Farmer's Weekly (South Africa)
Cooking with Vuvu
These moreish tartlets, known as Hertzog koekies or Hertzoggies, are named after the late prime minister, Barry Hertzog. For this recipe, I have changed the traditional apricot-jam filling to a spicy Amarula jelly. Simply irresistible!
1 Start with the pastry. Sift the flour, icing sugar and salt into a large mixing bowl. Add the butter and rub in until you get a breadcrumb-like consistency. Add the water and combine with your hands to form a smooth dough. If the dough is too sticky, add a little more flour until smooth. Shape into a ball, flatten into a disc, wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for 20 minutes.
2 For the filling, pour half the milk into a small jug. Add the powdered gelatine and set aside until it has bloomed.
3 Preheat the oven to 180⁰C. Place the other half of the milk, the Amarula, castor sugar and spices in a medium-sized pot. Over medium-high heat, stir until the sugar dissolves. Allow the mixture to become hot, but do not let it boil.
Remove the milk from the stove and set aside for 10 minutes. Strain the spices and discard, then return it to the pot. Add the jug of milk with bloomed gelatine and vanilla essence and stir until the gelatine has dissolved.
4 Roll out the chilled dough between two layers of baking paper to a thickness of about 3mm. Using an 8cm-diameter cookie cutter, cut out 12 rounds of dough. Grease a 12-cup muffin tin with butter and line each cup with a round of dough, pressing it into the base and up the sides.
5 Prick the pastry bases all over with a fork. Line each pastry case with baking paper, fill with baking beans or dried beans, and bake blind (without the filling) in the preheated oven for about 15 minutes. Take the muffin tray out of the oven, remove the baking paper and beans, and bake the pastry cases for a further five minutes or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.
6 Pour the Amarula mixture into each baked pastry case and chill in the fridge for about two hours or until the filling is firmly set. 7
To make the coconut meringue topping, beat the egg whites using an electric beater until the mixture reaches the soft-peak stage. Gradually add the castor sugar and beat until stiff peaks form. Stir in the vanilla essence and fold in the coconut. Mix well. Spoon the coconut meringue mixture onto each tartlet. Use a kitchen blowtorch to lightly brown the topping and serve.
• Nomvuselelo Mncube is the cooking assistant for Food & Home Entertaining. Email her at farmersweekly@ caxton.co.za. Subject line: Cooking with Vuvu.