in the fridge

so there you have it - Pete's Koeksister recipe