Nutty Rusks

I almost wrote 'rusky nuts' in the heading - lol!
I'm the lucky owner of yet another cook book (Christmas gift from a dear friend);

It is jampacked with yummy recipes. I gain weight just to read those huge recipes, where serves are between 6 - 12!!! We are two persons!!! Either the South-Africans eat a lot - or they have big families! :) The cookbook has photos on almost every second page - really yummy photos too! When I opened the cookbook, the first that caught my eye is something called 'Orange River mud pie', which I'm definitely going to make one day!!! Mouth watering!

Rusks are something I have always wanted to try, but never did - until a few days back.
Very easy to make, but a bit time consuming since the rusks have to be dried out in the oven.

What you need is this;

don't know why I've put oats among the ingredients, oats is not in the recipe....  

Mix all dry ingredients

Mix all the wet ingredients

Mix it all together

Turn the mixture into the prepared tins

Let it cool on a wire rack

Let it cool completely before drying out in the oven

I didn't have place in the oven to dry them all, so part remained undried.

Here are the dried ones - turned out so yummy!

Nutty rusks - the recipe

1 kilo self-raising flour

10 ml (2 t ) salt

10 ml (2 t) baking powder

500 ml (2 C) muesli

250 ml (1 C ) sunflower seeds, toasted

1 packet ( 100 g ) pecan nuts, chopped

125 ml (1/2 C ) coconut, grated

500 ml (2 C) bran flakes

500 ml (2 C) brown sugar

2 extra large eggs

500 g margarine, melted

500 ml (2 C) buttermilk

1 green apple, peeled and grated

How to;

Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease two 29 x 11 x 8 cm loaf tins and one 23 x 11 x 7 cm loaf tin with butter, margarine or nonstick spray.

Mix the dry ingredients and add the brown sugar.

Whisk the eggs and add the remaining ingredients. Add to the dry ingredients.

Mix well and turn the mixture into the prepared tins, spreading evenly.

Bake for 45-60 minutes or until done and a testing skewer comes out clean.

Leave to cool slightly before turning out onto wire racks. 

Cut into fingers when completely cool and arrange on baking sheets.

Dry out at 100C. Store in airtight containers.

Note;

1) I didn't have pecan nuts, substituted with almonds.

2) Don't have the required tins, used the tins I found suitable.

3) ... and I dried them out without using a baking sheets. That's not necessary - to my opinion.

4) In addition to the ingredients, I added 1 t cinnamon, 1 t cardamon and 1/2 cup (approx) poppy seeds.  

5) I made half the portion - it gave about 45 rusks. The full recipe gives approx 90 rusks!

Recipe from 'Let's Cook - Top 500 recipes' - compiled by Carmen Niehaus.