Zwieback

• For the German rapper see Uncle rusks
• For Wiener clothing store during the imperial Monarchy see Ludwig Zwieback & brother.

Rusk ( in the 17th century from Italian biscotto of Latin to coctus [ panis ] (twice baked [ bread ] ) is a bread-like pastry that is cut and roasted for preservation in slices until it is dry and crumbly.

History

The aim of the two-stage baking process was originally to produce a water-scarce and therefore long durable bread that could be carry when traveling for example, without spoiling. Even the ancient Greeks knew such a twice -baked bread as dipyritai, the Romans called panis frixus. From the 17th century the pastry was used because of its long shelf life as a field, ship or military rusks.

Only later was the biscuit taste refined and so interesting for home use. In old cookbooks from the 19th and 20th century, numerous recipe variations are described. Today this form of life bakery products is mainly used as baby food and as foods in gastrointestinal upsets.

Production

To produce a sweet biscuit, white bread -like cake is first baked from a slight Hefefeinteig, the so-called Einback. The dough contains gluten hard wheat flour (for example, type 550 ), milk, butter or margarine, sugar, eggs, yeast and salt, with ordinary household and children biscuit contains 100 parts of flour about 6 parts fat and 10 parts of sugar. In addition, other types of flour such as spelled flour or whole wheat flour ( for whole grain crackers ) and other compositions for special biscuit varieties are possible, see the section "variants".

After baking the Einback is sliced ​​and roasted at low heat in the oven, making it darker stains, dries and is crispy - the result is rusks. When the biscuits to be sold fresh, he gets to keep a relatively high residual moisture and still be soft to the core. Should he, however, be for storable duration pastries, so he still needs to be further dried to reduce the water content to less than 10% in the oven or in the drying chamber. The crumb is characterized by continuous crisp. Before roasting can be the Einback with a support, for example from Makronenmasse sprinkle or glaze. Other coatings ( for example with chocolate ), however, only take place after roasting.

Rusk is basically a long shelf life, but prone to absorb moisture and thereby lose its crispness and easier to destroy. There is also the risk that the fat becomes rancid by the influence of air and light. Therefore, the packaging for biscuits should be impermeable to water vapor, air and light.

Variants

Rusks, there have been numerous species of which are to be mentioned, for example:

Other variants are butter, eggs or whole grain crackers, for which the general provisions of the German Food Code, for the competition brief of these ingredients are relevant.