These easy delicious homemade spiced butter biscuits or soetkoekies are the perfect everyday biscuit or cookies. These biscuits pair well with a cup of tea or coffee without being overly sweet.

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What are soetkoekies?
Ingredients
How to Make Soetkoekies
Pro Tips for this Recipe
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Other Biscuits and Cookies Recipes to Try
📖 Recipe

What are soetkoekies?

I've been wanting to develop a soetkoekie recipe for some time. So I jumped into my recipe books - Beorekos, Cook and Enjoy as well as my collection of Huisgenoot Wenresepte.

Soetkoekie translates directly to sweet cookies or sweet biscuits.

In my research, outydse soetkoekie recipes or resepte were made with butter and lard (usually in a 50-50 split), spices (vary from just nutmeg to a mix of nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger and cloves), as well as moskonfyt, or dessert wine or brandy.

Then I wandered around the interwebs and also came across recipes which were pretty much just plain sugar cookies. So as with my malva pudding, tipsy tart or buttermilk rusks, every family has their own version of this biscuit.

This lead me to the decision that the biscuit must be spiced, must contain a sweet dessert wine, and that I would go for 100% butter because I feel that not everyone has lard in their fridges for a quick round of biscuits.

Ingredients

Butter - this recipe only uses butter. Traditional recipes use a 50-50 mix of butter and lard. But I decided to modernise this recipe.

Flour - plain, standard grade, all-purpose or cake flour (South Africa).

Plain/all-purpose/standard grade flour can be substituted on a 1-to-1 basis for recipes that have ½ to 1 teaspoon of baking powder per 125 grams/1 cups of self-raising flour. If the recipe requires more than 1 teaspoon per cup, simply add the extra baking powder to the recipe to make up the difference. Self-raising/rising flours may already contain salt so this may need to be omitted from the recipe as well. For this recipe, the plain flour can be substituted on a 1-to-1 basis with self-raising flour.

Sugar - I used caster sugar.

Baking Powder - the leavener used in this recipe. Many older traditional recipes for soetkoekies use baking soda (bicarbonate of soda or bread soda) and cream of tartar.

Cinnamon, ginger, cloves and nutmeg give a nice spiced flavour.

Dessert wine/moskonfyt - this is a modern option for these soetkoekies. Traditionally soetkoekies are made with moskonfyt. Moskonfyt is a syrup made from fermented grape must (or fermented grape juice). Moskonfyt is a traditional syrup that originated in the Western Cape, South Africa.

Eggs to bind the cookies (koekies) together.

Test the freshness of your baking powder or baking soda (bicarbonate of soda or bread soda) by placing a small amount in some boiling water. If it bubbles and fizzes, it's good to use!

Salt is a crucial ingredient in all baked goods. I use table salt in all my recipes. One teaspoon of table salt equals 1.5 teaspoons of Morton Kosher Salt equals 2 teaspoons of Diamond Crystal.

Room Temperature Ingredients

Use room temperature ingredients! Using room temperature ingredients ensures that ingredients in the batter or dough will incorporate easier. Take note that room temperature refers to around 20°C/68F.

To bring eggs to room temperature quickly, place them into warm water for about 10 to 15 minutes.
To bring butter to room temperature quickly, cut the butter into cubes and zap in the microwave at 20% power in 10-second intervals. Or place the cubes in a bowl over warm water (such as with a double boiler) over low heat for 1 minute!
Milk, buttermilk, and cream can be brought to room temperature by zapping in the microwave at 20% power in 10-second intervals. Or on a low heat for a minute or two swirling every 10-15 seconds.

Weighing Ingredients

Weighing & Measuring Ingredients

Weighing ingredients with a kitchen scale is more accurate than using measuring cups. All my recipes are developed and tested using grams only.

However, I have activated the grams-to-cups conversions on the recipe card. Simply click on "cups". For these conversions, cups are equal to 240mL/8 fl oz, tablespoons are 15mL and teaspoons are 5mL.

How to Make Soetkoekies

Step 1 - In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer combine the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, ground ginger, ground cinnamon, ground cloves and ground nutmeg. Stir or whisk together.

Step 2 - Add the softened butter to the flour and work into the flour until the mixture resembles wet sand. This can be done by using the paddle attachment of a stand mixer on the lowest setting.

Step 3 - Beat together the eggs and sweet wine (or moskonfyt). Add to the flour mixture and mix through until you have a soft dough. Again this can be done at a low speed using the paddle attachment.

Step 2 - Hand holding up the butter-flour mixture to show the fine crumbs - wet sand texture.

Step 3 - soetkoekie dough on stand mixer paddle.

Step 4 - On a clean work surface, knead the dough a few times to bring all the dough together. Wrap in cling film or plastic wrap, or place in an airtight container and allow the dough to rest for at least an hour, or overnight.

TIP - If it's a bit warm, rest the dough in the fridge.

Step 5 - Preheat the oven to 200°C/390F (180°C fan). Prepare a baking sheet by lining the sheet with baking paper or a silicone baking mat.

Step 6 - On a well-floured surface, roll out the dough to about 3-5mm thick. Cut out biscuits using a cookie cutter of choice. Place on the baking sheet about 5cm (about 2") apart. Bake for 8 to 12 minutes. The sheet may need to be turned halfway through baking to ensure an even bake.

Step 6 - rolled out and cut out biscuits.

TIP - for crispier soetkoekies, baked them a bit longer.

Step 7 - Place the baked biscuits on a cooling rack and allow them to cool completely before storing them in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

Pro Tips for this Recipe

Ovens

The temperatures stated are for conventional ovens. For convection, fan-forced, fan-assisted, or air-fryers, the temperature must be reduced by 20°C/25°F.

For baking, make sure the oven is fully preheated, and that the rack is in the middle of the oven. Open the oven as little as possible. For best baking results use an oven thermometer.

Remember that all ovens work slightly differently and bake times may need to be adjusted for your specific oven.

Bakeware

Metal bakeware is superior when it comes to baking biscuits, cookies, brownies, muffins and quick bread, scones, cakes. These heat up and cool down faster than glassware. Glassware is heavier, heats up and cools down slower than metal and is more suited for bread puddings, pies, crisps, crumbles and cobblers.

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Other Biscuits and Cookies Recipes to Try

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Soetkoekies

What are soetkoekies?