Dunking Rusks

Recipes

Dunking rusks

These are a classic South African biscuit. They are crispy hard, full of flavour and great for dunking into a cup of tea. They are packed with healthy ingredients so your midmorning treat gives you good energy.

Servings

30 rusks

Ready In:

Approx 7hrs 

Good For:

Anytime you have a cuppa

Introduction

About this Recipe

By: Amanda Higgins

Rusks are a winter treat. These are a South African staple. Hard, crunchy, nutty biscuits great for dunking in a mug of tea or coffee anytime of the day. They are my favourite breakfast (cheat!). However, being a gluten intolerant person finding a tasty rusk on the shelves of the health stores or supermarket poses a problem. They all taste very bland. This recipe was given to me by my second cousin Ann Donovan many years ago and I have fiddled around with it over the years. I now have a perfect gluten free version adapted from the original.

Ingredients like psyllium husk, gluten free oats, coconut and sunflower seeds add a while bunch of goodness to a humble dunking biscuit. This recipe can be adapted to a normal non GF version by simply using normal flour and omitting the Xanthan gum.

Reviews from clients

“These are the best GF rusks ever. The last time I made them I decided to use all the open packets of flour in my pantry. So I used 500gr general purpose GF flour, 125gr almond flour, 125gr coconut flour and 250gr rice flour. The results were a slightly more crumbly rusk but the flavour was just as good. Thanks for an awesome recipe.” – Caryl 

“Hi Amanda. I am baking this right now. I made some adjustments, as I always do.. Instead of 500g potato starch, I broke the 500g up into potato starch, tapioca starch, ground oats, ground mixed nuts and coconut flour. I halved the sugar. I had too little buttermilk left so made it up with almond milk and some apple cider vinegar. I also had too little butter and made it  with coconut oil. The recipe is indeed forgiving. It worked. Thanks for sharing!” – Hilda from South Africa 

Ingredients

  • 500g melted salted butter
  • 1kg flour – I used 500g rice flour and 500g potato flour
  • 10ml salt
  • 300g brown sugar
  • 125ml psyllium husk
  • 700ml oats
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 10 teaspoons baking powder
  • 10ml xanthan gum
  • 1 cup sunflower seeds
  • 60g desiccated coconut
  • 3 eggs
  • 250g natural yogurt
  • 500ml buttermilk
  • 250ml dried cranberries – any dried fruit can be added to give different flavours
  • 250ml cashew nuts roughly chopped – any nuts can be added to give a different flavour

Step by Step Instructions

Step 1

Heat the oven to 180 degrees.

The method is very simple – simply add all the ingredients together and mix thoroughly. As it is such a large volume of ingredients the mixing is best done is a very large bowl and it can take a while to get all the flour incorporated. Add the buttermilk slowly as you may not need it all if the mix come together. It should be a thick dough, not too wet. If your mix is too dry after adding all the wet ingredients, simply add a little more yogurt.

Step 2

​Press the dough into baking tins, it will fill about three tins to a height of about 5cm. Press down firmly.

Step 3

Bake in the oven till brown,

Step 4

When cooked allow to cool and then cut into the size rusk you desire. Place these onto trays and allow to dry out in a cool oven or warmer draw, approx. 50 degrees for about six hours! They should be hard and dry.

Step 5

Store in an airtight container for up to three months.

2 Comments

    • amanda

      Thank you very much

      Reply

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