Category Archives for Recipes (English)

Soet cookies

Today I baked some soetkoekies. I was in the mood for something easy with no fillings or anything else. Just something that would be quick to bake and lovely to enjoy! A cookie recipe with just over a hand full of ingredients.

I have not baked any of these cookies for a while. Last time I tried them, they were not very successful. I bake with gluten free ingredients and sometimes the flour can be difficult to bake with. To be honest, it has taken me more than 4 years to discover the best flour combination for the best results for baking all different things.

So this time the cookies were a raving success! I baked them before I left the house to pick up the kids from school and as we opened the door when we got back, we were bowled over by the the aroma of the soet cookies. These are truly wonderful cookies. I know that old fashioned soet cookies are fantastic, but I have not been able to successfully bake those yet. I will have to work on them next! But this easy so bake soet cookie recipe from my mother is always a winner…

When you work with gluten free products it is always important to have a look at what type of recipe it is. What is the goal? If you are baking cookies that need to be crisp or harder, it is very important to use a plain gluten free flour that contains some kind of harder flour like soy or brown rice. You do not want these cookies to run or rise too much.

If you choose to bake something that needs to be very light and fluffy or rise quite a bit like cakes, cup cakes or plaatkoekies (like American pancakes), you will need a mix of softer flours like tapioca or potato. Use self-raising flour and then add half the amount of raising agent suggested by the recipes. This will result in beautiful, fluffy baking every time.

Hope this helps a bit!

If you are intereste in having a look at my recipe books that are available online, please have a look at my Amazon site. You will also find my gluten free version here. Otherwise you can buy my downloadable book from my website.

Pancake day

How wonderful that there is a day dedicated to baking and eating pancakes. Not that I ever need a reason for baking these wonderful treats. I love eating them warm with cinnamon sugar sprinkled on top. If I close my eyes I can just smell that now. Why no treat yourself and your family to these wonderful treats.

Ingredients
2 1/2 cups of water (you can replace the half cup with milk)
2 eggs
1/4 cup of oil (I use sunflower oil)
2 cups of self-raising flour (you can use regular flour with 2 teaspoons of baking powder. If you are a celiac, replace with self-raising Gluten Free flour and add 1 teaspoon of baking powder and a 1/4 teaspoon of xanthan gum)
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon of sugar

Method
1. Beat the eggs, water and oil together.
2. Add the flour, salt and sugar and mix very well.
3. Bake as many pancakes as you can eat!!!

The nice thing about pancakes is that you can either fill them with beautiful mince and sauce or chicken as a main meal, or sprinkle with cinnamon sugar as a wonderful snack. Enjoy your pancake day!!

My books on Amazon

My recipe books are now all available on Amazon. There is a selection of both English and Afrikaans books. The list is as follows:

ENGLISH:

Recipes from South Africa – paperback version
This is a real paperback book that you can order and have delivered. Something to keep forever and pass on to your children. This book contains interesting information as well as all my recipes for starters, main courses, puddings, cookies and treats as well as cakes. Over 140 pages.

Cookies and Cakes – e-book version
This recipe book is for everyone that LOVES baking. You will find all kinds of cookies and cakes including coffee, sweet, old fashioned sweet, oats, custard and soentjies. You will also find chocolate cake, cup cakes and fruit cake recipes. Over 20 recipes.

Tarts and Treats – e-book version
This is a special treat with wonderful recipes from marshmallow tart, milk tart, sout tart and other treats including vetkoek, melkkos and much more. If you are looking for nice treats to bake for visitors or parties, this book is for you! Over 20 recipes.

AFRIKAANS:

Resepte vanuit Suid-Afrika – e-boek weergawe
Hierdie is my volle resepteboek met resepte vir alle geleenthede. Dit sluit in voorgeregte, hoofgeregte, slaaie, souse, nageregte, koekies, koeke en spesiale lekkernye…. Daar is ook ‘n paar nuwe resepte wat ek graag met jou wil deel.

Smullekker koekies – e-boek weergawe
Hierdie resepteboek is vir jou as jy daarvan hou om te bak en brou. Alles van koekies tot koeke…. Koffiekoekies, vlakoekies, soentjie, hawermout, soet, outydse soet en vele meer. Daar is oor die 20 resepte.

Terte en Bederfies – e-boek weergawe
Hierdie boek is vir jou as jy graag wil bak. Spesiale bederfies vir vriende en familie wat kom kuier of om verjaarsdae te vier. Alles van malvalekkertert, souttert, melkterk, vetkoek en melkkos… Meer as 20 resepte.

