Koesisters

The cookbook author Faldela Williams recalled spending her Saturdays frying koesisters, because her grandmother sold them. The soft, yeasted doughnuts are spiced with aniseed, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom and dried naartjie peel, dipped in syrup after frying and rolled in desiccated coconut. They are oval rather than plaited, and less sweet than the crisp koeksister, which is a different treat altogether.

In many Cape Malay homes they belong to Sunday morning, eaten warm with tea or coffee, and they also appear on the iftar table during Ramadan.

Spellings vary, from koesister to koe'sister and koesiester. Igshaan Higgins, curator of the Cape Muslim and Slave Heritage Museum, has told the story that enslaved cooks took home leftover koeksister dough and added their own spices, though it is an oral account that written records do not confirm.