Baking Roosterkoek Over The Coals

Spending time in Hondeklipbaai in beautiful Namaqualand is bringing back memories of long forgotten favourites. I have made friends with the woman cleaning the house I am staying at and she is an absolute gem of a person. Her daughter also stays on the premises and the other day Hetta called me to go see what Kyna was doing. I arrived in time to see Kyna baking roosterkoek (buns) on the coals. I immediately knew that this would be the topic of my next blog. Today we use our sourdough starter to bake roosterkoeke. You can read all about making a sourdough starter in a blog I published previously: Making a Sourdough Starter.

In a large mixing bowl, mix together 1 tablespoon (12,5 ml) sugar, 1 cup (250 ml) brown bread flour, 2 cups (500 ml) cake flour and 1 tablespoon (12,5 ml) salt.
Option: If you don't have time to wait for the sourdough starter to rise, you can add a packet of Instant Dry Yeast to the dough. I still recommend adding the sourdough starter for flavour, though.

Mix the dry ingredients well.

Add 1 cup (250 ml) sourdough starter, 125 g (125 ml) butter/margarine, 1 egg (optional) and just enough lukewarm water to bring the dough together.

The dough needs to be only wet enough to bring all the dry ingredients together. I used only roughly 50 ml water.

Lightly flour a working surface, as well as the pan the dough will rise on.

Knead the dough until it forms an elastic-like ball.

Roll into a worm.

Cut into 8 equal pieces.

Roll into a ball and flatten to resemble a slipper.

Place on the lightly floured baking sheet to rise.

Cover with plastic and allow to rise in the sun.

Get your fire started as these will bake over direct coals once risen.

I went for a long hike and actually passed the best stage to bake the roosterkoek. They were already coming down by the time my coals were ready, but i was starving and wasn't going to knead them down and wait for them to rise again!

Place the dough on the griddle and over direct coals.

Depending on the coals, you will need 8-15 minutes on each side.

Mine were a little flat, but still delicious.

I mixed 125 ml butter with 200 g feta cheese.

You can put this on top of the roosterkoek, or inside, as you prefer. Enjoy!

Here you can see Kyna making roosterkoek the way it should look!

Marietjie Uys (Miekie) is a published author. You can buy my books here:
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