Traditional South African Cooking

PROVING YEAST DOUGHS IN THE MICROWAVE OVEN
The proving time is much reduced if it is done in the microwave oven. Prepare the yeast dough according to the recipe and place it in a large, greased bowl. Cover the bowl and microwave at 100 per cent power for 15 seconds to warm the dough. Allow to rest for 10 minutes. Repeat the process 2–3 times, or until the dough has doubled in volume.

POTATO YEAST

Commercial yeasts have greatly simplified bread-making. Our grandmothers and great-grandmothers had to make their own yeast from fermented grape must, crushed raisins, fermented dough, potatoes, dried hops or, sometimes, an indigenous plant that had similar properties. This recipe is a modern version of the potato yeast they made, improved by making use of active dry yeast.

2 medium potatoes, peeled and grated
500 ml boiling water
30 ml white sugar
10 ml salt
2 ml active dry yeast soaked in 125 ml lukewarm water

Place the potatoes in a glass jar with a screw top. Pour the boiling water into the jar and allow it to cool. Mix the sugar, salt and active dry yeast soaked in lukewarm water and add to the potatoes. Screw the top firmly on the jar, then turn it back one turn to allow some air to get into the jar. Cover and set aside in a warm place for 6–8 hours. Strain off all but 250 ml of the liquid and use as desired. Keep the reserved liquid for 8–10 days, then use as a starter for a new batch of yeast: follow this recipe, omitting the active dry yeast.

MUST BUNS (MOSBOLLETJIES)

Mosbolletjies were a seasonal delicacy in the wine-producing areas, because the yeast relied on grape must. It is not easy to obtain grape must today, but a suitable modern substitute is a yeast made from raisins.

RAISIN YEAST

500 g large raisins (with pips)
1.5 litres water
5 ml active dry yeast (see Note)
30 ml white sugar
500 g bread flour

BUNS

500 g butter or margarine
125 ml boiled milk
4.5 kg cake flour
750 g white sugar
5 ml salt
30 ml aniseed
30 ml sugar dissolved in 250 ml water

To make the yeast, crush the raisins and add to the water in a saucepan. Boil for 15 minutes. Cool until lukewarm. Add the yeast and sugar and stir to dissolve. Pour into a glass or earthenware bowl and leave, covered, in a warm place for 24 hours, or until the raisins rise to the surface. Strain, then mix in the bread flour until smooth. Leave in a warm place for about 4 hours, or until foamy and well fermented. To make the buns, melt the butter or margarine over low heat and add the boiled milk. Mix into the yeast mixture. Add the cake flour, sugar and salt and enough warm water to make a stiff dough. Stir in the aniseed. Knead the dough for at least 20 minutes, or until bubbles form on the surface. Cover the dough and leave it to rise in a warm place overnight, or until doubled in volume. Shape into buns, and pack them closely together in greased loaf pans. Allow the buns to rise until doubled in volume, then brush them with the sugar and water mixture. Bake at 200 °C for approximately 1 hour. Leave the buns in the pans for 5 minutes, then turn out and leave them to cool. Serve with butter.
VARIATION Break the mosbolletjies into rusks and dry them in the oven at 75 °C for 4 hours. Store them in airtight containers.
NOTE Active dry yeast needs to be sprinkled onto a lukewarm liquid and left to froth. Instant dry yeast, on the other hand, may be added directly to the dry ingredients. This saves time when preparing the dough, and also shortens the rising time.

Makes about 60

BUTTERMILK RUSKS (KARRINGMELKBESKUIT)

Buttermilk Rusks and Must Buns (Mosbolletjies) are firm favourites.

1 kg self-raising flour
5 ml baking powder
10 ml salt
2 large eggs
200 ml white sugar
500 ml buttermilk
190 g butter, melted

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together. Beat the eggs, sugar and buttermilk together and cut this mixture into the dry ingredients with a knife. Knead the dough lightly, gradually adding the melted butter while kneading. This will take about 7 minutes. Pack balls of dough tightly into greased loaf pans (they should reach about two-thirds the height of the pans). Bake at 180 °C for 30 minutes. Turn out onto a wire rack and break into individual rusks. Lower the oven temperature to 100 °C and dry the rusks for about 4 hours, turning them every 30 minutes. Cool on a wire rack and store in airtight containers. These rusks will keep for at least 3 months.

Makes about 30

TRADITIONAL RUSKS (BOEREBESKUIT)

These traditional rusks use salt-rising yeast dough, also known as soetsuurdeeg.

