Karringmelk Beskuit

Ingredients

• 1 kg self-raising flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp salt
• 200 g sugar
• 250 g butter
• 500 ml buttermilk
• 2 eggs
• 100 g rolled oats (optional)

Before you cook

• Grease two large loaf tins or one deep roasting tin
• Cut the butter into cubes so it melts quickly
• Take the buttermilk and eggs out of the fridge to lose their chill

Steps

1. Heat the oven to 180C.
2. Whisk the self-raising flour, baking powder, salt, sugar and oats together in your largest bowl.
3. Melt the butter in a small pot over low heat, then leave it to cool for five minutes.
4. Beat the eggs into the buttermilk in a jug until evenly combined.
5. Pour the melted butter and the buttermilk mixture into the dry ingredients and mix with your hands until the dough just comes together, stopping before it turns smooth.
6. Roll the dough into balls the size of a golf ball and pack them tightly side by side in the prepared tins.
7. Bake for fifty to sixty minutes, until the top is deep gold and a skewer pushed into the centre comes out clean.
8. Turn the loaves out onto a wire rack and leave them for twenty minutes, until cool enough to handle.
9. Break the loaves apart along the seams between the balls, then split any thick piece in half with your fingers.
10. Spread the pieces cut side up over wire racks or baking trays, leaving space between them.
11. Dry them in the oven at 90C for five to six hours with the door propped ajar by a wooden spoon, until a rusk snapped in half shows no soft centre.
12. Cool the rusks completely on the racks before storing them in an airtight tin.