Rusks, the South African way

I would like to share with you a very traditional South African recipe today called rusks.  Rusks or “beskuit” as it is called in Afrikaans.  It can be described as dried cake/bread.  It is my breakfast food, and reading through the recipe you will understand why.  Rusks typically will be dunked/dipped into coffee or tea.  The history of rusks dates back to early pioneering days of South Africa where food had to be preserved in such a way that it would last for a long time.

South Africa however is not the only country that has a dish like this – the Italian version is called biscotti (more refined than the South African rusk) while the Japanese sometimes dry baguette or croissants.  In India it is called khasta and katti toos in Pakistan.  Dried bread  also can be foud in the Nordic countries.

The most well known brand in South Africa is called “Ouma rusks”.  The brand dates back to 1939 and started when a lady called Ouma Greyvenstein started to bake this for her family and community. This proved to be very successful and the brand is now owned by one of South Africa’s biggest food manufacturers.

So here is my recipe!  Enjoy baking and eating it!

1 kg self raising flour

20 ml baking powder

5 ml salt

2 packets of vanilla sugar (Imperial brand – 10 gm; Dr Oetker 8 gm), (this is just for the vanilla taste; you can add 5 ml vanilla essence if you do not have vanilla sugar)

3 cups All Bran Flakes

2 cups bran

1 cup raisins or mixed fruit or dried cranberries

1 cup nuts (roasted and chopped) or ½ cup sunflower seeds

500 gm butter

500 ml buttermilk

2 eggs

1 cup brown sugar

Mix the flour, baking powder, salt, vanilla sugar, All Bran, bran, dried fruit and seeds/nuts in a bowl mixing bowl.  Do not add the sugar to the dry mix

Melt the butter, add eggs, buttermilk and brown sugar and beat well.

Mix the dry and wet ingredients together.  The dough is quite a stiff dough, do not be concerned.

Once mixed, put the dough in a well greased pan.  Press dough down and flatten on top.

Bake in a preheated oven at 180°C for 60 min.  Turn the heat down in the last 15 min to 150°C.

Remove pan from oven and let the pan cool down well before turning the baked rusks out as it does break very easily!

Let it cool down completely before cutting.  Cut in small pieces about 2cm square and place in shallow oven pan

Dry for 10 – 12 hours (overnight) at 100°C.  The oven should not be warmer as the rusks will burn if the heat is higher.

Once fully dried, remove from oven, let it cool down and store in an air tight container, eat and enjoy!