Healthy Rusks

You can sprinkle any type of seeds over the top of these rusks before baking them - I used pumpkin seeds here

Here is another one of my own rusk recipes. (You can see the first one I posted, along with a little info about this delicious South African baked treat over here).

This one is a healthier version as it contains wholewheat flour, digestive bran, fat free milk, raisins & pumpkin seeds – it’s just as delicious though, I promise !


Lynda’s Healthy Rusks

3 cups wholewheat Flour
1 cup white Flour
2 tsp Baking Powder
1 cup Digestive Bran
½ cup Raisins
½ cup Margarine (or low fat spread)
½ cup Sugar
1 cup fat free Milk
1 Egg, beaten
Pumpkin (or Sunflower) Seeds

Preheat the oven to 200’C/400’F/Gas Mark 6.

Sift the flours & baking powder into a large bowl. Add the digestive bran and raisins, stirring to blend. Rub in the margarine (or low fat spread), mix in the sugar and stir in the milk & egg. 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.

Sprinkle with pumpkin (or sunflower) seeds, press lightly into the dough and then cut into rectangles before baking. Before placing the rusks in the oven, 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.

A Recipe for Tanzanian Jam Buns

You could use any type of jam for the filling, I used strawberry for these

Called “Jam Buns”, these are actually more like biscuits (cookies) in texture. Most local bakeries here in Tanzania sell some version of the “Jam Bun”, and this is just one of them.

The photo does not really do them justice. The dough for these did not turn out as I’d have liked because I had to use quite a coarse brown sugar (which is all I had in the house at the time). A finer white sugar would work better and create a more ‘finished’ looking final product. Still, they tasted delicious !

Tanzanian Jam Buns

1 ½ cups Flour
2 heaped tbsp Custard Powder
2 tsp Baking Powder
3 tbsp Margarine
3 tbsp Sugar
¼ cup Milk
Strawberry Jam

Sift the flour, custard powder and baking powder into a bowl and mix. Rub in the margarine and stir in the sugar. Add the milk to make a stiff dough. Roll the dough into small walnut sized balls, press a hole into the middle of each ball with the back of a teaspoon (or your finger !) and bake at 190’C/375’F/Gas Mark 5 for 20 – 25 minutes.

Delicious Recipe for Homemade Chelsea Buns

I made these over the weekend & they were lovely served hot out of the oven with butter .... aaahhh !

Ahhhh … Chelsea Buns. Originating in England in the 17th century and still enjoyed today hot out of the oven with a nice cuppa tea. Nothing beats baking your own, and I really mean that. There’s just something about creating a Chelsea Bun from scratch that is so …. so satisfying …… so, ‘soulful’ if I could use that word to describe a ‘mere’ bun !

I believe that the secret to a good Chelsea Bun is in the dough. None of these quick rise ‘passing-themselves-off-as-the-real-thing’ baking powder doughs will do for the Queen of all buns. Oh no. These buns require a proper dough made with yeast and lovingly kneaded, rolled and coaxed into the perfect curled round. Another secret ingredient is the use of real butter. Not margarine. It really does make a difference to the taste.

We used to bake these buns fresh daily in the safari camps we ran here in Tanzania. Guests used to come into the “Mess Tent” for breakfast after an early morning safari or bush walk, to be welcomed by the delicious, cinnamony scent of freshly baked Chelsea buns wafting through the air. At that time, as far as we knew, we were the only camp in Tanzania making these buns, and they were a real treat for our guests. To this day, I’m not quite sure why I love them so much … because of their delicious taste, or because of the memories they evoke in me every time I bake and eat one ?

Try this recipe and I promise, you’ll never buy another one again …..


Chelsea Buns

Dough:
2 ½ cups Flour
½ tsp Salt
3 tbsp Butter
2 tsp Instant Yeast
½ cup Milk, warmed
3 tbsp Sugar
2 Eggs, beaten

Filling:
2 heaped tbsp brown Sugar
3 heaped tbsp seedless Raisins, chopped
1 tsp Cinnamon powder
1 tbsp Butter, melted

Topping:
Glace Icing or Apricot Glaze or Sugar/Honey Glaze (see below)

Mix the flour & salt together. Rub in the butter. Sprinkle the yeast over the warmed milk, & stir in the sugar. Allow to stand for a couple of minutes before adding to the flour mixture, along with the eggs. Blend well and then knead until the dough is smooth and elastic. Place it in a bowl (covered with a damp cloth) in a warm place for about an hour, or until doubled in size.

Once doubled in size, roll out into a rectangular shape and spread the filling over it. Roll up as you would a swiss roll, and once you have a “sausage” shape in front of you, slice it into rounds. (You should get about 14 – 16 rounds out of it.)

Lay the rounds on a greased baking sheet and cover with a damp cloth & leave to rise until doubled in size again. (When they rise they may overlap/touch each other, but this is fine.) Then bake at 190’C/375’F/Gas Mark 5 for 20 - 30 minutes until done.

Once out of the oven, allow to cool slightly and then you can either ice them with plain white Glace icing or brush them with some melted apricot jam to form a glaze or you could brush them with a mixture of 2 tbsp each of sugar, butter, honey & milk which has been boiled together to make a syrup.

Note : These Chelsea Buns are best eaten the day they are baked

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.)