Willem Boonzaier’s recipe won the Sunday Times Goodlife
Gautrain competition for desserts. It looks so delicious and has a
“Christmasie” feel so here it is, for those who did not get this Sunday’s
Sunday Times. It can be cooked on a stove or a potjie over a fire.
Ingredients:
- 240gms (2 cups) cake flour
- Pinch of salt
- Pinch of ground ginger
- 1 punnet fresh dates cut in halves and stones removed
- 15mls (1tbls) crushed nuts, not peanuts
- A handful of maraschino cherries, chopped
- 40ml (2 heaped tbsp) butter
- 40 mls (2 heaped tbsp) apricot jam
- 22.5mls (l½) bicarbonate of soda
- 250mls (1 cup) fresh orange juice (or any other fruit juice
- SYRUP
- 750mls (3 cups) of water
- Pinch of ground cinnamon
- 375mls (1½) sugar
Method:
Sieve together flour, salt and ginger. Add dates, nuts
and cherries and mix through. Melt butter and apricot jam in a small pan
on the stove. Once melted, add bicarb and mix through. The mixture
will foam. Add the foam to dry ingredients and mix to form a dough. The dough should not be too runny, nor too dry. Use fruit juice to
achieve the right consistency. Add water, cinnamon and sugar to a large
pot or medium potjie pot and bring to the boil. Add spoonfuls of dough to
the boiling liquid and cover. Cook for 20 to 40 minutes until dark brown,
taking care not to burn the mixture. Serve with fresh cream or ice cream.
