Retro Recipe: Rusks

Here’s this month’s recipe, again courtesy of Mrs. Nellie Duling Gans, Principal of the Chicago Cooking College’s pamphlet “Good Bread: How to Make It“. This super flexible sweet roll has some heavy memories for me.

• The Ingredients:
  • 2 cups warm milk
  • 1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
  • 1/2 cup white sugar
  • 2 large eggs, beaten well
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cake yeast foam OR 1 packet of active dry yeast
  • 1 cup raisins (or dried fruit of your choice)
  • 1 tablespoon cinnamon
  • 6 to 8 cups all-purpose or bread flour
• The Way of Preparing: 
  • Dissolve the yeast foam in the warm milk.
  • Add enough flour to make a loose batter. Let it rise, covered, until light.
  • Beat the sugar and butter to a cream; add in the eggs.
  • Add the sugar and egg mix to the batter with the salt and fruit.
  • Add enough flour to make a soft dough.
  • Mold the dough with your hands into balls about the size of a large egg. Set these close together in a buttered pan and let rise fully until doubled.
  • Brush with the beaten white of an egg.
  • Sprinkle on cinnamon and sugar and bake for 25-30 minutes in a 400°F/204C° oven.
• Notes:
  • Add a 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract for a little lift in flavor.
  • Add 1/2 teaspoon of almond extract and substitute out the raisins for some chopped almonds or pecans for a lovely nutty note.
  • For fruity rusks, that I usually make around Yule, add the following:
    • 1/4 cup chopped candied pecans
    • 1/4 chopped dates
    • 1/4 cup dried apricots, chopped
    • 1/4 cup dried cherries, chopped
    • 1 tablespoon amaretto
  • There’s a good chocolate cherry variant as well:
    • Add 1/4 cup natural cocoa powder (NOT Dutch processed) to the initial flour mix
    • 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
    • 1 cup Amarena cherries, chopped
    • 1 tablespoon vanilla
    • sprinkle vanilla sugar over the top of the unbaked rusks before baking
  • For lemon poppy rusks:
    • Add the zest of one whole lemon
    • 1/2 teaspoon of lemon extract
    • 2 tablespoons black poppy seeds
    • Top with more poppy seeds and sanding sugar

This is a recipe I thought for the longest was just “sweet yeast rolls”. It wasn’t until I found this recipe in the Good Bread pamphlet that I recognized it.

I’m a fan of the traditional cinnamon sugar one, but I have been known to experiment. I’ve added just about everything under the sun to these little babies. I’ve even done a coconut one with shredded coconut and a hint of lime.

And now I’m hungry…

Let me know if you try this recipe! I would love to see what you make, hear how it went!