South African Rusks -The Recipe

I haven't written about food for so long. My children keep stealing the show, grabbing attention with their doings and sayings. One recipe I've had on my mind to put up here on my blog, is the one for rusks. South African rusks. A hard, crunchy, substantial, sustaining snack to dunk in tea at any time of day or night. Plain or with added texture from nuts and raisins or seeds. These are the backbone of South Africa. The stuff of stalwart settlers. Ouma's rusks are the staple snack here, with the legend of the doughty grandmother's baking saving the morale of a drought-stricken town inscribed on every pack.

My recipe came from a South African cook book, when we were first here on a long visit. I started baking them and was never again allowed to stop. The recipe returned to London with me and I faithfully baked every other week, with toddler son creating castles and moats in the mound of flour. Grabbing the opportunity, while his baby sister slept, we would merrily festoon our small kitchen in flour, the cup measures becoming diggers, the sieve a distribution system. My temper would fray rapidly, when the nap ended sooner than expected and I had to deal with the rusks, hungry infant and flour dusted toddler at the same time. Crumbs nestled in every corner of the sofa, as rusks were morning and afternoon snack material, in the bed from morning tea in bed on the weekend. Friends came, tasted, copied the recipe and sent it winging onward with relations to the far ends of the earth - America, Pakistan, Sweden.

Back in South Africa to live, I carried on baking them, through the third pregnancy, when baking was the last thing I wanted to do - only the rusks managed to sneak through the baking embargo. They used always to have raisins in, until toddler taste alterations resulted in picked out raisins lodging with the crumbs all over the sofa. Self-preservation edited out the raisins and the rusks stayed plain for a couple of years. Recently I have staged a restoration revival and tried the revolutionary tactic of dividing the dough in half and adding pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and raisins to one half, leaving the other half plain, which means effectively that half the rusks have my name written on - hands off, adults only. It also seems to mean however that the kids build up their tolerance levels to be able to swallow raisins in extremis, when the plain ones run out.

Here finally is the recipe that I use. I promised it months ago and have disappointed all those searchers who showed up here with the promise of a rusk recipe, only to find that I never got around to posting the article. A belated apology to all of you, you can come back now, it's here!

South African Buttermilk Rusks -The Recipe

1.240kg / 2lb12oz flour (I use 1kg wholemeal and the rest white)
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
2 teaspoons of salt
250g / 9oz butter
½ cup raisins (optional or add mixed seeds too)
2 eggs
1 ½ cups brown sugar
2 cups buttermilk
1 cup oil
(1 cup=250ml)

Preheat the oven to 190C/380F

Grease three loaf tins of base measurement 20cmx10cm / 8”x 4” approx or any combination of deep baking dish that adds up to about the same.

In a large mixing bowl sift together the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, cream of tartar and salt. Cut the butter into small cubes and rub into the flour. Add the raisins if you are using them. You can experiment with various nuts and seeds as well, though the rusks are equally good plain.

In another bowl mix together the buttermilk, sugar, eggs and oil and beat until well combined. Stir liquid into dry ingredients and mix then knead to a firm dough.

Form the dough into balls about the size of a ping-pong/golf ball and pack them tightly in one layer into the loaf tins. I usually get six rows of three into each of my tins. Bake for 45 minutes.

Turn out onto a rack and leave to cool for 30 minutes before breaking up into individual rusks along the joins of the balls. Dry in a low oven 100C/200F for 4-5 hours until the centre is completely dry. These can be kept for ages in an airtight container.

Warning: crumbs guaranteed on the sofa, in the bed, over the carpet and the car seats!