Heritage Day treat: Koesister ice cream sandwiches
Cape Malay Koesisters. Picture: Supplied
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Celebrate Heritage Day with this blended cultural dessert loved by South Africans all over.
The koesister showcases how diverse this country is, with food playing a huge role.
A koesister or koe’sister is a traditional Cape Malay pastry described as a spicy dumpling with a cake-like texture, finished off with a sprinkling of coconut.
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It is often mistaken for the Afrikaans koeksister, which is a golden, twisted plait, crisp on the outside with a sweet syrupy centre.
Chef Marlon De Freitas shares a classic koesister recipe, with the added sweetness of making it into an ice cream sandwich.
The Cape Malay koesister ice cream sandwich is a great way to celebrate South Africa’s diversity this Heritage Day.
Author:Citizen Reporter
Prep Time:30 minutes
Cook Time:3 hours
Total Time:3 hours 30 minutes
Yield:61x
Category:Dessert
Method:Freeze, deep-frying
Cuisine:South African
Ingredients
Scale
Koesister ice-cream
3 cups cream
2 cups milk
12 egg yolks
1½ cups sugar
1 tsp ground ginger
6 cloves
6 cardamom pods
2 cinnamon sticks
zest of 2 naartjies
pinch of salt
Koesister
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3 cups cake flour
4 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
½ tsp baking powder
5g instant yeast
2 tsp ground cardamom
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
Zest of one naartjie
1 tbsp aniseed
1 egg
1 tbsp oil
1 tbsp butter
¾ cup boiling water
¾ cup milk
Instructions
Koesister ice-cream
Simmer the cream, milk, spices and sugar together, stirring to ensure the sugar is dissolved.
Allow it to steep for 30 minutes before bringing to a simmer.
Strain the cream mixture and slowly add it to your yolk mixture (This is called tempering as you don’t want to scramble the eggs so you slowly bring it up to temperature before combining). Once combined, bring back to heat and simmer.
The temperature you’re looking for is 80ºC, but you’ll know it’s ready when the mixture coats the back of a spoon.
Add to an ice-cream churner for 60min and then freeze until ready to use.
Koesister
Mix the flour with the spices, sugar, yeast and zest. Melt the butter in boiling water then add the milk to the butter mixture.
First, add the egg and oil to the dry ingredients and then add the milk and butter mixture.
Mix thoroughly to form a soft dough. It will be quite sticky but don’t panic! Leave to rise for about 90 minutes or until doubled in size.
Once risen, moisten your hands with oil and make small balls in the palm of your hands.
Set aside to rise again.
Lightly stretch the balls and deep fry them in medium hot oil. You can shape them as you see fit, I prefer a golf ball size.
When ready to coat, bring a saucepan of equal amounts of water and sugar with cinnamon sticks to a boil.
Dip in your koesisters and roll in coconut.
To assemble, cut your koesister in half and add your ice cream, then a sandwich.
