The next recipe book I will be reviewing is Jackie Cameron Cooks At Home. Now that I have a plan of action on how to tackle my reviews by making the cover recipe, I feel a lot less daunted by the huge pile of amazing books I have on my bedside table. Jackie has three photographs on her cover and the first one I have made is the recipe for raisin filled rusks. Rusks are the South African equivalent of biscotti. As I wanted to stay true to the recipe (other than the sugar) I went out and bought a 400g box of Kellogs all bran flakes with sultanas. My intention was to make half the recipe and as I only needed 33 grams of all bran flakes and 58 grams of sultanas, this worked out perfectly for me as the sultana content was meant to be 15% of the 400g. I sifted out the sultanas to weigh them and lo and behold, they weighed 29 grams. This was less than half of what should have been in the box. I quartered the recipe and made a mistake of not using a deep enough tin. What resulted was a height bigger than a biscotti and smaller than a traditional rusk. The top was slightly overcooked but they are extremely tasty and I will make these again with a few adaptations to suit what is in my pantry.
Raisin Filled Rusks
Ingredients
- 250 g self-raising flour
- 1.25 mls baking powder
- 2.5 mls fine salt
- 17 g all bran flakes
- 8 g digestive bran
- 25 g raisins
- 33 g dried apricots, sliced
- 29 g sultanas
- 25 g chopped pecan nuts
- 7 g desiccated coconut
- 9 g sesame seeds
- 88 g fructose
- 125 g butter, melted
- 125 mls cultured buttermilk
- 1 egg, beaten
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180° Celsius
- Line a loaf tin with baking paper
- Place the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl
- Mix together the butter, buttermilk and egg
- Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in the liquid ingredients
- Mix until well combined
- Pour the batter into the loaf tin and push the raisins under the batter so that they don’t burn
- Bake for 45 minutes
- Remove from the oven and leave to cool
- Preheat the oven to 40° Celsius
- Cut into chunks and bake for 3 hours to dry out
Click on the links for conversions and notes.
Disclosure: I was sent the book to review by Penguin Books South Africa. This recipe forms part of the review that I will be doing and is published with permission. This post is in line with my blogging policy.
What I blogged:
-
- one year ago – Sun Dried Tomato Pesto
- three years ago – Open Mushroom Lasagna
I have read about rusks but never seen or eaten them before. 🙂 These sound delicious even if they aren’t the proper size. 🙂
They are very delicious 🙂
Looks lovely Tandy!
Thank you Lisa 🙂
What a great bunch of flavours. They look great Tandy x
Thanks Jacs xxx
these look so good–& we all love rusks at home–will have to give it a try & when there is just 1 egg in the recipe & you substitute–it comes out OK
Please let me know how the substitution works 🙂
Tandy I love this, normally rusk recipes require cooking at a low temperature overnight, which is such a waste of electricity! These look lovely, I know you feel they were overcooked on top but they look really good to me. Maybe you can bring a sample or two to enjoy with coffee after dinner 😉
If I get the time I will bake another batch xxx
Give me a cup of coffee and a few of these to dip in it and I’d be pretty content!
Wish I could send you some!
Loads of lovely flavours in these rusks Tandy.
🙂 Mandy xo
And all of them good!
I’ve not had rusks with apricots in before. What a great idea!
I am going to play around with some more flavours as I loved the apricots in them 🙂
oooh, any recipe resembling biscotti definitely catches my attention! I love how different cultures have similar recipes. I love the mix of nuts, raisins and coconut, absolutely sounds delicious!
I am sure you will love these Linda 🙂
Looks like it can be a great homemade breakfast!
That is what I used them for 🙂
Oh yum! I can snack on these all day! Looks great Tandy.
Thanks Anne 🙂
Ooh, never heard of these. They look great.
Thanks, they are so tasty 🙂
I would like to try these filled rusks, they sound delightful 😀
Cheers
CCU
They are worth baking at home Uru 🙂
I love raisins and these look a delicious.
These are a great treat to have waiting for visitors and hungry children 🙂
LOVE homemade rusks dipped in tea! Yum!!
Thanks Kiran 🙂
I love these rusks, Tandy and I really like the dark crust!!
Thanks Zirkie, and thank you for the visit 🙂
Just mouthwatering…looks easy and delicious!
Thank you Kalyan 🙂