These crunchy, blood sugar friendly, low GL buttermilk rusks are just what you need to motivate you to get up on a wintery morning:-D Make yourself a heart-warming cup of tea and dunk away!! WARNING: Too delicious so don’t max out on them… only 2 per day now OK!
750ml cake flour
50ml baking powder
2.5ml salt
250ml original ProNutro
500ml oat bran
250ml sugar
90ml olive oil
500ml plain full-fat yogurt
2 eggs
2 small apples, peeled and finely grated
5ml vanilla extract (10ml if not using the caramel essence)
5ml caramel essence (optional)
Pre-heat the oven at 170 degrees C (Yes, 170 degrees, not 180 degrees).
Grease 2 swiss roll pans (24cm x 32cm).
Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a very large mixing bowl. Add the oat bran, ProNutro and sugar. Mix well, lifting the spoon as you do so to incorporate air.
In a 1 litre jug or bowl, measure out the oil, add the yogurt and the eggs. Mix well until all the oil has been absorbed.
Add the apples, vanilla and caramel essence to the yoghurt mixture and stir.
Pour the yoghurt mixture over the dry ingredients.
Mix well until all the ingredients have been moistened to make a stiff, sticky, spoonable dough.
Spoon into the swiss roll pans and smooth the surface with your hands using flour on your fingertips to prevent the dough from sticking to your fingers.
Bake for 25 – 30 minutes. Test the rusks with a skewer to make sure they are done before removing them from the oven.
Leave to cool before cutting the rusks.
Remove the rusks from the pan and pack them onto a baking sheet and allow them to dry out in a low oven (50 degrees C) overnight.
Store in an airtight container.
NOTES:
Makes 54 finger rusks (you do the maths).
A large amount of the high GL flour has been substituted with grated apple, ProNutro and oat bran which is why these rusks have a lower GL. These high fibre options help to slow down the sugar absorption into the blood stream making these rusks a healthier option than store bought rusks.
TOP TIP – ProNutro is not my favourite cereal. Checkers sell a great range of products called “Simple Truth” which have a high protein wholegrain breakfast cereal that is a much better option. I’ve tried it in this recipe and it works perfectly. Give the chocolate flavour a try!!
When smoothing out the surface of the rusks with your fingers, go gently otherwise they end up being very dense.
I use a deep, metal oven dish instead of the swiss roll pans and it works perfectly – baking time remains the same – just remember to do the skewer check as all ovens differ.
HAVE FUN!!