Here are my new favorite spiced cookies; Soetkoekies recipe is one of the famous cookies or biscuits in South Africa. If you want a new cookie recipe for this baking season, you’ve found it. Elevate your ordinary sugar cookies to the next level with these cookies full of fall spices like cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, and ginger.
What is the difference between Gingerbread and Soetkoekies (spiced cookies)
Soetkoekies are spiced cookies that fall between gingerbread cookies and sugar cookies. They contain all the same spices used in gingerbread. Soetkoekies don’t contain molasses which is an essential component in gingerbread cookies.
Why You Will Like these Biscuits
- The biscuit dough comes together quickly.
- The flavor is full of spices like ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves
- The edges are crispy and delicious
- The centers are soft and chewy; you can make them crispy by baking them for longer.
- They’re easy to decorate with buttercream, royal icing, and melted chocolate.
Key Ingredients in Soetkoekies
The full written recipe is below, but let’s look at a few ingredients. This spiced cookies or biscuits start with bare baking essentials. Most traditional soetkoekies recipe contains moskonfyt or dessert wine, but I omitted it in this recipe because I didn’t have the wine at the time of the recipe. The recipe still tasted great, and the family loved them.
- Flour
- Granulated sugar
- Baking powder
- Butter
- Ground cloves
- Ground nutmeg
- Ground cinnamon
- Ground ginger
- Eggs
- Vanilla extract
What You Need to Make Soetkoekies
In terms of equipment, you don’t need anything fancy but if you have it, use it. A mixing bowl and a wooden spoon will work. You can also use a stand or hand mixer for easy mixing.
Step-by-step instructions on how to Make Seotkoekies recipe
Make the Cookie Dough: combine all the dry ingredients and mix them together. Add the room-temperature butter and the liquid ingredients.
Chill the dough: the dough is sticky, so it is necessary to chill it for at least an hour or overnight for the best results. Chilled cookie or biscuit dough is easy to hand, roll, cut, and hold its shape when baked. Divide the dough and put one half onto a plastic or cling wrap. Wrap the dough and flatten it into a disc for easy storing and rolling.
Roll the dough: roll the chilled seotkoekies dough disc to ¼ inch thick. You can roll the dough between 2 parchment papers or a well-floured surface. For a leveled cookie surface, use ¼ inch dowel to guide you.
Cut shapes and bake: cut cookies into shapes. Place the cookies onto the lined baking sheet and bake them until slightly brown at the edges.
Expert tips for making the recipe
- Make sure to use a good vanilla extract.
- Parchment paper yields evenly baked cookies that don’t stick, so make sure you line your cooking tray with some. You can also use a silicone baking mat. If you don’t have any of these, then grease the tray lightly with cooking oil.
- Chilling is an important step; without it, the dough will be too soft and difficult to roll. Chilling also helps the flavors to develop well.
How to Decorate Seotkoekies
After baking, allow the cookies to cool completely. You can decorate the cookies or biscuits with buttercream, royal icing, or melted chocolate. If you have kids or friends, you can invite them to have fun decorating the cookies. These soetkoekies are plain canvas so let your creativity shine.
STORAGE AND FREEZING INSTRUCTIONS
Baked and decorated (or not decorated) cookies freeze well – for up to three months. Unbaked cookie dough discs (just the dough prepared) freeze well – up to three months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator, then roll, shape, and bake according to the recipe.
More Cookie Recipes you’ll like
- Strawberry Shortbread cookies Recipe
- Strawberry Jam Cookies
- Lepelsteeltjies cookies/ Cheese and Jam Cookies
- Condensed Milk Biscuit
- Whipped Shortbread Cookies
- Sugar Cookies
- Pistachios Palmier Cookies
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Thanks for reading. As always, know that God loves you, and stay blessed!
Happy baking
Linda
Soetkoekies Recipe
Equipment
- Rolling Pin
- Cookie Cutters
Ingredients
- 21/2 cups (360g) all-purpose flour
- ¾ cups (150g) granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon ground cloves
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (226g) butter room-temperature
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Whisk the flour, sugar, salt, nutmeg, ginger, cinnamon, and cloves together in a large bowl or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment.
- Add the softened butter to the flour mixture and work with your fingers or the stand mixer until it resembles breadcrumbs. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed. Next, beat in egg and vanilla on high speed for 2 full minutes.
- Bring the dough together to form a ball. Divide the dough in half and place each onto a large plastic wrap. Wrap each up tightly and pat down to create a disc shape. Chill the dough for at least an hour.
- Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C). Line 2-3 large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats. Set aside.
- Remove 1 disc of chilled cookie dough from the refrigerator. Flour a work surface, your hands, and the rolling pin. Roll out the disc until 1/4-inch thick. Cut into shapes. Place shapes 1 inch apart on prepared baking sheets. Re-roll dough scraps until all the dough is shaped. Repeat with the remaining disc of dough.
- Bake cookies for about 9-12 minutes. Remember that the longer the cookies bake, the harder and crunchier they’ll be. For soft cookies, take them out when they are slightly brown on the outside.
- Allow cookies to cool for 5 minutes on the cookie sheet. Transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.
- Once completely cool, store them in an airtight container or decorate them as desired.
Notes
- STORAGE AND FREEZING INSTRUCTIONS
Baked and decorated (or not decorated) cookies freeze well – for up to three months. Unbaked cookie dough discs (just the dough prepared) freeze well – up to three months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator, then roll, shape, and bake according to the recipe. - Special tool: cookie cutters, rolling pin, baking sheet or tray, baking mats
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