This light and delicious sponge base can be baked as sponge cake layers, as cup cakes or cut into fingers and dried out to make low-fat rusks or biscotti-style biscuits. Add any typical ingredients to flavour the biscotti. A combination of 75 ml chopped pecan nuts or sunflower seeds and red cherries makes a delicious biscuit cum rusk.
2 large eggs
125 ml sugar
2 ml salt
2 ml vanilla essence
200 ml self-raising rice flour
50 ml oil
125 ml boiling water
100 ml flaked almonds, toasted and roughly chopped
- Preheat the oven to 180ºC. Grease a 28 x 20 cm ovenproof dish or a Swiss roll style tin well with non-stick cooking spray.
- Combine the eggs, sugar, salt and essence in a large mixing bowl with an electric hand mixer until pale yellow and spongy.
- Combine the rice flour and baking powder in a second mixing bowl and add it to the egg mixture. Mix only until combined.
- Add the oil and water and stir to make a runny batter.
- Pour the prepared batter into the prepared dish or tin and bake for about 20 minutes or until golden and firm to the touch.
- Set aside to cool in the tin before transferring it to a cutting board. Cut into fingers with a serrated or electric knife.
- Dry the rusks or biscotti out in the oven at 60 ºC for 3 to 4 hours. Set aside to cool and store in an airtight container.
Makes about 30 fingers.
Notes
You can also use 200 ml rice flour and 10 ml baking powder if you cannot find self-raising rice flour.
Recipe by Carolié de Koster.