Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Lynda's Easy Recipe for Rusks

These rusks are great dunked in tea or coffee, or even with a glass of milk

Here is a recipe for rusks, which a friend suggested that I post on the blog – so thanks for the great idea, K !

Rusks are similar to hard, sweet biscuits and are usually made from a dough similar to bread dough, which has been sweetened a little. They are usually made plain or with buttermilk, muesli or raisins added. They keep for ages in an airtight container, and are great with early morning tea and coffee (good for dunking !), road trips or teething babies !

There are 2 types of rusk recipes – those made with a bread type dough which uses yeast, and those made with a more biscuit (cookie) like dough which uses baking powder. I prefer the latter (I find that they are similar in texture to Italian Biscotti ?) and have been making this recipe for years – since I was a teenager, in fact ! They are always a favourite and whenever I serve them, people ask me for the recipe, which is always a good sign that you are onto a winner -:


Lynda’s Easy Recipe for Rusks

4 cups Flour
2 tsp Baking Powder
½ cup Margarine
½ to ¾ cup Sugar
¾ cup Milk or Buttermilk (or just add 1 tbsp lemon juice to the milk and stir until thick)
1 Egg, beaten

Preheat the oven to 200’C/400’F/Gas Mark 6. Sift the flour and baking powder into a large bowl. Rub in the margarine, mix in the sugar and stir in the egg and milk. Mix until a nice dough is formed (it will be a fairly dry dough) and then press it flat in to a greased baking tray.

Cut into rectangles before baking and then reduce the oven heat to 150’C/300’F/Gas Mark 2 and bake for an hour. Remove from oven, separate the rusks and return them to the oven (switched off) to dry out overnight.

(You can also add ½ cup raisins or muesli to the mix if you like.)