My brother who lives in South Africa is over with his family for a large family reunion. Especially for them I baked a popular cookie from this beautiful country. When you take a bite out of this soetkoekie cookie you immediately taste the shared history with The Netherlands. It is made with cinnamon, ginger, cloves and almonds, just like our famous Dutch windmill cookie or speculaas (click on the link for the recipe). I like the use of the sweet wine or port in this cookie. You don’t use a lot, but it does make the cookie taste a bit like mulled wine. If you like a crunchy cookie you can roll out the dough nice and thin and bake it a few minutes longer or you can leave it a bit thicker and keep it nice and chewy. Together with the fried koeksisters cookie this is a classic in the South African bakery and over the years it has filled many cookie tins. If you like this recipe, try my variation soetkoekie with saffron and sherry
Soetkoekies from South Africa
60 grams of soft unsalted butter
100 grams of soft brown sugar
1 egg
60 milliliter red port
75 gram skinned almonds
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon powder
1 teaspoon ginger powder
½ teaspoon clove powder
275 grams of flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 egg white
sugar for sprinkling
Beat the butter and the sugar with an electric mixer until light and creamy for about 5 min. Add the egg and beat until incorporated. Beat in the port. Chop the almonds finely. In a large bowl mix the butter mixture with the almonds, the salt, cinnamon, ginger and cloves.
Mix the flour with the baking powder and sieve into the bowl with the butter mixture
Bring together into a ball and press into a disc. Wrap in cling film and leave to rest in the refrigerator for about 1 hour
Preheat the oven to 180 °C (350 °F). Roll out the dough into a rectangel of 0,5 cm (0.2 inch) thick. For crunchier cookies roll out the dough tinner. Cut away the uneven edges and use the leftovers for a second batch. I uses a ravioli roller for pretty crinkly edges.
Cut out rectangular cookies of about 8×4 cm or 3 x 1,5 inch.
But the cookies on a cookie sheet lined with baking paper about 1 cm (0.5 inch) apart. Beat the egg white frothy and brush on the cookies. Bake the cookies in the middle of the oven for about 15 min. Bake for about 5 min. more for crunchier cookies. Take the cookies from the oven and leave to cool on the cookie sheet. Sprinkle with some sugar.
This post is also available in: Dutch