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There is nothing more delicious than real home-baked buttermilk rusks with a lovely cup of coffee. This is a really great recipe to which you also have the option of adding aniseed. Aniseed rusks are my personal favorite but not everyone enjoys the aniseed flavor.
A rusk is basically a small cylinder shaped piece of bread that has been thoroughly dried in the oven in order to make it crispy and crunchy right through. Ruks can be stored in an airtight container for weeks and so they are an ideal snack.
There are two basic cuts of rusks, chunky in which cylinders of the bread are basically torn off so that they are not uniform in size and have a rough appearance, The second is traditional in which the bread is cut into equal portions and has smooth cut sides.
There are many variants to rusk recipes such as condensed milk, buttermilk, plain, wholewheat, etc, and then there are a whole variety of additives as well such as aniseed, muesli, dried fruit, etc.
One thing that you can be certain of, homemade rusks are always a hit.
Buttermilk rusks recipe with optional aniseed.
Equipment
- 1 Rusk pan
- 1 Dough mixer
- 2 Baking trays
Ingredients
- 1 kg Self Raising Flour 2.2 pounds
- 1 tsp Salt
- 2 tsp Baking Powder
- 250 gr Sugar 1¼ cups
- 40 ml Aniseed (optional)
- 1 Zest Orange and lemon (optional)
- 350 gr Butter 12.35oz
- 2 lrg Eggs
- 500 ml Buttermilk 1.05 pint
Instruction Video (please like and subscribe)
Instructions
- Sift the flour, salt, baking powder, sugar, and optional aniseed into your mixing bowl.
- Rub the butter into the dry ingredients
- In a separate bowl, mix the eggs and buttermilk together.
- Combine the dry ingredients and wet ingredients in your mixing bowl and knead either by machine or by hand.
- Press the dough into your rusk baking pan (grease pan first)
- Place in a preheated oven at 180°C (356°F) and bake for 1 hour
- Allow to cool and then cut into rusk size portions
- Spread the rusks out on the baking trays allowing space between each rusk
- Bake for a further 3 hours at 100°C (212°F). Turn the rusks every hour during this drying phase.
- Store in a dry air-tight jar to keep fresh.
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Dunking a lovely rusk into coffee in the morning is a treat to look forward to. Freshly home-baked rusks are the best rusks ever and once you see just how easy they are to make, they will become a regular treat for you.
