Cape Malay Koesisters

A warm, spicy Cape Malay donut drenched in a fragrant syrup and scattered with desiccated coconut

Sunday mornings are koesister mornings in many Cape Malay households – where families gather around Bo-Kaap either grabbing some freshly baked koesisters from Bokaap Deli or going to their favourite Cape Malay auntie’s house to buy a freshly fried, newly drenched batch of koesisters. It is somewhat of a ritual in many households I am told, and the appeal is not lost on me.

I can vividly imagine being woken by the smell of a cardamomy, spicy syrup permeating the air and enjoying a freshly fried koesister with a morning cup of tea (I am leaning more toward tea than coffee recently). Blessed are those who have their mums/aunts/sisters who engage in this Sunday ritual of koesister-making.

Not to be confused with a koeksister, the Dutch-originating braided donut which is crispy on the outside with a sweet syrup drenched through from dunking the donuts into ice cold syrup, these koe’sisters are incredibly soft and pillowy in nature and are lighly “poached” in a gently simmering syrup, before receiving just a smattering of coconut to finish.

Those of you who follow my journey on Instagram know that I have been testing these for some weeks now. Some were too doughy, others too dense and some with no real syrup soaked through at all. From disappointment to disappointment, we’ve had koesisters coming out of our ears. I wanted to park this recipe to test some other time, until someone told me to try Aunty Fatima Sydow’s recipe. She is an icon in Cape Malay cooking and though she is no longer around, her legacy of spectacular recipes continue to find a place in many people’s homes.

I was very impressed with hers, save for the fact that I was convinced she made an error in the typing (I know I have done so before, when sharing recipes – you know how to make a recipe as second nature, but sometimes miss a few steps because the process is so innate). The dough was quite a sticky one when I first tried it, and I kept adding in flour to try and get it to be more pliable – a humbling lesson in the consequences of not fully reading a recipe (which I typically advocate for). The dough is meant to be very sticky as that is what gave it it’s open crumb structure on the inside. After a few more attempts, I am glad to say that I have finally nailed it! She has a five cup recipe on Youtube, which I religiously watched to understand all the nuances in making this, but that makes enough koesisters to feed an entire army! (around 50). So I scaled back the recipe, made some ratio adjustments and altered the spices to my taste. The credit however goes all to Aunty Fatima Sydow, for sharing her Heritage with the world.

Below, I share all of the tips and nuances to achieve success in making this recipe – I have found that the devil is in the detail, more than the actual ingredients itself. Feel free to adjust the spices to your own raste. I quite like the taste of aniseed and love adding a whole, broken up naartjie to the syrup for a zesty flavour. I want to emphasise that I have made the same recipe three times and I have had varied results, so it is important to follow the steps closely.

If you make this recipe, please share it with me by tagging me on Instagram @adventureswithsugar or on Facebook at Adventures with Sugar.

FOR THE SYRUP

• 750ml water
• 600g sugar
• a teaspoon of bashed cardamom
• 3 cinnamon sticks
• 2 star anise
• a naartjie, including segments, torn

METHOD

1. Place all the ingredients into a saucepan and bring to a gentle simmer, being careful not to boil.
2. The syrup should be quite thin and somewhat similar to water.
3. As you fry the koesister, the syrup will thicken, so you may want to add 3 to 4 tablespoons of water in between batches.

FOR THE KOESISTERS

• 330g cake flour
• 4 teaspoons aniseed
• 2.5 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon mixed spice
• 1.5 teaspoons ginger powder
• 2 teaspoons cardamom
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 5g yeast
• 150ml boiling water
• 100ml milk, room temperature
• 20g butter
• 15ml oil
• 40g white sugar
• 1 large egg
• 6 tablespoons of oil for greasing your hands
• oil for deep frying
• 50g desiccated coconut

METHOD

1. Place all the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl. That is the flour, aniseed, cinnamon, mixed spice, ginger, cardamom, salt, baking powder and yeast into a bowl. Mix to combine.
2. Add the sugar, butter and oil into a large mixing jug pour over the boiling water. Mix until the butter is melted and the sugar is somewhat dissolved. Then add in the milk.
3. Add in half of this milk mixture to the dry ingredients and mix followed by the egg and the rest of the milk.
4. Mix for about 5 minutes until the dough comes together, but do not over mix. Also, the dough will be extremely sticky but do not be tempted to add more flour.
5. Once kneaded, oil your hands and rub it all over the dough, then leave in a walk place to prove for 1 hour.
6. Make the syrup whilst the dough is rising. Lightly dust your counter with self-raising flour/cake flour.
7. Once doubled in size, knock down the dough, oil your hands and grab about 35g of the dough. Form into slightly oblong shapes reminiscent of a koesister.
8. Be careful not to make these too large, as they do expand as they fry.
9. Leave the koesisters to rest for about 20 minutes, whilst you heat up your oil for frying. You want to get it to 160 degrees Celcius, so quite hot.
10. Fry the koesisters about 3 minutes aside in the hot oil. Drain them on a rack for about one and a half to two minutes, whilst you get on with frying the next batch.
11. Whilst the second batch is frying, dunk the first fried batch in the syrup and let it sit for about 2minutes a side.
12. Remove from the syrup and sprinkle some desiccated coconut on, before enjoying them warm.

Recipe by adventureswithsugar.com