Healthy Rusks

Hello!!  It’s good to be back 🙂

I’ve had a few very busy months, but among other things, we finally made it to Canada to visit my sister!  What a wonderful trip,  amazing country and  wonderful family reunion it was, really the holiday of a life-time for us!  I will share some photos soon.

Today, though, I’m sharing a recipe to make before you go camping – the nicest, easiest recipe for Healthy Rusks, which make the best breakfast when camping.

Imagine sitting around your early morning camp fire, watching the day come to life, with a cup of freshly brewed coffee in your hand.  Now make that image even better and think of having one of these rusks to dunk in that coffee!

Oh my – now I’ve set off a dual craving in me – for camping AND rusks with coffee!!

Rusks are usually hard work – these are not.  They are stirred together, baked in a large pan, sliced into ‘fingers’ and dried out.  Couldn’t be easier, people!!

But enough chat – on to the recipe:

Making Healthy Rusks ~ Fired Up Cooking SA 2014

Healthy Rusks

Ingredients

• 4 cups of whole wheat flour
• 2 cups of self-raising flour
• 2 cups of brown sugar (I like to use 1 cup dark, and 1 cup light)
• 3 cups of bran flakes
• 1 cup of rolled oats
• 1/2 cup coconut
• 1 cup of nuts – your choice, try mixed or even roasted peanuts
• 1/2 mixed seeds – sunflower, pumpkin, sesame, poppy, again, your choice
• 1 cup of dried fruit – raisins, or fruit cake mix, or chopped dried apricots, or even dried cranberries
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
• 250 grams of butter, melted
• 500 mls buttermilk or plain yoghurt
• milk, if needed

Method

• Mix all the dry ingredients together in a large bowl
• Stir in the melted butter, blending well
• Add the buttermilk/yoghurt and mix very well to make a soft dough
• If the mix seems dry, add a little milk
• Keep mixing to make sure there are no dry patches of flour
• Tip the whole mixture into a well-greased deep-sided baking tray (I use my oven’s grill tray)
• Bake at 180⁰C until golden brown and skewer inserted into the rusks comes out clean
• Remove rom the oven and allow to cool a little
• Turn out onto a cooling rack, and allow to cool completely
• Slice into fingers (as in my photo), or how ever you wish – just make them a good shape for dunking!
• Lay the rusks out onto large baking sheets, leaving a gap between each one for air to circulate
• Place the trays in a cool oven and prop the door open slightly with a tea towel
• Dry out for several hours, or overnight, until the rusks are crisp and dry
• Turn off the heat and leave the rusks to cool in the oven
• Pack the cold rusks into air tight containers
• Make some coffee and
• Enjoy!!

I can’t claim this recipe as entirely my own, but I’ve tweaked it so much over the years that it feels like mine.  Sadly, I have no record of the blog it originally came from, so can’t even pass on credit.  If it seems familiar to you, let me know!

Til next time, happy camping…