G-free rusks

Aaah, tea and guilt-free rusks!
Photo by Matilda Angus

Years ago I tried to go the gluten-free route with children prone to food allergies. It was very difficult. Especially to provide the kind of comfort food they were accustomed to. Simple things, like a buttermilk rusk with early morning coffee, were near impossible to accomplish. My attempts were met with frank honesty. "I think I'll rather go without rusks, Mom. These taste like wood chips," my daughter said.

But with the healthy food revolution, a lot has changed, and I am grateful every time I open a packet of gluten-free flour mix that will produce pancakes or muffins that can hardly be distinguished from their wheat counterparts. With that said, the perfect buttermilk rusk has still been eluding me, though I have tried and tested many recipes.

Yesterday, I was at it again. And this morning, when I dunked the oven-dried rusk into my tea I felt a little like Eliza Doolittle in My fair Lady must have when at last the rain in Spain fell mainly on the plain. "I think I got it," I went. Maybe still a few adjustments here and there, it is still a very hard rusk, but dunks well and the taste is on track. Next time, I'll use a little more fructose, maybe sour cream rather than buttermilk, melted butter rather than oil and add another cup of gluten-free oats. I'll keep you posted.

Gluten-and-guilt-free Buttermilk Rusks

Ingredients:
2 cups (500 ml) gluten-free bread flour
2 cups (500 ml) rice flour
1 cup (250 ml) gluten-free oats
2 teaspoons (10 ml) baking powder
1 teaspoon (5 ml) potassium bicarbonate
1 teaspoon (5 ml) salt
A handful of seeds (I used sesame seed)
1/2 cup (125 ml) fructose
4 eggs
2 cups (500 ml) buttermilk or yoghurt
200 ml cooking oil

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
2. Prepare 2 shallow baking tins of 20 x 10 x 4cm or a large bread loaf tin by lining with baking paper     and buttering well.
1. Mix all the dry ingredients, except the fructose, in a large mixing bowl.
2. Whisk together the fructose, eggs, buttermilk and oil until well blended and light in colour.
3. Add the milk mix to the dry mix and stir well to bring everything together in a sticky and rather            wet dough.
4. Divide the dough between the baking tins and smooth it down to fill all corners.
5. Bake in the oven for 45 to 60 minutes, covering with foil if the top becomes too dark.
6. Turn out onto a cooling rack. When cool, cut into fingers and dry it out in a low oven (100 degrees     Celsius) overnight. Take care to test rusks for dryness as they tend to take quite a while longer than     wheat rusks to dry out completely. It helps to spread them out in the drying tins with a lot of space     in between the fingers.
7. You got it!

With love
Matilda