Original Receipt in 'The Art of Cookery Made Easy and Refined' By John Mollard (Mollard 1802)RUSKS, OR TOPS AND BOTTOMS.
Take two eggs beat up, add them to a pint of good mild yeast and a little milk. Sift four pounds of best white flour, and set a -pouge with the above ingredients; then make boiling half a pound of fresh butter and some milk, a sufficient quantity to make the sponge the stiffness of common dough. Let it lay in the kneading trough till well risen; then mould and make it into the form of loaves of the bigness of small teacups; after which batch them flat, bake them in a moderate oven, and when nearly done take them out, cut the top from the bottom, and dry them till of a nice" colour on tin plates in the oven.
Original Receipt from the Suffolk Local Authorities website '1Suffolk';Suffolk Rusks
Ingredients
8oz Self Raising Flour
2 Eggs
1oz Sugar
½ oz yeast
1oz Butter
¼ pint of warmed milk
Method
Pre-heat the oven to 230°C: 450°F: Gas 8
Sift the sugar and flour into a bowl.
Melt the butter and mix it with the warmed milk.
Add the liquid to the flour mixture along with the yeast.
Beat the eggs and whisk into the mixture to form a soft dough.
Cover the bowl with a clean tea-towel and leave in a warm place for 1½ hours.
Knead slightly and roll out on a lightly floured surface to a thickness of 1 inch, cut into 2½ inch rounds.
Place on a greased tray and bake for around 10 minutes.
Pull in half and return to the oven, cut side upwards for another 10 minutes to crisp.
Cool on a wire rack.
Serve with butter and jam or as a savoury with cheese or toppings. Suffolk Rusks store well in a tin.