YEAST

500 ml boiling water
250 ml water
5 ml salt
5 ml white sugar
500–625 ml wholewheat flour

RUSKS

1 litre salt-rising yeast
3 kg bread flour
15 ml salt
125 ml butter melted in
750 ml tepid water

For the yeast, mix all the water, salt and sugar in a deep bucket or saucepan which has a lid. Sprinkle the flour over the liquid and cover the container with the lid. Wrap the container in blankets and leave it in a warm place overnight. To make the rusks, mix the yeast with the flour and salt in a bowl. Add the melted butter and water and knead the dough until it is soft and elastic. Cover the bowl and leave the dough in a warm place to rise for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until doubled in volume. Shape the dough into small balls and pack them closely together in greased loaf pans. Leave to rise for about 30–45 minutes, or until doubled in volume. Preheat the oven to 190 °C. Bake the buns for approximately 45 minutes or until they are golden. Remove the pans from the oven and allow the buns to cool. Remove the buns and break them into rusks. Dry the rusks in the oven at 100 °C for about 4 hours. Cool completely, then store the rusks in airtight containers for up to 6 months.

Makes about 100

RAISIN BREAD (ROSYNTJIEBROOD)

Hildagonda Duckitt, in her Diary of a Cape Housekeeper, writes that raisin bread was made for children to eat during a long journey by ox wagon.

Clockwise from top left: Pot Bread, Raisin Bread, Salt-rising Yeast Bread and Tomato Soup (page 16)

1 kg white bread flour
250 g white sugar
about 5 ml ground cinnamon
about 2 ml freshly grated nutmeg
10 ml ground aniseed (optional)
150 g seedless raisins
60 ml butter or margarine
500 ml Raisin Yeast (see Must Buns, page 106)

Mix the dry ingredients and stir in the raisins. Rub in the butter or margarine and knead the dough with the yeast. Set the dough aside, covered, in a warm place to rise for about 45 minutes, or until doubled in volume. Shape the dough into a loaf and place it in a greased loaf pan. Leave to rise, covered, for 30–45 minutes, or until doubled in volume. Bake at 200 °C for about 1 hour, or until the loaf is golden on top and sounds hollow when tapped. Cool slightly in the pan, then turn the loaf out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Serve sliced, with butter.
VARIATION The recipe for mosbolletjies (see Must Buns, page 106) or Pot Bread (page 109) can also be used to make raisin bread. Add the raisins to the basic dough and shape into a loaf for baking.

Makes 1 loaf

POT BREAD (POTBROOD)

Pot Bread was once cooked over the fire by travellers into the interior. It was also baked when bread was required in a hurry. Originally bread dough was cooked like dumplings with the meat, but pot bread has widened in definition to mean any bread that is baked in a pot, and has become a popular braai accompaniment.

10 ml active dry yeast or instant dry yeast (see Note)
10 ml honey
750 ml warm water
1 kg bread flour
10 ml salt
15 ml sunflower oil

Dissolve the yeast and honey in 250 ml of the warm water and add 15 ml of the bread flour. Leave the mixture in a warm place until foamy. Sift the remaining flour and salt together into a bowl. Make a well in the centre and add the yeast mixture. Knead the dough very well, adding the remaining warm water as you knead. This will take 5–10 minutes. Add the oil and knead it in well. Cover the bowl and leave the dough to rise for 30–45 minutes in a warm place. Knock down the dough (knead again). Grease a flat-bottomed cast-iron pot, about 25 cm in diameter. Place the dough in the pot and leave it to rise for 30–45 minutes, or until twice the volume. Place the pot in the embers of the braai fire, heaping coals up around it. Bake, covered, for 45 minutes, or until done, heaping coals onto the lid for the last 15 minutes. Turn out the bread, leave it to cool slightly and serve sliced, with butter.
VARIATIONS

To make Askoek (ash bread), bake the bread directly on the coals or in the embers of the braai fire.
To make Roosterkoek, roll the dough out lightly and cut into cakes. Leave to rise, then braai directly on the grid over the coals.

NOTE If using instant dried yeast, mix it with the dry ingredients, then add the honey and water, and proceed as described in the recipe.

Serves 4–6

SALT-RISING YEAST BREAD

YEAST

850 ml boiling water
5 ml white sugar
10 ml salt
480 g unsifted wholewheat flour
250 ml boiling water

BREAD

3 kg bread flour
salt to taste
melted butter

To make the yeast, place the 850 ml boiling water in a small bucket with a tight-fitting lid, or a large glass jar with a lid, then add the sugar and salt. Sprinkle the wholewheat flour over the water. Close the bucket or jar and leave it in a warm place overnight. Stir the 250 ml boiling water into the mixture and leave it for 1 hour, or until foamy. Use immediately. To make the bread, mix the yeast, bread flour and salt to taste. Knead very well, for about 10 minutes, adding hot water if necessary to make a stiff dough. Brush the dough with melted butter. Cover the basin and leave to rise in a warm place for no longer than 45 minutes, or until doubled in volume. Knock down, shape into 2 loaves and place in greased loaf pans. Leave to rise again for about 30–45 minutes. Bake at 200 °C for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until the loaves are golden and sound hollow when tapped. Turn them out onto a wire rack to cool.

