Melkkos

Melkkos is a traditional South African dish made from sugar, flour, butter and milk, flavoured with cinnamon. This is a basic, smooth version made with a whisk, but you can also mix with a wooden spoon if you prefer lumps. Some recipes even add pasta or sago, while others call for Maizena or condensed milk.

Mix the sugar and ground cinnamon.

Rub together the flour, salt and butter with your fingers until it is nice and crumbly – the Afrikaans word for this is frummel (verb) or frummels (noun).

Add 3 T cinnamon sugar and continue mixing with your fingers. Pour the milk into a large saucepan and add the cinnamon stick. Bring to the boil. Once the milk is boiling and frothy, reduce the heat and allow to simmer while slowly sprinkling the frummels into the milk, whisking.

Reduce the heat and simmer gently, while whisking continually, for about 10 minutes. Turn off the heat, allow to rest for 5 minutes before serving with a generous sprinkling of cinnamon sugar.

Cook Tips: Do not skimp on the cinnamon sugar – if you are cautious with it, you have no business making and serving melkkos. If you like your melkkos more milky, simply use more milk and less flour.

Alternatively, if you want to have small lumps of cinnamon dough drifting like tiny islands in a bowl of milk, gently stir with a wooden spoon instead of whisking. Just do what feels right. Melkkos is not a science, it’s an emotion.

Browse more South African recipes here.