A hard, crunchy, substantial, sustaining snack to dunk in tea at any time of day or night. Plain or with added texture from nuts and raisins or seeds. These are the backbone of South Africa.
I found the original of this recipe many years ago in an old South African cookbook, back when our son was a baby and we were here for four months. We went back to London for another two years before moving out to SA for good and this rusk recipe kept us connected with that fine old tradition of dunking rusks in tea and getting crumbs all over the sofa.
I have played with the recipe over the years, using different combinations of flours and oils. I’ve given my favourite flour combination here but feel free to change it up. It seems to work just as well whether you use the original sunflower oil, or coconut oil mixed with olive oil. If your family is divided as to the merits of nuts and raisins in their rusks, it is possible to keep both camps happy: just leave one half of the dough plain and then knead the nuts, seeds and raisins of your choice into the second half before rolling them all into balls.