Bran and coconut rusks

I find few things as comforting as a full jar of rusks. It makes for the perfect breakfast with a cup of tea, it serves as a convenient snack in between meals and most of all, I feel that I have provided and put on display, a healthy and delicious snack.

I cut my rusks quite thin - literally like fat fingers! - as my one daughter eat these as one would biscotti!

The recipe makes about 90 pieces which keep for two months in other homes, not in mine!

500g butter

375ml brown sugar

1kg self raising flour

15ml baking powder

10ml salt

500ml digestive bran

500ml desiccated coconut

100ml sunflower seeds

500ml buttermilk

2 eggs

Preheat your oven to 190℃.

Melt the butter in a small saucepan, add the sugar and stir occasionally so that the sugar dissolves. Take off the heat and put aside.

Sift together the flour, salt and baking powder in a large mixing bowl.

Add the bran, coconut and sunflower seeds and give the ingredients a stir through.

Add the slightly cooled butter and sugar mixture and mix well with a spatula.

In a separate jug, whisk together the eggs and buttermilk.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and give the mixture another good stir through.

Spray/grease 2 standard roasting trays or baking tins of similar size.

Divide the mixture between the two trays and press firmly down in the trays.

Bake for 50 minutes until golden brown.

You will now be left with what looks like two pans of sheet cakes. Let them cool for 10 minutes after removing them from the oven and then take them out of the roasting trays. Let them cool completely.

Now turn your oven onto 50℃.

Slice into finger sized rusks and pack them half a centimetre apart on a flat baking sheet so that the warm air from the oven can circulate in between and dry your rusks evenly.

It depends on the weather, but I usually dry mine for about 3 hours.

Cool completely and proudly pack the rusks into a beautiful glass jar, and put on display in your kitchen.