Fail-proof buttermilk rusks

Once a year, my mother would get out the giant tin bowls – big enough to fit a small child in quite comfortably – and make dozens and dozens of buttermilk rusks.

This is my grandmother’s recipe, and is a firm South African favourite too. These twice-baked biscuits are chunky and delicious dipped in coffee (not too long, or they get soggy!), and this recipe is a firm family favourite.

OUMA VONA DU TOIT’S BUTTERMILK RUSKS

INGREDIENTS

• 2kg self-raising flour
• 3.5 cups of sugar
• 5 – 6 eggs
• 500g of butter, cut into chunks
• 500ml buttermilk
• 2tsp salt
• 1tsp grated nutmeg (approx)

METHOD 

1. We always double the recipe, so start by doubling your ingredients
2. Grease bread and baking tins with butter (be generous, they tend to stick)
3. Preheat oven to 180 C
4. Beat eggs and sugar until extremely creamy, fluffy and white
5. Sift and mix the dry ingredients
6. Rub the butter into the dry ingredients with your fingers until crumbly
7. Using your hands, rub the egg mixture (don’t use all of it, leave enough to brush the tops of the rusks) into the flour and butter mixture
8. Now, add the buttermilk, and knead until the dough is soft and flexible
9. Roll the dough into balls and squash together into the greased pans
10. Brush the left over egg batter onto the top of the dough
11. FIRST BAKE: Bake for 1hr – 1.5hrs
12. Once cooled, slice the loaves at the “seams” where they were once balls of dough.
13. SECOND BAKE: Turn the oven down extremely low (50 C), and put in the oven overnight, with the door held ajar by a butter knife or something similar. The next day they should be rock hard.