oblietjie, noun

Forms:
obletje, oblietjeShow more Formerly also obletje, oblietje, oblitje, oubleetjie, oubletjie, oublie, oublietje.
Origin:
Afrikaans, South African Dutch, Dutch, French, Ecclesiastical LatinShow more Afrikaans, earlier South African Dutch, from Dutch oblie (from French oublié, ultimately from Ecclesiastical Latin oblata) wafer + diminutive suffix -ie; forms with ou- are probably South African Dutch variants, influenced by the French spelling. See also quotation 1954.
A wafer-thin tea-cake similar to a brandy-snap, cooked in a wafer pan and rolled when still warm. Also attributive.
1890 A.G. Hewitt Cape Cookery 50Obletjes,..Mix the ingredients into a dough and make into balls the size of a walnut, bake them quickly one at a time in an oblietje pan; roll each one..hot from the pan.
1891 H.J. Duckitt Hilda’s ‘Where Is It?’ 153‘Obletjes’ (or ‘Oubliés’). (An old-fashioned Recipe for Tea Cakes brought to the Cape by the French Refugees.).
1891 H.J. Duckitt Hilda’s ‘Where Is It?’ 243See also ‘Obletjes,’ Scones and Cakes, Puffs and Sandwiches.
1912 Northern News 27 Aug. (Pettman)The one word I feel sure of is oublietje, that delicious, crisp, wafer-like pastry to be invariably found at bazaars in the districts settled by the Huguenots.
1915 D. Fairbridge Torch Bearer 201Crisp zoet-cookies and oublietjes, the delicious spiced cakes of South Africa.
1927 C.G. Botha Social Life in Cape Col. 57Even to-day those who know the Cape cooking will recall the eating of ‘koekies,’ ‘oblietjes,’ ‘wafels,’ ‘poffertjes’ and ‘pannekoek.’
1945 N. Devitt People & Places 15The French refugees were responsible for a teacake turned out as thin as a wafer on a pan called an ‘oublie’ pan. The Dutch called these ‘oubletjes’. The English name for the pan was ‘wafer pan’.
1947 L.G. Green Tavern of Seas 65She also served the rolled wafer tea cakes called oblietjies, made with cinnamon and white wine — a Huguenot contribution to Cape Cookery.
1951 S. van H. Tulleken Prac. Cookery Bk 68Oblitjes,...Add beaten egg and brandy, then gradually the flour and spices. Cook in an oblitje pan.
1954 M. Kuttel Quadrilles & Konfyt 94Some of the recipes are of hoary antiquity, such as the French Huguenot one called obletjes — a variety of ginger snaps — which are rolled while warm round a form into a pipe shape, and perhaps from their dark colour reminded the French Protestants of those round, paved holes sunk in the stone floors of gloomy French dungeons, known as oubliettes, in which many of their ancestors had languished.
1960 G. Lister Reminisc. 9Every Thursday a cleanly dressed coloured woman, Rachel, came with a covered basket of oubleetjies, a kind of light, crisp biscuit rolled and baked brown.
1972 Argus 27 Nov. 4An old fashioned deal chair was sold for R38 and an ‘oblietjie’ pan for R50.
1979 Heard & Faull Our Best Trad. Recipes 93Oblietjie was derived from the Latin oblatus and the French oblation (offering to God). Apparently the Huguenot wafers were similar to those taken at communion.
1985 S. Afr. Cookbk (Reader’s Digest Assoc.) 316Oblietjies are rolled wafers that were made by the Huguenots in special oblietjie irons.
A wafer-thin tea-cake similar to a brandy-snap, cooked in a wafer pan and rolled when still warm. Also attributive.
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