Fried Dough with Syrup

By
Sid Khullar
– April 26, 2008Posted in: Columns & Recipes

I used to read a lot of Wilbur Smith in the past. In fact, I think I’ve read all of his books twice or more. If you ask me, I think his books are the ‘Mills and Boon’ equivalent for men. Anyway, there was mention of a dish called ‘Koeksisters’ in a few of his books and I always thought of making them, but never did.

Yesterday was baking day and I glanced through recipes on the net for Koeksisters. They are a traditional South African dish, and apparently not made much anymore. Most agreed that the ‘they have to be fried and then soaked or coated with syrup. However, most didn’t agree on the type of the input. Some say it is to be fried batter and others say it must be a dough of baking powder with flour.

Since I did have a large batch of risen dough, I used that. Shaped the dough into sticks and balls and deep fried them till they were a lovely golden brown in color. After draining, they were coated with syrup. You could add other stuff like candied peel or a couple of strands of saffron if you like.

Caution: Don’t make the balls too large. They tend to literally explode if they’re too large and fried for too long. Also, while they do explode when they’re in the oil, they can also explode when they’re out of the oil. One of my batches exploded one after the other and sprayed me with oil. Death wish that I had, I experimented and found its the size and duration of frying that makes them do so. I must say however, the exploded ones had a lovely cracked crust that made them absorb the syrup much better.

Serve hot if you can, they’re and if you’re baking, can be made in a jiffy. Cherie (my daughter) loved them by the way.

As Amber points out, these aren’t the real ones. After doing a bit more searching, I’ve found what they’re supposed to look like and some reasonably consistent dough recipes. Will do the real thing soon and post. I’ve changed the post title and the URL to reflect this. Thank you Amber!

- Sid
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About Sid Khullar

Sid is the primary contributor to and editor of Chef at Large. A self confessed food addict who likes cooking, writing and photography... and travel, if it gets him closer to a good book and interesting food. He's spent 17 years in varying functions of technology including research & development, training, sales, marketing and mentoring technology startups. He now applies himself to learning more about food and building food and beverage brands online for Brands at Large clients. Sid covers Delhi/NCR for Chef at Large and can be reached at editor@chefatlarge.in