South African Rusks Food

SOUTH AFRICAN RUSKS

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
• In a large mixing bowl, thoroughly mix the dry ingredients.
• Combine all the wet ingredients, pour them into the dry ingredients, and stir until you have a soft dough, similar to biscuit dough.
• Turn the dough onto a well-floured surface and roll or pat it to about a 1/2 inch thickness.
• Cut the dough into rectangles about 2 by 4 inches.
• Bake the rusks about 2 inches apart on buttered baking sheet for about 25 minutes until the tops are crisping and browning a little.
• Loosely pile the rusks on a baking sheet and keep them in a 200 degree oven all day or all night (about 12 hours) to dry.
• The finished rusks should be very dry and hard.
• Cool and store in an airtight container.
• Rusks will keep for weeks.
• Variations Oatmeal-Raisin Rusks: Reduce the white flour to 1 1/2 cups and add 2 cups rolled oats and 1/2 cup currants or chopped raisins.
• Almond Rusks: Add 1 cup chopped almonds and omit the cinnamon.
• Peanut Rusks: Add 1 cup coarsely chopped peanuts.

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.

BUTTERMILK RUSKS

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 240°C.
• Sift the dry ingredients and stir til well mixed.
• Cut in butter - the mixture should resemble corn meal when done.
• Beat buttermilk and egg together and add to dry ingredients.
• Mix to a firm dough.
• Pinch off golf ball sized pieces of dough and press lightly into rectangular shape approx 2cm thick.
• Place close together in two greased loaf pans (30cm x36cm x 7cm) and brush the sides of each row of balls with oil so that the rusks will break apart easily after being baked.
• Brush with diluted milk.
• Bake at 240C for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 190C and bake for further 50 minutes.
• Turn out on cooling rack and break in two or three places so that the rusks will cool more quickly.
• When cool, break neatly into individual rusks and allow to dry out in a very low oven (120C).

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.