My Granny’s Fail proof Beskuit Recipe

These rusks are wonderful as breakfast or anytime snacks, especially in winter when hot drinks are better suited than in summer. They can be eaten dipped in coffee or tea (rooibos tea is my favourite), or as is. Teething infants like to chew on these, as the rough texture really soothes their itching gums.

I use some ingredients commonly available in South Africa. If the same product isn’t available in your country, I’ll do my best to explain them so you can find suitable local alternatives.

I’m going on holiday pretty soon, I’ll add some photos of the process as soon as I’ve had a chance to take them.

Ingredients:

6 cups cake flour

50ml baking powder

10ml salt

10ml bicarbonate of soda

3 cups Nutty Wheat

7-9 Weetbix blocks

500g butter

500ml buttermilk

10ml brown vinegar

2 cups brown sugar

2 large eggs

Method:

Pre heat your oven to 180°C. The more evenly your oven is heated, the more even your rusks will bake and brown.

Spread two 43 x 28 x 2cm (17” x 11”) baking trays with butter, including the sides. A non-stick spray can also be used, but the butter adds an extra richness.

You’re gonna need a pretty big mixing bowl for rusks, I use a 10l enamel dish, as I normally make a double batch. Sift your cake flour, baking powder, salt and bicarb together to have a loose, fluffy mix. Crush your blocks of Weetbix (how rough or fine is completely up to you, I like to have medium flakes with bigger pieces here and there) and add that together with the Nutty Wheat to the sifted dry ingredients and combine well.

In a separate mixing bowl, beat the buttermilk with the vinegar, eggs and sugar, adding the sugar little by little to the wet mix as you beat it. It doesn’t have to be beaten for a specific time, it should just be combined without any of the ingredients separating. However, it is normal for the sugar to sink to the bottom of the bowl.

Now: you see that nice big chunk of butter? If it’s fresh out of the fridge, grate it with a large grating surface. Otherwise, if it is at room temperature, cut it into loose smaller chunks. Add your grated/cut butter to the dry mix. This is where the fun part starts. Take off all your jewellery, wedding rings included (trust me), get your hands in there and rub the butter into the dry mix with your fingertips and between your palms until the mix looks like breadcrumbs. The white of the flour will resemble the colour of the butter once it is ready. There shouldn’t be any whole bits of butter left anywhere, and similarly no flour should be pure white anymore.

Make a well in the centre of the dry mix and pour the wet mix into it. Everything at once, no need to be shy and add it drop by drop. With a wooden spoon, combine the mixture until a sticky dough emerges. Now put the spoon in the sink and get your hands dirty again. Knead the dough between your fingers until completely combined. There shouldn’t be any exclusively wet or dry bits anymore. Right about now the dough should also be manageable and not sticky anymore, with your fingers coming out clean. If it is completely combined but still sticky, add a little bit of flour, but be careful about this. Too much and your dough will be stiff and dense.

Divide the dough evenly into two parts and place each smaller ball of dough into a prepared baking tray. Use your fingers to press the dough down into the tray, until it evenly covers it. Use a normal butter knife to cut the pieces. Normally I cut my trays to be 12 x 4. If you want to be technical about it, that would be pieces of roughly 3.5cm by 7cm.

Bake the trays for about 35 minutes, or until they are golden brown (this can be from 25 minutes, depending on how stiff or sticky your dough was, so keep an eye on them)

To dry them:

When they are done, remove them and let the oven cool to between 80°C and 100°C. Using a knife (the blunter, the better), go along the lines you cut before you baked it. They should come out of the pan fairly easily. Pack your rusks directly onto the oven racks now (don’t burn yourself), being careful not to let any slip between the grids and fall to the bottom of the oven. Keep the oven door open by putting a wooden spoon between the door and the oven, so that the moisture can escape.

You can either leave it like this overnight or for about four hours. The hotter your oven, the shorter the drying time. Be careful not to burn them, don’t go over 100°C.

When they’ve cooled, you can pack them away and enjoy a nice cup of coffee with dipped beskuit.

Variations

If you prefer to use margarine (I beg of you, why??!), a good quality baking margarine is suitable, but the taste is much better with real butter.

For a muesli feel: Substitute 3 blocks of Weetbix with a cup of oats and a cup of raisins. The rest of the ingredients stay the same.

Another good variation is to substitute 2 blocks of Weetbix for a cup of sunflower seeds, or any other seed of your choice.

A more spicy experience: Add 10ml cinnamon, 10ml mixed spice, and 10ml pimento all spice to the cake flour when sieving it. Adding some dehydrated apple shreds/chips or any other sweet dried fruit (shredded) also enhances the flavour of the spices

I’ve never had a batch of rusks that has failed, because even a little bit of burn can be scraped off (if you are frugal) and most variations just work.

Have fun with this!