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Koeksisters

August 27, 2009 by Louise

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A traditional South African treat, koeksisters are wickedly sweet and make for a delicious tea time treat. So roll up your sleeves, follow this easy recipe and get ready to work that dough!

koeksisters

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koeksisters

Koeksisters


  • Author: Caroline Hastings-Brown
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Description

A super-sweet, traditional South African treat! Perfect with your afternoon tea of coffee!


Ingredients

Ingredients – dough:
  • 2 cups cake flour
  • 2 tablespoons baking powder
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 1 large egg
  • 4 tbsp butter/margarine
  • ½ cup of water
  • oil for frying
Ingredients – syrup:
  • 3 cups sugar
  • 1 ½ cinnamon sticks
  • ½ tsp ground ginger
  • 1 ½ cups of water
  • juice of one lemon

 


Instructions

  1. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together.
  2. Rub in the butter and mix until pliable.
  3. Mix this with the egg and water (adding the water a little at a time).
  4. Work the dough well. If the dough appears to be lumpy and sticky, continue to work the dough until it will ball up.
  5. Let the dough rest at room temperature for about three hours (under an inverted mixing bowl).
Method – syrup:
  1. Prepare the syrup a day before (it needs to be very cold).
  2. Dissolve sugar in the water.
  3. Add the spices and lemon juice to this and boil together. Leave the syrup cool in the fridge overnight.
To prepare the koeksisters:
  1. Roll out the dough (thickness 5mm).
  2. Cut the dough into strips of 6cm long, 2cm wide.
  3. Cut each of these strips into three strips (not all the way through, leave the strips connected at the top).
  4. Plat each strip, pinch together at the end of the strip.
  5. Deep fry until golden brown.
  6. Remove and drain quickly – dip the hot koeksisters in the cold syrup (that was stored in the fridge up to now).
  7. The secret is to keep the syrup cold and the koeksisters hot, this way it will draw just the right amount of syrup.
  8. You can keep the syrup cold by keeping the syrup bowl in another container filled with iced water.

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Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: easy koeksisters recipe, koeksisters, koeksisters recipe

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. laurike

    February 10, 2011 at 2:51 pm

    Can I please have the contact details in regards to the person who took the koeksisters photo?
    I really would like to buy the photo.

    Kind regards,
    Laurike

  2. El

    January 19, 2012 at 2:33 am

    Hi! These look delicious. Wanted to surprise my South African husband with them. He’s homesick and been living in the U.S. for the last several years. Thought it’d be a nice treat.

    What kind of oil is best for frying these in? And approximately how long does it take for them to cook through? I also wanted to know how long you keep the syrup at a boil. Thanks!

    • Thea Botha

      January 31, 2016 at 3:58 pm

      Die suurlemoensap kan ook vervang word met nartjiesap of lemoensap en gemmer

  3. Marion

    February 13, 2012 at 12:37 pm

    Made these for the very first time for my daughter’s international day presentation (we live in France) and they have come out beautifully!! I particularly love the syrup with the addition of the lemon juice as I find the very traditional syrup too sweet. A very easy recipe to follow and much easier to make than I thought it would be. Definite thumbs up!

  4. Karen

    April 5, 2012 at 11:50 pm

    Making these tomorrow. Only the second time I’ve made koeksisters! Wish me luck 🙂

  5. Vicky Jackson

    May 6, 2012 at 2:49 pm

    Very tasty. Thought the syrup was to thick.

  6. Carrie Landsberg

    March 4, 2014 at 8:37 am

    Have tried many recipes. Was intrigued by this one..One question..2 TABLESPOONS of baking powder, can this be right? Just asking, before I boob.. Thanx

    • Thea Botha

      January 31, 2016 at 4:02 pm

      No Carrie it is teaspoons. You can actually measure for 1 cup of flour it is ussually 1 teaspoon (5ml)

  7. Alex

    September 28, 2015 at 4:17 am

    This recipe is sooooooo easy to follow me and my 11 year old brother (I’m 12 btw) have made them twice once for my class( they loved them) and once for my family my South African dad said they almost tasted like the ones he bought as a kid in South Africa. They didn’t taste the same because we used gluten free flour instead of regular flour.

  8. Madelyn B.

    March 10, 2016 at 7:24 am

    This recipe worked fantastic. For my first time making koeksisters, they taste delicious. Recipe was very easy to follow and turned out delicious. My only suggestion is for the syrup, do 1 cup of water and 2 1/12 cups of sugar. That 1kg has to be a typo because that is about 5 cups of sugar, and it would be way too sweet.

    Overall, 4 stars;)

  9. evelyb

    March 25, 2016 at 5:51 pm

    I failed hopelessly, they just fell into pieces, n is it cause I never made it stand for 3 hours, is the 3 hours a necessity? Pls help

  10. Barbara Strydom

    November 22, 2016 at 2:00 pm

    Hallo, I hope you can help. Why is that the koeksisters sometimes fry so nicely, but as soon as you put it the syrup its takeing up a lot of syrup, but is makeing a hole on the one side. What can the reason be for that.

    Thank you
    Barbara

  11. Chantell

    February 11, 2017 at 2:39 pm

    Made them 2day cz I had a crave for koeksisters they were a yummylicious treat my kids couldn’t get enough!lol thumbs up!

  12. Nakia Tabolt

    June 1, 2017 at 11:06 pm

    I agree with you.I hope that helps.

Trackbacks

  1. koeksisters - StartTags.com says:
    March 4, 2010 at 6:30 pm

    […] and make for a delicious tea time treat. So roll up your sleeves and get ready to work that dough!Easy Koeksisters Recipe | Traditional South African Treat …Follow this easy recipe to make wickedly sweet koeksisters – a traditional South African treat.Mary […]

  2. Rosette and koeksister – treats from Finland and South Africa | Africans in Finland says:
    January 29, 2012 at 6:26 pm

    […] can find many recipes on the web (for example here, here, here and here) – we chose to use this one from JustEasyRecipes.co.za because we had all the ingredients it required. It was a fairly long […]

  3. Easter Treats « Drawing Room Days says:
    April 6, 2012 at 9:45 pm

    […] those of you who do not know what koeksisters are, here is a quote from https://justeasyrecipes.com/2009/08/27/koeksisters/ (a page on a FANTASTIC South African recipes website that I stumbled upon only the other day): A […]

  4. Koeksisters Recipe - South African doughnut | African Food Recipes with cooking Videos says:
    July 5, 2012 at 1:49 pm

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