Tameletjie

A tameletjie is a homemade toffee confection that features prominently in the Afrikaner and Malay cultures of South Africa. It is made from sugar and water that are boiled until caramelized and then left to rest and cool into a hard sweet. Cooks vary it by adding almonds, pine nuts or coconut, and the usual ingredients are sugar, water and pine nuts or almonds, with pine nuts used originally and almonds a popular alternative. The article calls it one of the oldest confections in South Africa and says it arose from imported sugar cane. It credits the Malay settlers of the Cape with first popularizing it, and says Malay vendors who sold food in the streets of Cape Town made it a popular treat. In Afrikaans media the word is also used figuratively for a sticky or tough situation.