South African Traditional Soetkoekies Sweet Cookies Food

SOETKOEKIES - SWEET WINE AND SPICE SOUTH AFRICAN COOKIES

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray two baking sheets with cooking spray. Sift the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves and salt together and set aside.
• In a deep bowl, cream the butter and the dark-brown sugar together, mashing and beating them against the sides of the bowl until they are thoroughly blended. Beat in the egg, then add the flour mixture 1/2 cup at a time, stirring well after each addition. Beat in the wine and chopped almonds.
• With your hands, vigorously knead the dough in the bowl until it can be gathered into a somewhat firm, compact ball. If the dough then seems too soft, knead in up to 1/4 cup more flour, adding it a tablespoon or so at a time.
• On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough into a rough circle about 1/4 inch thick. With a cookie cutter or the rim of a glass, cut it into 2-inch rounds. Arrange the rounds about 1 inch apart on the buttered baking sheets. Then gather the scraps of dough into a ball, roll it out into another circle, and cut out rounds as before.
• Press a blanched almond half lightly into the center of each Soetkoekie and brush the entire top surface of the cookie with the beaten egg white-and-water mixture.
• Bake the cookies in the middle of the oven for 15 minutes, or until they are crisp and firm to the tough. With a wide metal spatula, transfer the cookies to a rack to cool. The cookies will keep for up to two weeks in a tightly covered jar.

TRADITIONAL SOETKOEKIES RECIPE

Steps:

• Cream the butter with an electric mixer then the add icing sugar and beat until light and fluffy.
• Add in the condensed milk and vanilla and mix until well combined. Add egg and beat till smooth.
• Sift the flour, corn flour and baking powder into mixture and stir until a soft dough is formed.
• Wrap the dough in cling wrap and leave in the fridge for at least 2 hours OR until the dough is chilled.
• Preheat the oven to 170°C.
• Roll out the dough to 5 mm thickness and cut the biscuits to the desired shape and bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes.
• Once cooled, dust with castor sugar and enjoy!

SOETKOEKIES ( SPICY WINE COOKIES)

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly spray or grease a cookie sheet.
• Sift together the flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, ground cloves, brown sugar, and almonds in a large bowl.
• Add the butter and cut into the flour mixture.
• Add the beaten eggs and red wine and mix dough together until it can be formed into a ball.
• Roll dough into walnut-sized balls and place on cookie sheets about 2" apart.
• Brush each cookie gently with the egg white.
• Bake for 12-15 minutes - until golden brown. Remove to a rack to cool completely.

KRAKELINGE (SOUTH AFRICAN COOKIES)

Steps:

• Preheat oven 400°F.
• In bowl, cream butter and sugar. Beat in egg.
• Sift flour and baking powder together and stir into the butter mixture.
• Roll dough about 1/4 inch thick. Brush with the egg yolk, then sprinkle generously with sugar and then the almonds.
• Cut into narrow strips. Form each strip into a figure-8 shape.
• Bake on lightly greased baking sheet 8-10 minutes.

SOUTH AFRICAN TRADITIONAL SOETKOEKIES (SWEET COOKIES)

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 380 deg F/180 deg Celsius.
• Grease cookie tins.
• (** The story of the fat: we can always buy raw pork or mutton fat from a butcher or supermarket butchery dept. To render, cut this fat into small cubes, put (in batches) in a heavy-bottomed pot, and leave over low heat for the fat to "melt out". Pour off the fat at frequent intervals into a container, to prevent the fat browning in the pot. Do this before you start baking, and save the fat in the fridge in a closed container).
• In a large container mix very well: the flour, brown sugar, baking soda, cream of tartar, salt and all the spices.
• Rub in the butter and Crisco or fat with your fingers and palms until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
• Whisk the eggs, add just 1/2 cup sweet wine to the eggs, then stir into the dry mixture.
• Stir this in well, and if still too dry to form a dough, add more of the sweet wine to form a fairly stiff dough.
• The dough is easy to handle and can be kneaded at this stage to mix well and to form a dough you can roll out.
• Roll out thinly, in batches, on a floured surface. Keep gathering up the unused dough, press together, and roll out again.
• Make sure your oven grid is in the centre of the oven, as cookies burn easily on the bottom, especially if you use dark tins.
• Press out large round cookies, carefully place on the greased tins, and bake in batches in the preheated oven.
• Check cookies after 5 minutes; don't let them burn. Cooking time depends on your oven and size of cookies, but is generally about 7 minutes.
• Remove with an egg-lifter, and let them cool and harden on wire racks. Store in airtight tins.
• The amount given below is a guess: any smaller and you will get up to 130 cookies or more. The cooking time is based roughly on the several batches you will have to cook.
• Can be made weeks before using.
• Although I give an approximately number of cookies, it will depend on your cookie cutter. A smaller cookie cutter will yield up to 130 or more cookies.

ROYAL CREAMS

Steps:

• Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
• Add eggs and vanilla essence to creamed mixture, beat a little longer (2 minutes or so).
• Sift dry ingredients, add to mix and make dough.
• Roll and cut small identical sized biscuits, or roll small even-size balls and flatten slightly with hand or use a biscuit-press (which is what I use for these).
• Bake at 170°C or 325°F until slightly golden at edges - or lift up the biscuit, if it is light brown under it's done.
• Cool on rack.
• Once cold sandwich together with 'Icing' and sprinkle with castor sugar.
• Icing: Cream together with mixer.
• Note: Castor sugar is finer than granulated sugar (in the US look for superfine sugar).

CHOCOLATE PEPPER COOKIES (SOUTH AFRICAN)

Steps:

• Melt half the chocolate.
• Beat butter until light and airy.
• Add sugar and beat until completely incorporated into butter.
• Beat in eggs one by one.
• Combine flour and baking soda and sift into butter mixture little by little until incorporated.
• Mix chocolate into the butter mixture.
• Stir in remaining chopped chocolate and pepper.
• Cover and refrigerate until dough is cool and firm.
• Preheat oven to 350°F.
• Cover baking sheet with parchment paper ( or grease generously).
• Place tablespoonful of batter about 1 inch apart on sheet.
• Bake for 10 to 12 minutes until crisp on outside but still chewy inside.