Malva pudding is a traditional dessert consisting of a pudding base covered in a creamy, sweet sauce made with water, cream, vanilla, butter, and sugar. The pudding is usually made from butter, sugar, eggs, apricot jam, milk, flour, and salt. The dessert is typically served warm, preferably with ice cream, whipped cream, or vanilla custard on the side.
It is believed that the dish is named malva pudding after the Afrikaans word malva, meaning marshmallow, referring to the similarities between marshmallows and the pudding's texture, although some say that the name is derived after the fact that the pudding used to contain Malvasia wine.
MOST ICONIC Malva Pudding
Koeksister is a sweet South African snack with a sticky appearance. It is prepared by frying braided dough strips in oil, then dunking them into a cold sugary syrup. These sticky treats are sold on every major street in South Africa, and today they can even be found in most supermarkets.
It is recommended to top them with cinnamon or lemon juice before consumption.
MOST ICONIC Koeksister
View moreCreamy and sweet, melktert is a South African dessert consisting of a pastry crust filled with a combination of sugar, flour, eggs, and milk. The name melktert means milk tart. The dish can be served either hot or cold, and it is recommended to sprinkle it with powdered cinnamon or cinnamon sugar on top.
MOST ICONIC Melktert
Pampoenkoekie is a South African dessert consisting of fluffy pumpkin fritters. The fritters are made with cooked and puréed pumpkin, flour, baking powder, sugar, eggs, milk, and salt. When golden-brown and fully cooked, they are traditionally drizzled over with a thick and sticky caramel syrup.
Since they are a little bit savory and a little bit sweet, pampoenkoekies can be served either as breakfast, snack, dessert, or a side dish.
Melkkos is a South African staple made by boiling milk and combining it with a mixture of flour, salt, and butter. The dish is vigorously stirred until lumps develop, and it is then left to rest. It can be served as a dessert or a light meal in itself, and it is recommended to serve it hot with some cinnamon sugar on top.
Melkkos is especially popular during the colder, winter days.
Tameletjie is a traditional toffee. It's made with a combination of brown sugar, water, butter, vanilla essence, and chopped walnuts, coconut, almonds, or pine nuts. The concoction is boiled until it becomes caramelized, and it's then left to rest and harden before being cut.
This sweet is very popular within the Afrikaner and Malay cultures. Originally, the Malays used to sell tameletjie in Cape Town, so the sweet became well-known among the settlers. Due to its stickiness, tameletjie is also used as a term in South African publications and articles, denoting a sticky or tough situation.
Hertzoggies are South African cookies consisting of light and puffy pastry tarts filled with apricot jam meringue. The crust is made with flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, nutmeg, butter, and egg yolks, while the filling contains apricot jam, sugar, beaten egg whites, and desiccated coconut.
These delectable cookies are named after General J. B. M. Hertzog, who was Prime Minister of South Africa from 1924 to 1939. In the country, hertzoggies are usually served with a cup of English tea on the side.
TasteAtlas food rankings are based on the ratings of the TasteAtlas audience, with a series of mechanisms that recognize real users and that ignore bot, nationalist or local patriotic ratings, and give additional value to the ratings of users that the system recognizes as knowledgeable. TasteAtlas Rankings should not be seen as the final global conclusion about food. Their purpose is to promote excellent local foods, instill pride in traditional dishes, and arouse curiosity about dishes you haven’t tried.