Guilt free South African Rusks
Guilt Free South African Rusks
Rusks are a traditional dried out sweet bread that can be enjoyed with a hot boiling cup of coffee or tee. Funnily enough, Rusks, are borrowed from the French years ago. It's has been wildly popular since the 16th century with the likes of sailors and war veterans. It was a way of perserving food back in the day. The French called it "Biscuit de Guerre", that was enjoyed during war times where food was not easy to come by. When translated this "biscuit" literally means twice baked. Within the different cultures there are various version of "dried bread" each with their own unique taste. Click here to read more.
In the beginning I struggled to get the consistency right, because buttermilk is non-existent here. It is kind of vital to make delicious Buttermilk rusks. So I dared to make my own buttermilk (1 cup of milk with 1tsp of lemon juice, let it stand for 30 min, voila!). The results turned out great and I was able to make yummy, creamy rusks.
The thing about rusks is... that they can be devoured with the idea that they are not "technically" bad for you, but let's be honest they are high in carbs, fat and sugar. Don't get me wrong it is a treat that I will regularly indulge in, but there is a danger about them... One becomes two, tree becomes four and by the time that your are beyond feeling sick and full, you've finished the whole pack. After that you'll probably not want to have another rusk again for a while. It happens to all of us!
After failing a couple times, I finally came up with a this great guilt free recipe. No eggs, dairy or added sugar!!Wow! You may think, how can that taste good? Believe me you'll be pleasantly surprised. Living healthy can be fantastic!
If you have never had rusks before, then get ready to be blown away! Have it for Petit dejeuner (Breakfast)or
for aprés midi (afternoon) snack. Once you start it will be hard to stop, but at least you can rest easy, because all the ingredients are super good for you!
Ingredients
*1 cup of oat flour (finely grind oats in a foodprocessor till it resembles flour)
*1 cup of whole buckwheat grinded into flour of buckwheat flour. (can also be substituted with wholegrain flour of your choice)
*1/2 cup of sunflower seeds
*1/4 cup of flaxseeds
*Pinch of salt
*1tsp of cinnamon
*1cup of shredded coconut
*2cups of mashed dates
*1/4cup of coconut oil
*1 1/2 banana mashed
*1/2cup nut milk of your choice
*1/4cup of nut butter(almond ect)
(to make two tins of Rusks, just double the recipe)
Methord
Chauffoir your oven to 180c.
1. Sif together the flours and add the shredded coconut, cinnamon and salt.
2. Grind the sunflower and flaxseeds fine in food processor and add to the dry mixture.
3. Place the depitted dates with a little bit of water in a microwavable proof dish and microwave for 40 seconds. Mash the dates with the water.
4. Microwave the coconut oil till it becomes liquid.
5. Mix the oil with the date mash and add the nut butter, mashed banana and almond milk.
6. Mix the dry and wet ingredients together.
7. If the mixture is too dry, add 1/2 cup of almond milk to it. The dough must not be too sticky.
8. Place into a parchment paper lined bread tin, make into balls or just press it flat in the tin.
9. Decorate the top with sliced almonds.
10. Bake for 20-25 minutes till golden brown. Let it cool after you have removed it from the oven.
11. Cut it in to slices like you would cut a bread and then divide each slice into 2 or 3 pieces.
12. Place onto a baking tray.
13. Dry the rusk slices out in the oven for 2 hours @100C.
14. Enjoy your guilt free snack!
There you go, living healthy is easy, when you are willing to do the dirty work so to speak. Filling those empty calories with nutritional goodness is the way to go. With this easy recipe, who can say no!
M*
PS:Check out the French cooking terms in my posts.
