You’ll need:
240 g cake flour
20 ml baking powder
2 ml salt
Fat or oil for frying
25 ml butter
125 ml sour milk or buttermilk
Sift the dry ingredients together and rub in the butter. Add the sour milk (or buttermilk), mix into a soft dough and knead thoroughly, then leave the dough to stand for about 15 minutes. While the dough is standing, make the syrup.
For the syrup
1 kg sugar
500 ml water
Some bruised ginger
1 ml cream of tartar
Pinch of salt
Juice of 1 lemon, plus some grated peel
Put all ingredients into a saucepan, heat and stir until all the sugar is dissolved. Simmer for a few minutes longer, then remove from the heat and
chill (stick it in the freezer so it gets really cold). By now the dough should be perfect to make the koeksisters. Roll out the dough to a thickness of about five millimetres and cut into strips five millimetres wide and aboutseven centimetres long. Plait the dough, making sure you press the ends together firmly so the koeksisters don’t fall apart while being fried. Deep-fry in hot fat or oil until golden brown and well done (think crunchy
outside, but not burnt). Drain, dip them into the ice-cold syrup and dry on a wire drying rack. I like to eat koeksisters with freshly whipped cream – but the rest is up to you.
For more recipes and outdoor cooking ideas, read Justin Bonello’s Cooked in Africa: A cooking journey through Southern Africa.
