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Come and explore South Africa's most iconic deserts
DW (English)
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10/10/2024
Most African countries have sweets. However, desserts eaten at the end of a meal come from the colonial experience. And yet there are genuine South African desserts. DW has tested three of the most well-known.
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00:00
South African cultural groups may not all enjoy the same cuisine, but dessert, that's
00:06
one thing everyone can agree on.
00:13
Before we explore three of South Africa's most popular desserts, let's look briefly
00:17
at the concept of dessert in Africa.
00:20
Is dessert on the continent really a thing?
00:24
For most of Africa, if one's not talking about explicitly colonial desserts, there's lots
00:31
of sweet stuff and enjoying of sweet stuff, but not necessarily in that way that it's
00:36
like a formal meal and it's the full stop at the end of the culinary sentence.
00:40
So if you look at traditional Zulu food, for instance, there's a lot of chewing of imfe,
00:47
which is the stem of sweet sorghum, but it's not a pudding in that way.
00:52
So I think especially in Southern Africa, desserts are probably coming more than anything
00:59
out of the colonial experience, but an enjoyment of sweet things is absolutely present, you
01:08
know, since time immemorial in Southern Africa.
01:13
Let's begin our exploration of South Africa's iconic desserts, starting with number three,
01:18
the Milk Tart or Malk Tart in Afrikaans.
01:21
This beloved South African milk pudding dessert has a Cape Dutch influence and with the addition
01:26
of the cinnamon, a uniquely Cape Malay influence as well.
01:32
Perfect Milk Tart means thin, crisp base, lots of butter in the base to make it nice
01:38
and crispy, and then the most luxurious milky custardy filling that you can imagine.
01:45
And then a very light sprinkling of sifted cinnamon across the top.
01:51
We've got two egg yolks, caster sugar, and cake flour.
01:58
There are custard tarts all over the world, you know, China, Portugal, etc.
02:03
But a Milk Tart and a Milk Tart's ratio of milk to eggs is completely different from
02:08
what you find anywhere else.
02:13
And then what we're going to do is we're going to go back into the pan.
02:17
There's many different custard tarts in different cultures, but the Milk Tart belongs to us.
02:24
Very different.
02:25
The uniqueness with the cinnamon across the top, the lightness of the filling.
02:31
To me, it's the best of the custard desserts.
02:37
Number two, another dessert with Cape Dutch influence, the Malva Pudding.
02:42
This spongy pudding is made with apricot jam and a generous amount of creamy sauce poured
02:47
over it.
02:48
Served warm, and usually with custard, it's a popular winter dessert craving.
02:56
So what makes Malva Pudding Malva Pudding is the apricot jam that we use and the browning
03:02
that is caused by the reaction of the bicarbonates of soda and the acidity from vinegar added
03:07
at the end.
03:09
Foreigners come to South Africa and think Malva Pudding is amazing because they don't
03:12
know it.
03:13
That was invented in South Africa.
03:16
That raising agent that is acid and bicarb, that's a thing that Fortrek has invented.
03:24
That's not a way that Europeans create raising.
03:30
So how we're going to serve it today is with some gels that we've made.
03:34
This one right here is an apricot gel.
03:37
It just adds some more of the apricot flavor into our dessert.
03:43
Over here we have a calamansi gel.
03:45
A calamansi is in between a lemon and an orange.
03:49
It's quite tart.
03:51
Over here we have some citrus-infused pears.
03:55
Lastly, if we're talking iconic South African desserts, we must mention the peppermint crisp
04:03
tart.
04:05
This layered treat originally featured the peppermint crisp chocolate bar, which was
04:09
invented in South Africa in the 1960s and only later acquired by Nestle.
04:15
Now there are many kinds of peppermint chocolates on the market to use in this delicious dessert.
04:22
The reason I love this tart is because it's so easy to make.
04:25
It's just four ingredients that you can get the perfect tart and the perfect dessert for
04:29
any family occasion.
04:30
So there are only four ingredients in this tart that make three different layers.
04:35
The first layer is a coconut biscuit layer, and then the second one is a cream and caramel
04:40
layer, and then topped off with our peppermint crisp chocolate.
04:50
Once all the layers are assembled, you're going to put this in the fridge for eight
04:53
hours to overnight, but I've already got one ready to enjoy.
04:58
Even with their various influences, each dessert reflects a part of South Africa's diverse
05:03
heritage.
05:04
Even speaking of local heritage, 2023 saw the introduction of the Harvesting Heritage
05:10
Pastry Challenge.
05:11
The competition saw a new generation of South African pastry chefs who were required to
05:16
include one indigenous ingredient in their creations.
05:20
With a host of traditional South African fruits, nuts, fermented goodies, and more being infused
05:26
into a modern afternoon tea menu, could this mark the start of these uniquely ancestral
05:31
ingredients being celebrated more widely?
05:34
The future of food culture in South Africa looks exciting, and perhaps in the next 10
05:40
years, dessert after dinner may look rather different.
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