Chocolate Rusks
A deliciously chocolatey dried sponge waiting to be dunked in your favourite hot drink!
Print
Pin
Servings: 32 rusks
Equipment
- electric whisk or a whisk with some elbow grease
- 1 x x cm baking tray for baking
- air fryer or oven or dehydrator for drying
Ingredients
- 1 cup/220 grams sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 250 grams butter softened
- 2 tsp vanilla essence
- 1 cup/375 grams cake flour or all purpose
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1 ½ tsp fine sea salt
- 100 grams cocoa powder sifted
- 1 cup milk hot
- 150 grams chocolate roughly chopped dark, milk, white chocolate etc.
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 170°C/325°F. Set a 23cm x 33cm baking tray aside.
- Add sugar and eggs to a large bowl and using an electric whisk, beat until you leave a trail on the surface and it's light and pale in colour, when the whisk is lifted, about 5 mins.
- Add the softened butter and whisk again until well combined about 1-2 mins.
- In a small bowl, mix cocoa powder and very warm milk together. Once combined, add the mixture to the wet ingredients. Whisk until mostly combined. Note: the mixture will look like it's splitting but this is normal.
- Add the flour, baking powder and salt. Using a strong spatula fold the dry ingredients into the mixture. Add the chopped chocolate and fold until mostly combined. Note: the mixture becomes quite pliable, so feel free to use your hands to mix the dough - yet you should resist overmixing.
- Press the dough into your baking tray, ensuring the surface is even. Bake for 35-40 mins or until a cake skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool down before sectioning. Once the sponge has cooled, use a serrated knife to section as follows, slice the sponge in have lengthwise, repeat width wise and continue halving each section until you're left with 32 sections (8 sections with x 4 rusks lengthwise).
- Spread the sectioned sponge onto a baking tray that's lined with a wire rack. Dry in the oven, air fryer or dehydrator at 80-100℃/176-212℉ for 6 hours or overnight. Place a wooden spoon or cloth between the oven and its door, too allow unwanted moisture to escape. Note: the higher the temperature the faster they will dry of course. Also, the rusks continue to harden as they cool down.
- Once they've cooled, it's time to put on the kettle and get dunking - the time to indulge is finally here! Te lekker.