I have many recipes for rusks but these are the ones I always come back to. I got this recipe from a South African magazine many years ago (Your Family – May 1987). It was runner-up in a competition to find the best rusks and it is a definite winner in my opinion. It is versatile as you can tweak the ingredients to suit what you have in the pantry. For example you can use sunflower seeds instead of flaxseeds, you can add a handful of dried fruit such as raisins, currants or sultanas, or you can substitute any dry cereal for the muesli.
1 kg self-raising flour
8 ml baking powder
8 ml salt
250 ml muesli
250 ml digestive bran
100 g raisins (optional)
100 g sultanas (optional)
100 ml sesame seeds or flaxseeds (or both)
300 ml coconut
375 ml brown sugar
500 ml plain yoghurt or buttermilk
500 g butter or margarine, melted
2 large eggs, beaten
Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Add the yoghurt/buttermilk and melted butter/margarine to the beaten eggs, add to dry ingredients and mix well. Press dough in a greased roasting pan or two large oven trays. Sprinkle with sesame seeds if desired.
Bake at 180 C until golden brown (about 50 minutes in roasting pan or 40 minutes in oven trays).
Cut into rusks and spread out on oven trays. Leave to dry out in the warming drawer overnight (or in the oven for about 5 hours at 100 C).
Makes about 64
The Biscuit Barrel 