Soetkoekies – South African teatime tradition at its best

Take a journey to yesterday with these delicious soetkoekies. They are perfect for teatime or an anytime treat. You may even be tempted to enjoy some as a midnight snack.

These old-fashioned sweet buttery biscuits will take you straight back to your childhood.  They are delicately spiced with nutmeg and cinnamon, and they’re just heavenly dipped in warm tea.

To ensure you always have something available for teatime, make a large batch of soetkoekies and you will have something to snack on all year round. In less than 30 minutes you can have these buttery bites ready with a few simple ingredients.

The best part is that these cookies keep very well in airtight containers for several weeks so you can bake large batches well in advance and keep hungry tummies and everyone with a sweet tooth satisfied.

So, grab your apron and your baking gear and bake up a storm with this mouth-watering soetkoekies recipe.

Soetkoekies recipe

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Recipe by Marele van Zyl Course: SnacksCuisine: South AfricanDifficulty: Easy

Prep time

15

minutes

Cooking time

10

minutes

Total time

25

minutes

Ingredients

• 250 g 250 butter (at room temperature)

• 750 ml 750 (600 g) sugar

• 5 large 5 eggs

• 825 g 825 (6 x 250 ml) cake flour

• 30 ml 30 baking powder

• 10 ml 10 ground nutmeg

• 5 ml 5 ground cinnamon

• 2.5 ml 2.5 salt

• 100 ml 100 milk (for brushing)

• extra sugar (for sprinkling)

Method

• Preheat the oven to 200°C.
• In a large bowl using electric beaters, beat the butter with sugar and eggs until light and fluffy – about 5 minutes.
• In another large bowl, sieve the flour, baking powder, spices and salt together.
• Add the butter mixture to the dry ingredients, and mix to form a soft dough.
• On a well-floured surface, roll out small batches of dough at a time, sprinkling more flour on top of the dough if necessary (the dough can be quite soft and sticky). The thickness should be about 5 mm.
• Press out circles with a cookie cutter, then arrange on a lined/greased baking tray, with at least 2 cm of space between each cookie.
• Bake for 8 – 10 minutes until pale and slightly golden (not too dark), remove from oven and cool on wire racks.
• Store in an airtight container – it keeps well for several weeks.

Notes

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