Ek is besig om aan die sagtebandboek in Afrikaans te werk. Sal baie binnekort beskikbaar wees. Geniet die e-boek weergawes vir nou…. Maklik om te gebruik en te stoor. Gebruik sommer jou telefoon of tablet om vanaf te kook en bak 🙂

GLUTEN FREE

I have now finished and published my Gluten Free book as well. This is especially for all the celiacs out there. My husband was diagnosed in 2009 and since then I have been adapting my South African baking recipes.

Home Made Romany Creams

It is almost Christmas again, can you believe it… Feels like yesterday we all got together as a family and had so much fun. This year is a bit different. Lots of things happened but at least we are still able to keep in touch through technology… This year we are running a special for Christmas. Show the person that means the most to you that you are thinking of them.

If you live in the UK, you can order Home made Romany Creams, specially baked with love xxx We are selling little bags of cookies, 12 in a pack. It will be packaged in a beautiful bag and delivered to your door via courier… We are taking orders now and all orders will be dispatched within 3 working days.

You can buy them now through eBay:
1 x 12 pack of Home made Romany creams – £5.40 + R2.90 for delivery. If you buy 2 or more packs you will save 5%…

This is an ideal way of showing the South African, or anyone else, that you are thinking of them. These are beautiful cookies made with chocolate and coconut, so don’t miss out. If you want to place an order please contact me via our blog or visit eBay. You can also contact me via facebook….

Looking forward to your orders and speaking soon 🙂

Ystervarkies

Ystervarkies is one of my favourites. I don’t know if it is the chocolate syrup or the coconut you use to roll the pieces of cake in, maybe it is a combination of both, but NOTHING can beat the taste. In English they are also known as lamingtons, but for us they will always be ystervarkies 🙂

Let me share with you the recipe…. It is easy to make but can take some time so make sure you have enough time available to enjoy the whole process. First you have to bake the cake and then you make the syrup. Have a bowl of desiccated coconut separately to roll the cake in after you dunked it in the syrup….

Bake a sponge cake in a square or rectangle pan. Cut the cake into little squares, probably about 3cm x 3cm. It is not an exact science so cut them how big you want to, different sized are also just fine!!!!

To make the sauce you need to add the following in a pan:

60ml of cacao (2 tablespoons)
375ml boiling water
600g (3 cups) of sugar
15 ml of butter or margarine (1 tablespoon)
1 teaspoon of vanilla

Bring all the ingredients to the boil on the stove and cook for 2 minutes. Then remove the pan from the heat. You have to dunk the pieces of cake individually in the sauce. Try and use the sauce as warm as you can without burning your fingers. Once you covered all the sides of the piece of cake in the sauce, roll it in the coconut (you will need about 500g)…..

Potato Cakes

I know I have shared this potato cake recipe with you before, but I just felt I had to update it a bit. I found that the egg binds it very well and the amount of flour needed is not much. You can also add anything you like to it. I have experimented with many different flavours but found what my family love. That is the trick. Stick with what your family loves…

Ingredients:
4 potatoes (cook well and then mash)
A pinch of salt
A pinch of smoked paprika, beautiful flavour
Teaspoon of grated onion (very fine)
Large hand full of cheese (cheddar, mozzarella, why not try blue cheese?)
Sliced salami or fried and finely chopped bacon
1 egg
1 tablespoon of flour (not too full)

Mix all the ingredients very well together. It will be like a soft mash consistency.. Use a tablespoon and spoon them into the pan. I can fit 4 at a time and do not use any oil in the pan. Just use a non stick pan, it works wonderful.

Leave them in the pan for a few minutes. Make sure you wait until the potato cake is not stuck to the pan anymore before you turn them over. They will be nice and brown on one side. Leave in the pan until brown on the other side as well before you remove them. Serve warm.

Please try these wonderful cakes and let us know how yours came out. What did you add that was special to you? What is your family’s favourite?

Giant Plaatkoekies

I always bake small plaatkoekies but decided to make them bigger this time. A bit thicker as well which means that they are more filling and wonderfully soft and fluffy 🙂 We bake gluten free so the recipe is gluten free.

Ingredients:
1 cup of water
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 tablespoon of sugar
1 and 1/2 cup of self raising gluten free flour

Method:
1. Mix the water and eggs together.
2. Add the sugar, salt and flour.
3. Mix well and place spoons-full in a pan….
4. Bake on both sides turning when little air bubbles appear on one side.

You can add chocolate spread (which is a lovely sweet option), cinnamon sugar, melted cheese or even meats like salami or ham… Our family love this and enjoy eating it even for breakfast with bacon and syrup….

Soentjies – just for you :)

Hi there everyone!!!!!

