Bran, nut & seed rusks
These very crispy and crunchy bites are filled with all the healthy ingredients! Simply dunk into a cup of coffee.
Makes about 90 rusks
1 kg (7 cups) cake flour
40 ml baking powder
5 ml (1 tsp) salt
200 g (4 cups) digestive bran
50 g (½ cup) raw almonds, coarsely chopped
150 g (250 ml) sunflower seeds
40 g (¼ cup) sesame seeds
40 g (¼ cup) poppy seeds
25 g (2 Tbsp) linseeds
400 g butter or margarine
300 g (1½ cups) light brown sugar
250 ml (1 cup) buttermilk or plain, unflavoured yoghurt
800 ml milk
2 extra-large eggs
1. Sift flour, baking powder and salt together. Add the bran, almonds and seeds.
2. Melt the butter and sugar. Whisk the buttermilk, milk and eggs and add, alternately with the melted butter to dry ingredients. Mix well.
3. Turn out into three greased 23 cm loaf pans. Bake in a preheated oven at 180 °C for about 45 minutes, or until done. Leave in pans for a few minutes to cool. Turn out onto wire racks to cool completely.
4. Cut loaf into ten thick slices and then divide each slice into three again (an electric carving knife works well to prevent breaking).
5. Dry out in a cool oven at about 70 °C for 6 – 8 hours, or overnight. Store in an airtight container.
Variations
As alternative to loaf pans, bake in a greased oven pan of about 24 x 34 cm.
Substitute the digestive bran with 150 g All-Bran flakes.
Substitute the almonds with any other nuts of choice.
Substitute seeds with any other seeds of choice, such as pumpkin seeds. For seed rusks, simply omit the bran. Add 60 ml (¼ cup) lemon juice and 30 ml (2 Tbsp) grated lemon rind for a citrus flavour.