All Bran Rusks

Rusks are crunchy, dry cookies that just beg to be dunked in coffee or tea and eaten any time of the day! Although commonly associated with Dutch and South African cuisine, this type of cookie exists in almost every culture. Because they are dry, they last longer when stored in an airtight container. The difficulty in making these is in finding the right consistency between a cookie that falls apart because it's so "crumbly", and one that's just too hard and may cause serious dental damage! The other problem is trying to make this relatively low in fat and sugar. It's impossible to to cut those two ingredients back too much, and still end up with a delicious tasting rusk that is somewhat healthy. I think mine achieves this balance. I have used weight as the measure for the flour as it's more accurate than using cups.

1 stick butter (1/4 lb)

1/3-1/2 cup sugar (depending on how sweet you like things)

150 ml half and half

Juice of half lemon

½ cup Greek style yogurt

1 large egg

200g self-rising flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

 ½ teaspoon salt

1 cup Kellogg’s Original All-Bran cereal (not flakes)

2 tablespoons dried cranberries

2 tablespoons sesame seeds

2 tablespoons uncooked oats

2 tablespoons chopped walnuts

Directions

1.      Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit

2.      Melt the butter and let it cool

3.      Grease and flour a standard loaf tin. I also line the bottom with parchment paper to avoid sticking

4.      Measure the flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, nuts, cranberries and sesame seeds into a large bowl.

5.      Whisk the half and half, egg, yogurt until pale in color. Squeeze in the lemon juice then add all to the cooled, melted butter. Pour over the All-Bran cereal. Let that sit for a minute or two so that the cereal can absorb the liquid and soften.

6.      Mix the wet and dry ingredients together, then pour the batter into the loaf pan.

7.      Bake for 25 minutes at 375 degrees Fahrenheit, then a further 25 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Remove from oven to cool once a cake tester inserted in the middle comes out clean.

8.      Lower oven temperature to 175 degrees Fahrenheit

9.      Cool in tin for 10 minutes then invert loaf to let it cool.

10.  Cut the loaf into slices 1 ¼ inches thick. Cut each slice into 3 pieces (like fingers). Place the slices on a cookie sheet that has been lined with parchment paper.

11.  Dry out slices in the oven for 4-6 hours. Turn off oven and leave the slices in the oven overnight. Remove and store in an airtight container.