A Hertzoggie is one of South Africa’s most delicious desserts – filled with jam and served on a cup-shaped pastry base, with a topping of coconut. And the Hertzog Cookie (or Hertzog Kookie in Afrikaans) is packed with as much history as it is with jam!
The popular South African dessert is served with English tea, and is also often baked during Eid amongst the Cape-Malay community.
As you may guess from its name, it’s named after the late Boer War General JBM Hertzog, who allegedly loved the cookie. Legend has it that it was the Cape Malay community who first baked it in the 1920s for Hertzog to show their support after he vowed to give women the vote and grant equal rights to the Coloured community. After he kept his first promise, but reneged on his second, the Cape Malay community apparently started applying brown and pink icing to the cookies and called them twee gevreetjie (‘hypocrite’ in Afrikaans).
HERTZOGGIES
Author: Fazila Olla-Logday
Recipe type: Dessert
Cuisine: South African
A Hertzoggie is one of South Africa’s most delicious desserts - filled with jam and served on a cup-shaped pastry base, with a topping of coconut. And the Hertzog Cookie (or Hertzog Kookie in Afrikaans) is packed with as much history as it is with jam! The popular South African dessert is served with English tea, and is also often baked during Eid amongst the Cape-Malay community. As you may guess from its name, it’s named after the late Boer War General JBM Hertzog, who allegedly loved the cookie. Legend has it that it was the Cape Malay community who first baked it in the 1920s for Hertzog to show their support after he vowed to give women the vote and grant equal rights to the Coloured community. After he kept his first promise, but reneged on his second, the Cape Malay community apparently started applying brown and pink icing to the cookies and called them twee gevreetjie (‘hypocrite’ in Afrikaans).
Ingredients
- 250 Gr Soft Butter
- 1 Cup Castor Sugar
- 1 Tsp Vanilla Essence
- 1 Egg
- 4 Cups Cake Flour
- 2 Tsps Baking Powder
- 2 Tbles Oil
Filling
- 11/2 Cups Fine Coconut
- ½ Cup Sugar
- 1 Cup Water
- 2 Cinnamon Sticks
- 2 Cardamom Pods
- Apricot Jam
Instructions
Coconut Filling
- In a small saucepan, boil the water, sugar, cinnamon sticks and cardamom pods until the sugar has dissolved, then add the coconut and cook on medium heat for about 5-10 minutes or until all the water has dissolved.
Dough
- Cream the butter and sugar well.
- Add oil, vanilla essence and egg and beat well.
- Sift in the flour and baking powder and mix to form a dough. The dough should feel fairly soft, so do not be tempted to add more flour.
- Cover with cling wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour.
- Roll out the dough using wax paper rather than flour and cut it into shapes with a flower-shaped cookie cutter and place it into greased patty pans.
- Spoon approximately 1 teaspoon of the coconut filling into each one.
- Bake for approximately 15-20 mins or until lightly golden brown (depending on your oven)
- Remove from oven and spoon about ½ teas of jam alongside the coconut.
Notes
Please only use butter, not margarine. It does make a difference to the taste of the finished product.
[…] my favourite recipes as a kid in South Africa was called Hertzoggies (I am linking to a traditional recipe of those here, check it out if you want). My family ate and made a lot of these little tarts growing up. But they […]