Rooibos‑en‑heuning soetkoekies (Rooibos and honey cookies)
Rooibos‑en‑heuning soetkoekies
These are the kind of biscuits my mum would make on a quiet afternoon — kettle boiling, radio softly playing, and that gentle rooibos smell drifting through the house. They’re soft, lightly spiced, and touched with honey… the sort of koekie that disappears faster than you expect.
Ingredients
- 240 ml strong rooibos tea (cooled, brewed with 2–3 bags or pods for good colour)
- 110 g honey
- 115 g soft butter
- 1 large egg
- 200 g white sugar
- 360 g cake flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 0.5 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 0.5 tsp ground ginger
- Pinch of salt
Method
- Preheat oven to 180°C
- Brew a strong cup of rooibos and let it cool properly. Warm tea makes dough moody
- Cream the butter and sugar. Use a wooden spoon — it gives the mixture that soft, pale look you want.
- Add the honey and mix until it smells like Sunday baking.
- Add the egg. Beat it in gently.
- Sift the dry ingredients. Flour, baking powder, bicarb, cinnamon, ginger, salt.
- Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture in two batches.
- Pour in the cooled rooibos a little at a time — just enough to make a soft, workable dough.
- If it feels sticky, rest it for 10 minutes. Dough settles when you give it a moment.
- Shape the koekies. Roll small balls between your palms and place them on a greased tray.
- Press each one lightly with a fork — not flat, just a gentle mark and place on a baking tray.
- Bake 180°C for 10–12 minutes.
- They should be pale gold, not dark. Rooibos gives a soft colour, not a brown one.
- Cool completely.
- They firm up as they cool.