Today I will share with you our soentjie recipe. This is specially for Alison, so make sure you give us feedback once you tried the recipe please…. Photos, remarks, anything is welcome… I would love to see what happened…

Soentjies is a wonderful biscuit. They crumble in your mouth, almost disintegrate as you bite them. They are lovely and soft but also have a slight crunch at the same time. One of my all time favourites. The secret ingredient that makes this all possible is the cornflour…

You can halve the recipes if you want to make a bit less… This will make around 2.5kg.

Ingredients:
2 cups of margarine
2 cups of sugar
3 eggs
4 cups of flour
3 cups of cornflour
3 teaspoons of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt

Method:
1. Cream the margarine and sugar together and then add the beaten eggs. Mix well.
2. Sieve the dry ingredients together and add. Fist mix together with a wooden spoon.
3. Then use your hands and knead the dough together. Put through the mincer attachment of the Kenwood. Attach the cookie shape in the front.
4. Cut the dough into rectangular shapes with a pastry cutter.
5. Bake on the bottom shelve of the oven, pre-heated to 180 degrees celcius for about 10 minutes.
7. Move to the middle of the oven and bake for another 10 minutes. They stay white so don’t let them burn.

Filling:
1 cup of sugar
1/2 cup of margarine
1/2 cup of milk
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

Boil all the ingredients together for 5 minutes. Stir while it cools down. It is a good idea to make the filling first before you bake the cookies….

Once the cookies are cold, spread some of the filling on one of the cookies, and stick another against it…

Enjoy with tea, coffee or just on the go like I do 🙂 If you don’t have a Kenwood, just take the dough and roll little balls… Place in a baking tray and lightly press them down with a fork. After they cooled down, stick 2 together with the filling. They might not look exactly the same, but they still taste great !!!

Rice – easy as that :)

Today I am going to share with you a recipe that my husband showed me. It is the easiest thing you will ever make. I never thought of cooking rice in this way, never ever 🙂 Amazing what there is out there still to be discovered by you. Maybe something that one person accepts as normal is totally unheard of for another person. So let’s all share recipes and ideas 🙂

This is how to make this wonderful easy rice….

First you have to decided what flavours you are in the mood for today. Curry, Chinese or whatever you like to eat. My whole family loves bacon and I just happened to have a few pieces in the fridge to use up anyway, so I cut the bacon into little pieces and fried it off with finely chopped onion in a little bit of oil. I also like smoked paprika so added just a little bit for taste.

Once the onion is see through and the bacon is cooked, you have to add your rice. We use 1 cup of rice for our family, so I added 1 cup of raw rice to the mix of onion and bacon…

You then stir the rice in the pan or pot, whatever you decide to use, for a few minutes. Not too long… Then it is time to add the liquid….. I used chicken stock. Take one chicken stock cube and add 2 cups (500ml) of boiling water and stir. Now it is ready to add to your rice mixture on the stove. Stir the mixture together… Remember you need 2 parts liquid for every part rice that you are using.

Then you have to find an oven dish or whatever you have lying around. I could only find our braai dish (a round one) and it worked wonders. I now use nothing else :). Pour the rice and stock mixture into the dish… Make sure you cover it very well. You want the steam from cooking to stay in the dish, not escape into the oven.

Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees celcius and then add the mixture to the oven. You need to let it cook for about 10 minutes. Then take it out of the oven and stir. Leave it another 10 minutes. It should be cooked after 20 minutes. If not, just cook a bit longer until the rice is dry.

The taste of the rice is wonderful, so different from just boiling it on the stove in water like I have always done. Something to try…. Goes well with anything, even just on it’s own 🙂

Sweet Mustard

This is a wonderful recipe I got from my mother… Believe me, my son LOVES this recipe and eats it on everything. It is a bit sweet, but also sour at the same time. Goes well on pork and is a winner if you add a little bit to mayonaise for a chicken mayo toasted sandwich…. My favourite, add to a hot dog with melted cheese 🙂

Here is the recipe. I changes it a little bit because of availability of ingredients:

Ingredients:
1 cup of sugar (250ml)
25 ml of mustard powder. Use the English mustard
20 ml of cake flour. I add 20ml because I make everything gluten free, if you are using regular flour, start maybe with 15 ml.
Pinch of salt
1/2 cup of white spirit vinegar. I used apple cider vinegar, could not find white spirit vinegar… (the cider vinegar has a stronger taste than the spirit vinegar)
1/2 cup of water
2 extra large eggs

Method:
1. Mix the sugar, mustard, flour and salt in a bowl.
2. Microwave for 4 minutes on 100% stirring after 2 minutes.
3. Beat the eggs together and add some of the mixture, mixing very well… Add to the rest of the mixture and stir together…
4. Microwave for 3 minutes at 50% until it turns thicker.
5. Let it cool down. Place the mixture in a holder and store in the fridge. It tastes great when it is very cold 🙂