Muesli Rusks

I’d never come across a rusk, let alone a muesli rusk, until I wandered into Bianca’s, a Sydney deli specialising in South African food. I fell in love on the spot. Rusks are a pantry staple for the South African Jewish community, and we’re lucky so many of those traditions now call Sydney home.

The original recipe for these irresistible Muesli Rusks came to us from Monday Morning Cooking Club author Lynn Niselow for our third book, It’s Always About the Food (HarperCollins Publishers, 2017). I have tweaked the recipe a little by adding a little self raising flour as well as extra seeds, sultanas and almonds. Just because I love them.

Twice-baked rusks have been part of South African life for centuries. Early settlers dried bread so it would last, pioneers carried them on long treks inland, and soldiers in the Anglo-Boer War packed them because they kept for the journey. South Africans have been dunking them in their morning coffee ever since, and Lynn grew up doing exactly that. She searched for years for the best recipe, and when her friend Devorah Barnes shared hers, Lynn finally found her perfect rusk which she so kindly shared with us for our 2017 book.

Want more recipes like this? Check out our latest book, A Year of Jewish Cooking.