South African Rusks / Biscuits

Submitted by Wendy-Bob

"From Falling Cloudberries by Tessa Kiros. This is a South African recipe for some lovely looking biscuits that apparently go well dipped in coffee or warm milk. Not yet tried."

 

• Ready In: 2hrs 30mins
• Ingredients: 8
• Yields: 50 rusks

ingredients

• 250 g butter
• 25 g butter (extra)
• 750 g plain flour
• 460 g caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 400 ml milk
• 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar (or you can use red)

directions

1. Preheat oven to 190c / 375f.
2. Mix the 250g butter into the flour either with your hands or in a blender.
3. Add the sugar, salt and baking powder and then mix in the milk and wine vinegar until you have a smooth dough.
4. Grease a large baking tray with some of the remaining butter.
5. Divide the dough into 3 equal portions.
6. Wet your hands with a little cold water and quickly roll the dough into long dough sausages, about 30cm long.
7. Arrange the dough sausages in parallel lines on the tray, dotting a few bits of extra butter in between.
8. Bake for 45mins - 1hour until the tops are golden and crusty.
9. Remove from the oven and turn the oven temperature down to 150c / 300f.
10. The dough sausages will have joined together so cut down the lengths to separate them and then cut each sausage into 3cm pieces.
11. Leave them to cool for a bit so that they are more manageable, then list them up and break them in half down the middle so they look nice and rustic.
12. Return them to the baking tray, this time laying them on their sides and bake in the oven for a further hour (30 mins each side) to dry them out.
13. Let them cool completely before storing in a closed container or paper bag, where they will keep well for up to around 5 days.