Nut and Date Rusks

Few things warm the heart more than a delicious rusk dipped in a steaming hot chocolate. Made with creamy buttermilk and filled with crunchy nuts and sweet dates, you may find these rusks disappear far sooner than intended!

 

Ingredients

Ingredients in bold available at The Spice Emporium.

2 cups self-raising flour

2 cups Snowflake nutty wheat flour

4 tbsp baking powder

1½ tsp salt

1 tbsp ground aniseed or fennel 

200g melted butter

¼ cup oil

375g buttermilk

¾ cup sugar

5-6 dates, finely chopped

½ cup sunflower seeds

½ cup chopped pecan nuts 

Variations

¼ cup fine desiccated coconut

¼ cup almonds, chopped

 

 

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180C.
2. Sift the self-raising flour, nutty wheat flour, baking powder and salt.
3. Add the ground aniseed/fennel.
4. In a separate bowl, beat melted butter, oil, buttermilk and sugar. 
5. Slowly add the liquid mixture to the sifted dry ingredients. Mix and make sure that no lumps remain.
6. Add chopped dates, sunflower seeds, pecan nuts to the mixture.
7. Line a baking tray with butter and evenly pour in the mixture. 
8. Bake at 180C for 30 minutes.
9. Remove from the oven and cut into rectangular blocks (approx. 5cm x 2cm).
10. Lower oven temperature to 100C and return tray to the oven for 1½ to 2 hours or until hard, crispy and golden brown in colour.
11. Remove from the oven, allow to cool for 10 minutes and place rusks on a cooling tray. 
12. Store rusks in an airtight container to maintain freshness.