SweetloreEncyclopedia of World Sweets (534）
Hertzoggie
Hertzoggies
Apricot and coconut in a small pastry shell
Baked Sweets ／ South Africa
Piled high with coconut and baked until only the tips of the flakes turn golden brown, the hertzoggie is a small South African tart. Underneath the coconut is apricot jam. Versions share the pairing of jam and coconut, but the texture and look of the filling change depending on whether the coconut is folded into whipped egg white or cooked with sugar and spices.
The name of this sweet is linked to a politician. Two stories about it have been passed down: one honoring him, and one in which the sweet was renamed to criticize him.
Hertzoggies on display at a Cape Town bakery. Photo: Discott, 2016. CC BY-SA 4.0, unaltered.
Yolks for the pastry, whites for the coconut meringue
In a well-known method, the egg yolks go into the tart pastry and the egg whites into the meringue on top. Cold butter is worked finely into flour, and the dough is brought together with sugar, egg yolks, a little water and other ingredients, then rested, rolled out and cut into rounds. These are pressed into muffin tins or similar molds to form small cups that hold the jam and topping. Heat loosens the jam during baking, but the rim of the pastry keeps it inside.
Apricot jam goes into these cups, and a meringue of egg whites whipped with sugar and mixed with desiccated coconut is placed on top. The egg-white foam gives lightness, while the fine fibers of the coconut flesh add a coarse texture. In this way, a toasty crust, sweet-tart jam and fibrous coconut can be enjoyed together in one small tart. Even when the surface browns, a soft layer of fruit remains inside.
A South African culinary-education recipe gives an example of mixing a little cornstarch into the apricot jam before putting it into the tart pastry. The same teaching material also introduces versions that use a different jam or caramel instead. Within the small cup, the filling can range from one with a fruity flavor to one that makes the most of caramel’s sweetness.
Cooked coconut with jam set beside it
The recipe (ingredient proportions and method) of Fatima Sydow, who shared Cape Malay cooking, shows a preparation different from the meringue-topped method. The coconut is cooked with water, sugar, cinnamon and cardamom and filled into the tart pastry; partway through, jam is added beside it, and the tarts are baked again. Because the coconut goes in as cooked-down flesh rather than being mixed into meringue, the filling has a denser texture, with the added aroma of spices. The look also differs, depending on whether the jam is hidden beneath the mound on top or shown alongside it.
Today, hertzoggies are carried on in homes and cookbooks as a sweet to serve with tea, and their proportions and shaping also appear in culinary-education materials. In this small sweet that goes by one name, each household’s own way of handling the coconut lives on.
The story of a prime minister’s favorite, and disappointment with politics
The sweet’s name is linked to J. B. M. Hertzog, who served as Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa from 1924 to 1939. Along with her family recipe, cook Salwaa Smith relates that the sweet is named after him and was apparently his favorite. This is one of the origin stories passed down among those who make it.
The same politician’s name, however, carries another memory as well. What food culture scholar Gabeba Baderoon recorded from an interview with cook Cass Abrahams is a story of betrayed hopes. People named the sweet after Hertzog in the hope that he would keep his promises of votes for women and of treating the Cape Malay people as equal to whites; but the vote that came was for white women, and racial equality was not achieved. So, the account goes, the sweet was covered with brown and pink icing and renamed twee gevreetjie, a name meaning “two faces” or “hypocrite.”
Baderoon’s research records that the sweet is still served at tea, at weddings and at Eid, the Islamic festival. Both the name honoring a politician and the two-colored finish expressing disappointment have survived in this home-baked sweet.
How does the tart named after Jan Smuts differ?
Jan Smuts cookies, named after another politician, also have a small shell and jam. In a family recipe that cook Anthea Jacobs published in 2024, jam is placed in the hollows of thinly rolled pastry and covered with a cake batter of butter, sugar, eggs, flour and milk. Instead of coconut fibers or a mound of egg white, a small cake covers the jam. She replaced the usual apricot jam with the blackcurrant jam she had on hand.
What she conveys are memories of Sunday tea and family baking. The names taken from politicians and the jam-filled construction are shared, but there is a concrete difference: whether the coconut is kept or the jam is covered with a flour-based cake batter.
Glossary
- • Meringue
- Egg whites whipped with sugar added. • Cape Malay: A cultural and culinary tradition rooted in the Cape region of South Africa. • Cardamom: A spice made from the seeds and other parts of a plant in the ginger family. • Fatima Sydow: A South African cook who shared Cape Malay home cooking. • J. B. M. Hertzog: A South African politician of the early 20th century. He appears in the name of the sweet and in the political lore around it. • Gabeba Baderoon: A writer and scholar who studies South African food and culture through interviews. • Cass Abrahams: A cook who shares Cape Malay cuisine. She spoke about the region’s food culture in Baderoon’s research. • Eid: A term for Islamic festivals. • Salwaa Smith: A cook who introduces Cape Malay cuisine. She records the family-passed story that it was Hertzog’s favorite. • Anthea Jacobs: A cook who shares a home-style small tart named after Jan Smuts. • Jan Smuts: A South African politician. His name lives on in another small tart, in which jam is covered with cake batter.
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