Home-made rusks

There is nothing nicer with a cup of tea or coffee than a good old fashioned rusk, which is obviously something we don’t get very easily here in Canada unless you go to the South African shop or, of course, bake your own. The ones at the South African shop are usually Ouma rusks, which while nice, are just not the best (I sure do miss the Woolies rusks!), so I decided to try my hand at baking my own.

I got a recipe from my friend Carmen, whose rusks I have eaten and enjoyed many times, so I knew the recipe was a winner, and we were not disappointed! They are absolutely delicious!

While the actual making of the rusks is pretty quick and simple, you’ll still need lots of time and electricity as it takes many hours to dry them out in the oven once they’re finished baking.

I love muesli rusks while the rest of my family prefers plain buttermilk, so I decided to split the recipe to make half buttermilk and then add the raisons, nuts and seeds to the other half to make muesli rusks.

Here’s the recipe for anyone interested in making them:

Ingredients

500g butter (melted)
500ml buttermilk
1 tablespoon vanilla essence
6 cups flour
60ml (1/4 cup) baking powder
375ml (1,5 cups) sugar
7ml salt
750ml (3 cups) bran or muesli (I used shreddies cereal)
1 cup raisins
1 cup sunflower seeds
1 cup sesame seeds
Nuts are also great to add (I used pecans)

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F).
Mix the melted butter, buttermilk and vanilla essence together and set aside.
Mix the dry ingredients together and then add the butter, buttermilk and vanilla essence and mix well.
Place in a well greased baking pan and pat lightly to ensure the mixture is all even.
Bake for 45 minutes.
Once baked, remove from the oven and allow to cool. Then cut into slices and lay the rusks on a baking tray.
Allow the rusks to dry out in the oven on a very low heat (around 60°C – 70°C / 140°F – 160°F) for around five hours.

Remove from oven, make a cup of tea or coffee and enjoy!