Old fashioned sweet treats

I fondly remember gathering coins from my piggy bank and pocket money to buy chocolate and marie biscuit fudge (aka “yskas koek”) at the school tuck shop. And when my mom and I visited the local “tuisbedryf” to stock up on biscuits, I could never wait until we got home to open a packet of short and buttery custard cookies (“vlakoekies”). 

One sweet treat I remember in particular has to be golden and sticky coconut macaroons topped with glace cherries. My mom made these often together with Hertzog koekies and our whole fandamily would polish them off within a day or two.

I don’t see many of these treats around anymore, maybe it’s a good thing, but if the craving strikes and you’re at a loss, here are my fool proof recipes for these much loved treats.

They are perfect fillers for the cookie jar, always a good idea at school cake sales and will certainly be heartfelt nostalgic gifts for your loved ones. There is just something so special about making your own biscuits and treats. Give ‘em a go!

Old-Fashioned Coconut macaroons

Makes: +- 12

2 large eggs, room temperature
1 t (5 ml) vanilla essence
1 c (250 ml) castor sugar
200 g desiccated coconut (coarse)
+ – 4 glace cherries, quartered

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Whisk the eggs, vanilla and sugar until fluffy.
Stir in the coconut and mix until well combined. Place teaspoonfuls of the mixture onto a baking paper lined baking tray (use two spoons to make them compact) and top each one with a ¼ cherry. Bake for +- 15 minutes or until golden.Once cooled, use a spatula to remove form paper. Keep in an airtight container.

Old Fashioned Custard Cookies

Makes: +- 30 cookies
175 g butter – room temperature
1/2 c (125 ml) icing sugar
1 t (5 ml) vanilla essence
1 egg
1 c (250 ml) cake flour
3/4 c (180 ml) custard powder
1/2 c (125 ml) corn flour
1/2 t (2.5 ml) baking powder
1/4 t (1.25 ml) salt

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Use a mixer to beat the butter and sugar together until light and creamy. Add the vanilla and eggs and beat until well combined. Replace beater attachment with hook attachment. Add the remaining ingredients and mix until well combined and a stiff dough is formed. It may be a bit sticky, just pat with flour when removing from the mixing bowl.

Line a large baking tray with baking paper. Roll the dough into 60 x half teaspoon size balls – make sure they all all the same size. Use a small fork and press them with a fork. Dust the fork with flour to prevent sticking.

Bake for +- 12 minutes. Allow to cool on a cooling rack.
Once cooled, sandwich 2 cookies together with a bit of butter icing, continue with the rest.

[Recipe adapted from Kook en Geniet]

Custard Butter Icing:
1 c (250 ml) icing sugar
3 T (45 ml) custard powder
100 g butter (room temperature)
1 t (5 ml) vanilla essence
+- 1 T (15 ml) water

Place all the ingredients into a mixer, beat over high speed until well combined, light and fluffy.
Other options: Sandwich together with apricot jam and royal icing. Or flavour with butter icing with lemon zest and replace water with lemon juice. Remove vanilla essence.