Buttermilk Rusks
The next recipe from my mother’s kitchen are these buttermilk rusks, they are a South African biscuit often eaten with coffee. My mother was born in Cape Town and this is one of her family recipe’s, via the wonderful Lorraine, whom my mother loved dearly.
I’m really trying to recreate these from memories and I hope I have done the recipe justice.. At times making these I wanted to call Mum to ask for her instructions. (As I always and often wish I could do). Here they are, a tribute to my Mum, and some of the times she was happiest, retracing her childhood. She took me back to Cape Town after I graduated and it was truly special. I’m the eldest of four children, so it was precious time that we had together, I hope you’ll like the recipe.
ingredients ~
500g self-raising flour
250g butter (or you can substitute for 2 cups of oil)
1 cup buttermilk
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tablespoon salt
1 egg
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
Crumble flour with the butter (or oil), adding the sugar, salt, raisins, seeds. Mix buttermilk and eggs together, then add to the dough, mixing with a fork.
Divide this mixture into golf-ball sized spoonfuls, and bake on a lined baking tray at 170 C for 60 -75mins. Once they are golden and cooked remove from the oven and cool.
Then slice them into halves or thirds and proceed to dry them out in a low oven (80-100 C) for as long as possible. Lorraine suggests overnight but I don’t have an AGA. So I had them in a low oven for a good 6 hours. The resultant biscuit should be very hard and crumbly. Store and enjoy!