Makes 2 loaves

ROTI

The Indian community introduced the popular roti to this country. Roti is traditionally served with Chicken Breyani (page 38), but the Cape Malays also served it filled with curried mince or vegetables and rolled up.

1 kg bread flour
5 ml baking powder
5 ml salt
about 650 ml water
250 g butter
melted butter or ghee (see Note)

Mix the flour, baking powder and salt together. Add enough water to make a dough that will roll out easily. Roll the dough out thinly on a floured surface. Spread butter on the right-hand two-thirds of the dough. Fold the left-hand one-third over the central third and then fold the right-hand third over to make three layers. Fold the top edge down to the centre of the dough, and fold up the bottom edge in the same way. Turn the dough over (so that the smooth side is on top) and roll out thinly. Repeat the buttering, folding and rolling until all the butter has been used. Set aside, covered, in a cool place for 2–3 hours. Roll the dough out again and, using a large plate as a guide, cut out rounds. Brush the roti on both sides with melted butter or ghee and fry on both sides in a pan, brushing often with melted butter or ghee to prevent the roti becoming crisp. Stack the roti on a plate and keep warm while making the others.
NOTE Ghee is a clarified butter which is used mainly in Indian cookery.

Makes about 24

CRACKLING BREAD (KAIINGBROOD)

Crackling – the little bits of solid matter in rendered animal fat – can be made from any animal for slaughter. The farming community made good use of crackling; not only was it employed to make this bread, but it could also be used in rolls and cake.

10 ml active dry yeast
10 ml white sugar
750 ml tepid water
1 kg bread flour
10 ml salt
15 ml soft pork fat
500 g minced crackling (see Note)

Dissolve the yeast and sugar in 250 ml of the water. Cover the bowl and set it aside in a warm place for 1 hour, or until it is foamy. Sift the flour and salt together. Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture and pour in the yeast mixture. Knead the dough until smooth and elastic and it comes away from your hands, for approximately 10 minutes. Add the remaining tepid water, a little at a time, kneading it in thoroughly. Knead in the pork fat and add the mince crackling. Knead the dough thoroughly. Shape the dough into a loaf and place it in a greased loaf pan. Bake at 180 °C for about 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until the top is lightly browned and the loaf sounds hollow when tapped. Cool slightly in the pan, then turn the loaf out onto a wire rack and cool completely. Serve sliced, with butter.
NOTE To make crackling, chop the animal fat and mince it coarsely. Heat the fat in a saucepan with a little water until melted, then fry it until the fat liquefies (renders). The crackling will form by itself. Scoop it from the fat and mince it finely.

Makes 1 loaf

VETKOEK

The aroma of freshly baked bread is almost too much to bear, but as we all know, bread straight from the oven is difficult to cut. The way around the problem is to do what our forefathers did – set aside a ball of dough and fry individual vetkoek in dripping or oil.

From the top: Green Mealie Bread, Vetkoek and Roti served with curried mince.

250 ml cake flour
5 ml baking powder
2 ml salt
1 large egg
125 ml milk
125 ml sunflower oil

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together. In a separate bowl, beat the egg lightly. Add the egg to the flour mixture, then add the milk and mix the batter until smooth. Heat the oil in a frying pan and drop spoonfuls of the batter into the oil. Fry the vetkoek for 2–3 minutes on one side, then turn and fry them for 1 minute on the other side. Serve hot, with butter and honey or – for something savoury – with curried mince.
VARIATION Add 150 ml fresh or canned mealie kernels to the egg mixture. Add to the flour mixture and continue as described in the recipe.

Makes 8–10

GREEN MEALIE BREAD

This bread is traditionally packed in metal cocoa cans with lids and steamed on top of the stove, but can also be cooked over the braai coals.

750 ml fresh mealie kernels cut from the cob
45 ml cake flour
7 ml baking powder
30 ml butter
15 ml white sugar
5 ml salt

Chop the mealie kernels coarsely with a sharp knife or in a food processor and mix them well with the cake flour, baking powder, butter, sugar and salt. Spoon the mixture into two clean cocoa cans (the old-fashioned metal kind with metal lids), seal tightly with the lids and place the cans in a saucepan of boiling water. Steam the bread over moderate heat for approximately 1–1¹⁄₂ hours (2 hours over the coals). Remove the cans from the saucepan, allow them to cool until they are easy to handle and then turn the loaves out of the cans. Serve sliced, with butter.