Koeksister

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A deep-fried pastry braided into a twisted shape, often coated with syrup or icing sugar for sweetness
2. A traditional treat found in South African cuisine, known for its crispy exterior and soft, sweet interior
3. A dessert characterized by its distinctive texture and taste, typically enjoyed with tea or as a festive snack

Etymology: The name is a compound of two Dutch words that never quite meant what they sound like together. "Koek" is cake, and "sissen" is the verb for hissing, the sound a frying pan makes when fat meets dough. Put together, the word describes a cake that hisses, an apt label for a pastry dropped into hot oil. The word reached English by way of Afrikaans, the language that grew out of Dutch as spoken at the Cape of Good Hope, where it became a fixture of South African cooking. English speakers borrowed it directly from that Afrikaans form rather than from the Dutch original. The sweet itself is a braided dough fried and then soaked in syrup, so the name describes its sound in the pan rather than its shape.

Synonyms: syrup-coated pastry