2020 - May 12 - garlic in pot, peanut butter rusks in biltong maker

Tuesday 12 May 2020

Last week, Hein planted a garlic clove in a pot ... Friday, 8 May he took this photo:

Today, he took another photo:

This plant is just growing by the second!  However, when we Googled to see how long a clove takes before harvesting ... 8 to 9 months!  

PEANUT BUTTER RUSKS

Last week I saw a new rusk in our shop - Peanut butter rusks.  I gave it to friends ... but that got me thinking ...

With my batches of droëwors finished, maybe I can dry out rusks in the biltongmaker????  I Googled it and yes, one can!  Next I searched for a peanut butter rusk recipe.  I halved the recipe, because I didn't want a big batch - space is limited in the biltongmaker.

Peanut butter rusks

Halved version:

115 g margarine

80 g white sugar

2 large eggs

4 tbsp peanut butter

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp bicarb

125 ml milk

125 g cake flour

1 tsp baking powder

80g coconut

80g oats

60 g weetbix, crumbled

50 g peanuts

Preheat oven to 180 oC.  Grease 1 baking sheet.

Cream margarine and sugar together. Add eggs one by one, beating well after each addition. Add peanut butter and vanilla essence and mix well. Dissolve the bicarb of soda in the milk.
Add milk mixture to margarine mixture. Add the sifted cake flour, baking powder and salt to margarine mixture as well. Add remaining ingredients to the margarine mixture. Blend well. Pat into the baking sheet.  Bake for 20 minutes.  Let cool for 5 minutes.  Carefully cut with finely serrated knife.  Put in dehydrator for a day to dry out.
https://www.domesticdivaz.co.za/the-ultimate-peanut-butter-rusk/

The biltongmaker has plastic shelves, but the one's corner were broken off ... so my genius hubby made a plan ... used the normal low microwave stand and the higher stand ...and the remaining plastic shelf.

Firstly, I'll only bake rusks like this ... soooo much easier! Yes, it's a small amount, needed 1 baking sheet, but that's okay.

After 5 1/2 hours in the dehydrator, the top rusks on the plastic shelf and the rusks on the high microwave stand were dried out. Sadly though the low microwave stand was too close to the floor of the dehydrator ... I just moved it up and dried it for few more hours. Use a lot less power than an oven.

The rusks were really crisp and can be eaten like that ... when I tried to dunk it though ... it's soft.  So I've put them back into the biltongmaker for another few hours.