Healthy muesli rusks recipe
A classic South African rusk; healthy, delicious, and easily adjustable to your pantry!
Ingredients
- 4 cups flour I use half white cake flour and half whole wheat or nutty wheat
- 4 tsp baking powder You can also use self-raising flour instead, but then you need to add baking powder for every cup of wheat flour you use
- 1 ½ cups oats
- 1 cup brown sugar
- ¼ cup honey If you want a more honeyed flavour you can replace some of the sugar
- 1 cup cranberries I don’t like raisins and I find cranberries add a sharper, nicer flavour, but raisins are also a good option here!
- 1 cup seeds and nuts I usually add sunflower seeds, almonds, pumpkin seeds and sesame seeds, but these are really up to what you love
- 125 ml coconut Also optional but it’s a lovely addition
- 250 ml buttermilk My mom often replaces this with half yoghurt half milk; this will produce a slightly different flavour, but it works great
- 125 gr butter melted
- 2 large free-range eggs
- ⅓ cup sunflower oil
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180C/350F
- Line a baking dish of approximately 25cm x 30cm with baking paper
- Stir all your dry ingredients until well combined.
- Add cranberries, nuts and coconut and stir again.
- Melt your butter, then add the honey to the pan (or microwave bowl) and stir until combined.
- In a separate bowl, mix the melted butter and honey with buttermilk, eggs and sunflower oil.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir till just combined.
- Pour this thick, stodgy batter into your lined baking tray and use the spoon to even it out nicely. Bake for 45 minutes or until the top is nice and golden and a knife poked in the center comes out clean. You may need to put foil on the top if your oven is temperamental, but I’ve never found it necessary.
- Allow to cool. Then lift it out and slice it into strips, and then slice in the other direction to make fingers - you can make them short and chunky or long and slender, whatever rusk style you prefer. Place these on a larger baking tray (or the one you used, plus another one) with space between them.
- Bake for 6 hours on 100C/210F, turning them over after about 3 hours. My mum often only bakes them for 3 hours and then considers them finished and perfect, so it’s worth popping one out when you’re turning them and testing. With the baking smells that have been floating around your house for the past 3 hours, you probably won’t be able to help yourself anyway.
- Allow to cool and dish into an airtight container and onto your plate!