South African Rusks Recipes

SOUTH AFRICAN RUSKS / BISCUITS

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 190c / 375f.
• Mix the 250g butter into the flour either with your hands or in a blender.
• Add the sugar, salt and baking powder and then mix in the milk and wine vinegar until you have a smooth dough.
• Grease a large baking tray with some of the remaining butter.
• Divide the dough into 3 equal portions.
• Wet your hands with a little cold water and quickly roll the dough into long dough sausages, about 30cm long.
• Arrange the dough sausages in parallel lines on the tray, dotting a few bits of extra butter in between.
• Bake for 45mins - 1hour until the tops are golden and crusty.
• Remove from the oven and turn the oven temperature down to 150c / 300f.
• The dough sausages will have joined together so cut down the lengths to separate them and then cut each sausage into 3cm pieces.
• Leave them to cool for a bit so that they are more manageable, then list them up and break them in half down the middle so they look nice and rustic.
• Return them to the baking tray, this time laying them on their sides and bake in the oven for a further hour (30 mins each side) to dry them out.
• Let them cool completely before storing in a closed container or paper bag, where they will keep well for up to around 5 days.

SOUTH AFRICAN TRADITIONAL RUSKS

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C). Line a high-rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper, letting the paper overhang the sides for easy removal.
• Combine flour, ground All-Bran®, white sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.
• Melt butter in a saucepan over low heat. Remove from the heat and mix in cream. Add flour mixture and mix until well combined.
• Spread out batter into the prepared baking sheet and use a knife to cut into slices; this will make removing the rusks easier once baked.
• Bake in the preheated oven for 50 minutes. Reduce heat to 160 degrees F (70 degrees C) and leave rusks in the low temperature oven for 4 hours to dry. Remove from oven and allow to cool.
• Cut into 80 slices.