Find us on Facebook
We announce new recipes on our Facebook group, and share titbits about our cooking.
Quick and easy vetkoek
When you ran out of bread in the house and don't have time to bake any, try this quick vetkoek recipe.
Vetkoek is essentially deep fried buns that can be eaten with anything from apricot jam to curry mince. It is somewhat similar to Dutch "oliebollen", the main diference being that oliebollen are sweet and contains raisins.
Traditional vetkoek is made from yeast bread dough, but this quick and easy vetkoek recipe use baking powder as the raising agent.
Ingredients
- 2 cups (500 ml) flour
- 2 teaspoons (10 ml) baking powder
(or replace the flour and baking powder with self-raising flour)
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- ½ t (2 ml) salt
- 1 cup (250 ml) milk
- 2 eggs
- Enough oil for deep-frying (should be 12 cm deep)
Method
- Sift flour, baking powder and salt together
- Whisk egg, milk and sugar
- Make a well in the dry ingredients, add milk and egg mixture and mix to very soft dough. You could add more milk if necessary.
- Heat the oil to between 180 °C and 190°C.
- Ladle level spoonfuls of batter into the hot oil (12 cm deep) and bake until brown on both sides, before removing from oil.
- Use towel paper to absorb the excess oil.
Serve the vetkoek with mince curry, grated cheese, golden syrup (Lyle's is the best!), or apricot jam.
Comments
I Left South Africa Ten Years ago.
I know live on the Isle Of Man.
To find this site was great and it is a great site for trying new things.
I added you to my facebook.
I just tried the vetkoek they came out a nice golden brown colour.
The one question I have is
Mine came out tasting very dowy is that right and how do you get to make them the size ouma use to make them for a nice helping of mince inside.
Can some one please help.
Thank you
Hi Wrestley
Thank you for your letter, it is lovely to hear from you from your side of the world.
I am sorry if your vetkoek came out doughy. It sounds it might have been a bit raw - maybe your oil was a bit to hot and that it didn't cook properly in the middle. If you look at the "koeksisters" that is also deep fried, you might get an idea of the heat of the oil. Koeksisters also needs to be baked at a more moderate heat.
The size of the vetkoek depends on how much dough you use.
I planed to make yeast vetkoek for a while now, but haven't got round to it yet as we do not deep fry often. However, I used the below-mentioned dough for making "roosterkoek" and if I will make vetkoek, I will use this dough for us 3 (which makes 6 - 8 roosterkoekies). I even use this dough, pat a bit maize on both sides and grill it in my pan for griddle bread.
I do not know if you have something like NZ made "Surebake, Active Yeast Mixture, ideal for bread makers", where you live, but I do know that instand yeast in other countries are a bit different.
Or simply use bread dough. For instance, in South-Africa, you are able to buy raw dough from some bakeries if you do not want to make bread dough from scratch.
If you want to make large vetkoeke, like Ouma used to make, just use bigger balls of dough. It would take longer to fry as it is a bigger surface to cook. I would say it might be safer to fry smaller ones first to ensure that they are cooked properly.
Vetkoek (small recipe)
2 teaspoons Surebake instant yeast
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon canola oil
2 cups flour
1 egg
1/2 cup tepid (lukewarm) water
Add dry ingredients together.
Add oil and water and add to mixture. Switch the machine on and set on "pizza" cycle. Leave covered in unit until double the size.
Divide the dough into roughly equal pieces (8 or 9) and shape into slightly flattened balls on a floured surface. Leave to rise for another 15 minutes.
Fry in warm oil until golden brown on both sides. Drain on kitchen paper for vetkoek
If you want to bake it, allow to rise until double the original size (can take up to an hour) bake it in a pre-heated oven of 200 C for about 15 minutes. Optional: egg wash the unbaked buns, before baking with 1/2 egg and sprinkle some sesame seeds on top
Serve warm and fresh with curry-mince, grated cheese, apricot jam and Lyle's golden syrup.
Hi there
While we stayed in SA, I never tried to make my own vetkoek, it was cheap and easy enough to buy normal bread dough. When we arrived in New Zealand at the end of last year we also tried to buy dough from local Supermarkets, but soon realised it works out too expensive. But with the breadmakers and ready mix bread doughs from Bin In, it works out much cheaper and their crispy bread dough makes the nicest vetkoeke.
Hi Wrestly,
I'm also from the Isle of Man (Ramsey), I moved here in 2008 from South Africa.
I've never tried making vetkoek, but I have made biltong (love it) and boerewors.
I'm gonna bookmark this site, and try this recipe in future!
Thank you for this great idea :D
i moved from south africa 20 years aago still make vetkoek and i love the mince meat inside or curry how ever u like it well i had that same problem ..you just let ir rise longer then you roll it in a ball and flatten ir stretch them out before u bake it they are too thick and dont cook all the way through inside try that and let me know gave the same advice to my daughter now about to get married to an american who fell in love with her but now i wonder if its not the vetkoek,,, his always asking her to make him some... thats all i have to say...good luck
This morning my 10-year-old daughter got in into her head to make vetkoek for breakfast! I think she heard about it at school, as we are not generally friers of anything. So we googled, found your recipe, and within 10mins we were eating the most fabulous vetkoek ever. So good they didn't even need jam - and they were literally "child's play" to make. Thanks for a fabulous recipe - we will definitely be frying up again on future public holidays :-)
I am so pleased it came out so well for you and your daughter Sarah!
Hi Marietjie,
How do you make mince Vetkoek with the mince INSIDE the Vetkoek. When I have tried, they just burst open when I put them in the oil and they mess the mince out everywhere......what "glue" do you seal them with??
Hi Sharon
I don't know!
We always fry the dough / batter first to make a plain vetkoek, slice them open and serve it then with cooked mince or other fillings
Hi all
I need 'n vetkoek recipe made with rye flour please my son is allergic to wheat and we really want to make some vetkoek. If anybody can help please
Personally I would think rye flour on its own might produce a too heavy dough which you do not want for vetkoek. Do you bake bread for him yourself? If so, my suggestion is to use some of the bread dough and deep fry it instead of baking it. Not sure how it will come, but worth the try. I know friends who have glutenfree children bake with a combination of glutenfree flours or a glutenfree pre-mix.
A South-African friend gave me her recipe for yeast vetkoek: she also added that she only bake one vetoek at a given time and spoon the hot oil over it until it is fatty - turn over when it is properly puffed up
7 cups flour
10 gram (1 green packet) of yeast
3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon salt
3 tablespoons cooking oil
2 cups warm water (not scalding hot)
Mix all the ingredients together except the water. Slowly add water. Knead until the flour until the flour doesn't stict to your hands. (Use a bit of dry flour to get the dough from your hands). Form a ball of dough and smear oil on top. Cover the dish and allow to rise for about 2 hours until the dough doubled in size. Form little balls and press them flat. Cover (plastic works well). Fry and enjoy!
Hier is 'n soortgelyke resep vir vinnige en maklike vetkoekies: Kookwater Vetkoek
2 koppies koekmeel
25ml suiker
10ml bakpoeier
2ml sout
2 eiers
250ml kookwater
olie vir vlakbraai
Sif droë bestanddele saam. Klits eiers en kookwater saam. Meng eiermengsel met meelmengsel. Skep lepelsvol in warm, vlak olie en braai tot goudbruin. Dreineer op kombuispapier. Mens kan ook gerasperde kaas of roommielies byvoeg in die deeg voor dit gebak word. Lekker met maalvleis, en/of stroop en kaas,