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This is a jam-filled tartlet or cookie with a coconut topping known as a Hertzoggie, sometimes called a Hertzogkoekie in Afrikaans or a Hertzog Cookie in English.
Hertzoggies are a classic tartlet that have been around since the 1920s, when the Hertzoggie cookie (or Hertzogkoekie in Afrikaans).
It was created by supporters of the then South African Prime Minister and Boer War General J. B. M. Hertzog, better known as Barry to his friends.
The Hertzoggies have light pastry bases, pop of apricot jam, and chewy crunch of coconutty meringue. Hertzoggie biscuits are still widely consumed in South Africa today, typically consumed with a cup of tea or offered as a treat during Eid in the Cape-Malay community. because they are just fantastic.
In South Africa, the cookie is a common delicacy that’s frequently enjoyed with a cup of English tea. The dessert is frequently consumed during Eid in the Cape Malay population.
It is frequently made at home as part of the nation’s cottage dessert-baking business and served alongside other well-known South African desserts like Koeksisters.
Hertzoggies
Ingredients
For the pastry
- 2 cups of self-raising flour
- 1 teaspoon of baking powder
- 150 gm castor sugar
- A pinch of salt
- pinch of nutmeg
- ½ cup of cubed butter
- 3 egg yolks
- 1 tablespoon cold water
For the filling
- 3 large egg whites
- 1 cup of castor sugar
- ½ tsp of vanilla essence
- 2 cups of desiccated coconut
- ½ cup apricot jam
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180 °C.
- Grease a mini muffin baking tray.
- Sift the flour, baking powder, nutmeg and salt into a large mixing bowl
- Add the castor sugar and cubed butter, massaging the butter in to the flour mix until it forms fine crumbs.
- Add eggs and mix, adding a touch of water if needed, to bring the dough together.
- Knead the dough on a clean floured surface until smooth, then roll in a ball and cover in a bowl to rest for about 20 minutes.
- In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites to soft peak stage, then incorporating the vanilla essence and sugar in stages until it reaches glossy firm peaks.
- Carefully fold in the coconut and set aside.
- Press pastry mix directly into each of the muffin trays so that each tray is filled with a 5mm thick base
- Add two teaspoons of jam onto the pastry, then top each with the meringue mixture.
- Pop the tarts into the oven and bake for 25 minutes until the tops are crisp and golden.
- Allow to cool slightly, then carefully lift them out the tray and onto a cooling rack.
