Hertzoggies
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. 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). Try our authentic South African Hertzoggie recipe! Easy to make and even easier to eat!Tips for making your own pastryAfter preparing the pastry crust, wrap in cling film and allow it to rest in the refrigerator for at least an hour. This allows the glutens to rest making it easier to roll and shape because the dough won’t keep pulling back on you.I prefer to roll the pastry out between sheets of wax paper to make it easier to handle. This also prevents you from handling the pastry as little as possible, which will ensure a nice light and crisp pastry. When transferring to the greased patty pans, press well into the sides and bottom in an even layer. If the pastry does tear, gently press it back together with your fingertips.
Ingredients
Pastry
- 300 Gr Butter
- 1 Cup Castor Sugar
- 2 Tbles Oil
- 1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
- 1 Large Egg
- 4 Cups Cake Flour
- 1 Tsp Baking Powder
Filling
- 11/2 Cups Desiccated Coconut
- 3/4 Cup Sugar
- 1 Cup Water
- 2 Cinnamon Sticks
- 2 Cardamom Pods
- 1/2 Cup Smooth Apricot Jam
Instructions
Coconut Filling
- Start by making the filling first so that its completely cooled down before it gets added to the pastry cases.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.
Pastry
- Cream the butter and sugar well.
- Add oil, vanilla extract 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 one hour.
- Preheat oven to 180°C
- Remove the dough from the fridge and roll out the dough to about 5 mm thickness using wax paper rather than flour and cut into shapes with a flower shaped cookie cutter and place into greased patty pans.
- Spoon approximately 1 heaped teaspoon of the coconut filling into each one leaving a bit of space to add the jam later.
- Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and immediately spoon a teaspoon of jam next to the coconut filling of each cookie.
- Place the cookies back into the oven and bake until the edges are a light golden colour and the jam is just set. Approx. for 4-5minutes.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes in the patty pans before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days, if they last that long:)
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!