How to cook koeksisters

You will need:

For the dough

2 cups cake flour
½ tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
4 tbsp butter
1 egg
Up to ½ cup water
Oil for deep-frying

For the syrup

500g sugar
¾ cup water
1 tsp coffee extract (you could also use fresh ginger, vanilla extract, orange blossom extract or fresh orange zest to flavour the syrup)

Step one

Sift the flour, salt and baking powder together twice, into a bowl. Rub in butter and mix to a pliable dough with egg and water (add the water a little at a time – you might not need to use all of it). Knead well. Cover with an inverted mixing bowl and leave to rest at room temperature for 3–4 hours.

Step two

To make the syrup, stir the sugar in the water over a low heat until dissolved. Add the coffee extract
and bring to just-boiling point. Set over a bowl of iced water to chill.

Step three

Roll out dough to 5mm thick. Cut into strips 7cm long by 4cm wide and cut each strip into 3, keeping the ends joined. Plait the 3 strands and pinch the ends together. Repeat with remaining dough.

Step four

Heat oil and deep-fry the koeksisters on both sides until golden. Remove with a slotted spoon.

Step five

Plunge koeksisters into ice-cold syrup immediately. Serve drizzled with any extra syrup.