How To Make Delicious South African Buttermilk Rusks - Full Recipe
South African rusks are twice baked "bread" and come in different flavours - plain, buttermilk, aniseed, whole wheat, muesli, etc, - buttermilk rusks being one of the popular ones.
The normal way of eating South African rusks is to dunk them in coffee or tea
Equipment:
Large mixing bowl - 30 cm or more
2 stainless steel baking trays - 25cm x 37cm
Baking paper
If your bowls are smaller use two bowls as I did in the video, or reduce the ingredients for a smaller batch
Ingredients
7-8 cups (1.5kg) self-raising flour (or all purpose/cake flour with 8 teaspoons of baking powder)
2 cups (500g) sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon (5ml) salt
500g butter(softened)
2 cups (500ml) buttermilk (or 2 cups (500ml) of whole/full cream milk PLUS 2 tablespoons of lemon juice or vinegar)
Instructions:
Add the flour to your bowl.
Mix the butter in with your fingers.
Add the rest of the dry ingredients.
Mix the eggs and buttermilk.
Add that to the dry ingredients and mix well. (The dough should be sticky but you can add more flour to make it easier to get into the trays.)
Flatten the dough onto your baking trays.
Bake for 30 minutes at 180° C or until golden brown and baked throughout.
Let it cool slightly and cut into rusk fingers.
Place the rusks directly baking paper on the oven racks in your oven and bake again at 70 or 75° C for 5-6 hours until it is dry throughout. (leave your oven door open slightly)