South African Vetkoek Recipe

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I was getting all nostalgic, and remembered my gran (Ouma in Afrikaans) always made a ton of Vetkoek when we went to visit her. I thought i would share this recipe with everyone, it truly is a classic South African dish that is so versatile. It can be used as a starter (make smaller ones of course), main dish or dessert.

Now the word Vetkoek is Afrikaans, loosely translated into English is means Fat Cake and has a similar consistency to a doughnut.

Now traditionally one would make the dough from scratch and most if not all Afrikaners that i know will insist on it, but seriously in this day and age who has the time for that? You can simply pop down to your local store and buy ready made bread dough it works pretty much the same. If you would like to take the time to make your own dough this is how it's done and what you would need.

7 Cups of all purpose Flour
2 teaspoons of Salt
2 tablespoons of Sugar
1 packet Yeast
Some lukewarm water
Some (+/- 500 ml) of Cooking oil for frying the dough afterwards

Mix the sugar, yeast and some lukewarm water together and leave to foam.Sift the flour and salt together.Pour the yeast mixture into the flour and knead together.Keep adding a little water and knead until you have the consistency of bread dough.
Leave the dough in the mixing bowl for about 50 minutes and cover the bowl with a cloth.The dough should rise to about double its original size, so make sure you have a big enough mixing bowl.

Once you dough is ready, on a lightly floured service roll it out, the thickness does not really matter as you will be breaking pieces off to form your Vetkoek. The size you break off is up to personal preference, i like them big, my wife likes them smaller but it's completely your choice.

In general i would break off a piece and using my hands roll a ball, the size of the ball is just a little smaller than the palm of my hand.

you can stretch it out a little to make a football (American) or Rugby ball shape if you like, bear in mind that the dough will rise as you cook it. Once you have shaped all of your dough it's time to cook them.

Use a large pot or deep frying pan and heat up your oil. Heat the oil to about 200°C (375°F) the trick is not to have the oil too hot otherwise one of two things will happen, they will be golden brown on the outside and raw inside or practically burnt outside and rock hard.

Do not overcrowd your pan or pot, typically i put 3 or 4 of the dough balls in at a time. once you drop them in the will sink to the bottom of the oil but will shorty float back up, fry them till the one side is nice and golden brown and flip them over and repeat the process. if you are unsure if they are cook stick a toothpick or thin scewer into one, if no raw dough sticks to them then they are done.

Place the cooked Vetkoek on some roller towel to get rid of the excess oil, as soon as they come off of the heat you will notice that the outside is rather hard but once you have let them stand for a short while they will get nice and soft. A must do is to take one of the freashly made ones while still hot, cut it open and spread as much butter as you can on it, it is frikken amazing!!!

Now remember in the beginning i said you can do anything with these things, here are some examples.

Starter:

Vekoek and apricot jam with a little butter.

Main Course:

VetKoek and mince (ground beef) in South Africa it is done two ways either savory mince or a good curry mince, the curry variety is my favorite.

Dessert:

Melt some of your favorite chocolate and pour it in, a fancier way would be to make the Vetkoek shape a ball and inject the melted chocolate into it.

And there you Have it Folks a traditional South African tasty treat that can be enjoyed a variety of ways, use your imagination and make it your own.