First thing that comes to mind when you hear the word "Rusk!!" I asked Farmer Buckaroo. His eyes glowed and he said: "Lifeline. Comfort food....Yum! Is that what I smell baking?!" Many South Africans can identify with that view of one our national foods. Amusingly enough, if you question other countries about their version of what the Afrikaans Beskuit (Rusk) they will all claim it as their national tea time snack - by their own unique name and baking style. Whoever invented it originally, Rusks, by any other name, are just as delicious and an essential part of a coffee break.
The idea behind a Rusk is that it is a "twice baked bread" and yet it isn't bread. Rusks are also not cake but a savoury snack. Although most countries have their own version there is no equivalent in that it can be compared to biscotti or melba toast. To understand Rusks you need to eat one. And not merely eat it but savour the full dunking experience. A Rusk is not breakfast. It is also not part of a spread of cakes. A Rusk, with tea or coffee is the experience.
Butter is an absolute must for Rusks. Many people use margarine as it is cheaper. The fact that margarine is not a real food and quite harmful to the body convinced me decades ago to avoid it like the plague. Another essential ingredient is buttermilk although I prefer goats milk yoghurt because I make it every week. This is the recipe I have finally settled on, and it is rather more extravagant than most rusk recipes, but it's wholesome and my family love them.
RUSK RECIPE:
4 cups wholewheat stoneground flour
1 cup dessicated coconut
1 cup oats
1 cup sunflower seeds
1 cup coconut blossom sugar
4 tablespoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon allspice and nutmeg
2 eggs
250g melted butter
500ml goats milk yoghurt
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/3 cup chopped dried peaches
2 lemons rind
As a concerned health citizen I generally keep sugar out of my house (yes, yes, I know many of you just enjoyed my marmalade making post). Dates and honey are my sweetener of choice. In baked items I like to use coconut blossom sugar.
I grind my rolled oats in a coffee grinder. At the same time grate the rind off both lemons. And prepare your tray with olive oil, and parchment paper.
When I don't have dessicated coconut then I grind flaxseed. While I can't soak flax I always soak sunflower and pumpkin seeds overnight. Then rinse and allow to dry. I try to keep prepared seeds and nuts in the freezer for impulsive baking.
Sieve together the flour, baking powder, salt and spices. Add in the coconut blossom sugar, dessicated coconut and ground oats.
Our healthy free-roaming chickens eggs give baking a beautiful golden colour. Lightly whisk the eggs. Then add in the yoghurt and lemon rind.
The goats milk yoghurt really gives Rusks a soft texture. But you can use regular yoghurt, the old fashioned buttermilk or coconut milk.
After whisking your liquids together, add in the dry ingredients. At this point I toss in the chopped peaches and sunflower seeds then mix well with a wooden spoon.
The dough will be quite stodgy and sticky. That is perfect! Spread it as best you can across the oiled tray.
Bake at 180 C for about 45 minutes - or until your nose indicates it is cooked! Remove.
Allow to cool enough to cut. Rusks are cut into easy-to-dunk sizes. This is where the "twice baked" comes in. The old fashioned route was popping the Rusks in the warming drawer all night. You don't really want them cooking so much as drying out to a hard biscuit.
My options are the sun oven - which in winter proves a bit of a problem. Or the dehydrator, which runs off the solar panels. I set the dehydrator temperature to 45C and let them run for the night.
Cultural foods are like language and cultural dress - it really distinguishes a country from another. You won't find many homes in South Africa without coffee and Rusks. Eating Rusks has become more like a national sport. Once you have dunked your first Rusk you will probably never be the same again!
Those look amazingly good, what healthy ingredients go into your dunking good rusks!
Always enjoy the sunflower seed rusks, this would be a new adventure no wonder the family all love them @buckaroobaby
@tipu curate
Thank you @joanstewart! Definitely an adventure!
These definitely sound like an adventure, coffee only for dunkin into 😌
Hey there fellow South African! Awesome and healthy recipe. My rusks tend to be unhealthy, due to the sugar. Have you ever tried to ferment the flour? Sourdough rusks. I am waiting for my next batch of rusks to try and use fermented flour!
Hellooooo! Always nice to come across others of "us". Have you done a sourdough rusk recipe? I would love to try it. We bake our sourdough bread every alternate day. And sometimes flapjacks with the discard but rusks is probably delicious
I still need to perfect my sourdough rusk recipe. I have generations-old recipes of sourdough (from potato) but I have yet to try them. I have tried to make rusks from my sourdough bread, but that was an error. But what I essentially want to try is to make fermented flour. A little bit laborious, but I want to ferment the flour for two/three days, dehydrate it, and then use that flour in a rusk recipe. Essentially you make the flour more digestible and healthier. What do you think about that @buckaroobaby?
Oops....didn't get back to you @fermentedphil. It sounds amazing. But it also sounds like work. I'm curious to hear how it goes once you've done the tester. Surely there is a recipe that is simpler, like the many one makes using the discard? Rusks made from the starter and not simply dehydrating an already baked bread?
No problem! Oh nope, I want to properly ferment the flour (roughly 72 hours) and then dehydrate the starter. I want to see if I can get rid of the very sour flavor if I dehydrate it. But I will write up a recipe when I do it, maybe next week or so.
The rewards earned on this comment will go directly to the person sharing the post on Twitter as long as they are registered with @poshtoken. Sign up at https://hiveposh.com.
Thank you @poshtoken and @joanstewart!
Yummy! I've never heard of these, nor of coconut blossom sugar. But I'm a fan of dunking, and always on the lookout for dunkables. Thanks for the great recipe!
We're also big into dunkables!
Congratulations @buckaroobaby! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
Your next target is to reach 800 replies.
You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPThank you @hivebuzz
You're welcome @buckaroobaby 😊👍