We had an interesting Ask The Chef question submitted by a reader recently! Since it was related to baking and Chef John’s focus has been Culinary Arts, we offered to pose the question in the community for The Daily Meal‘s Culinary Content Network to see if one of our fellow members there could help out with this question.

One of the members put me in touch with a Pastry Chef she knows and we were able to get an answer that way …. oh, the power of networking!

The Ask The Chef Question

Hi Anne,

I was informed to contact you regarding a posting on the private Facebook page.

My original question was:

Hello,

I would like to know your thoughts on an idea of different flavored rusks. I would like to make 5 different cakes (carrot cake, choc chip cake, cookies and cream cake, red velvet cake and sponge cake), for me and my whole family. I would also like to make them in a way that we can store it away for months. Is it possible to make these rusks and are they safe to store for months?

Would it be possible to post this on the page and inform me on the feedback?

Thank you
Candice

 

The Answer

Hi Candace,

I have gotten an answer for you that comes not directly from a Culinary Content Network Member but through a connection of one of them. Betsy of Desserts Required graciously responded and said she really didn’t know much about rusks but knew of a Pastry Chef who may be able to help.

She introduced me to Jenny of Pastry Chef Online, who provided the following response to your question:

Since rusks are basically Biscotti, I would recommend actually just making Biscotti. I’m sure that there are recipes out there for carrot cake-type ones, and I know there are for chocolate chip.

I’d start with the chocolate chip ones-you won’t want (I don’t think) to use wet ingredients like shredded carrot as they wouldn’t dry all the way through. Maybe experiment with using a little cocoa powder and some powdered red food coloring for the red velvet…? I guess with cookies & cream you could fold crushed Oreos into the dough.

Here’s a Pinterest board for rusks: Rusk Biscuits

Might give some good ideas.

Jenni Field
Pastry Chef Online

Pinterest is one of my favorite places to go for food and recipe inspiration and ideas. I found a recipe for both carrot cake and cookies and cream Biscotti, which I pinned to our Treats Board here if you would like to check them out. If you are not familiar with Pinterest, it is searchable, so just enter whatever you are looking for into the search bar which you should see on Pinterest at the top left of your screen.

It sounds as though you are experimenting with this new idea and I am not sure what you had in mind regarding the different varieties, but if you planned on making them all at once you may want to try making just one at first or one at a time first to test out your recipe and ingredients before attempting making them all together. I am a very inexperienced baker but I have done enough baking to know that it is never a good idea for me to try something on a larger scale for the first time!

We hope this information is helpful for you! Would love for you to let us know how they turn out after you’re able to give it a try!

~Anne

About the Author

Adopted at age 2, grew up in the Charlotte, NC area. Obtained Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Appalachian State University. Loves being a Mom of two and taste-testing Chef John's culinary creations and sharing them with readers.

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