Eggless Cranberry Almond Rusk

As I have mentioned earlier, we like to binge on dry fruits and nuts. Back home in India, cashews were my favorites. Recently, I got a bag of dry cranberries, which are also known as craisins. These deep red berries are great as a snack and add a lovely color to sweets.  You might have read about Cranberry White Chocolate Fudge. This weekend I baked a Fruit Cake and later Rusk or Milk Toast. 

Ingredients:
All Purpose Flour/Maida - 1 1/4 cups
Sweetened Condensed Milk - 1 cup
Yogurt/Curd/Dahi - 1/2 cup
Olive Oil - 1/4 cup
Dry Cranberries - 1/4 cup
Golden Raisins - 1/4 cup
Whole Almonds/Badam - 1/4 cup
Vanilla Extract - 2 tsp
Orange Zest (Peel) - 1 tsp
Baking Powder - 1/2 tsp
Baking Soda - 1/2 tsp

How to bake Dry Fruit Cake Biscotti:

• Roughly chop the dry fruits and nuts - cranberries, raisins and almonds. You can use any other dry fruits and nuts of your choice. Add 1 tsp all purpose flour to the chopped fruits and nuts, mix and keep it aside. This little trick won't let the dry fruits and nuts sink to the bottom of the cake.
• Preheat the oven at 350 degrees F. Grease a loaf pan with butter or cooking spray.
• First, dry ingredients in a bowl - all purpose flour (1 1/4 cups minus 1 tsp), baking powder and baking soda. Mix well.
• Next, wet ingredients. In a big mixing bowl, add condensed milk, vanilla extract, orange zest, yogurt and oil. Mix all the ingredients well. Add the dry ingredients, little at a time and mix well. Lastly, fold in the flour coated dry fruits and nuts.
• Pour the cake batter in the greased pan. Bake for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.  
• If yogurt is not available, use whole milk.  And if not olive oil, you could use coconut oil or any other oil or the good old butter.
• After the cake cools down, cut it into medium slices. Enjoy Fruits and Nuts Cake or make biscotti as I did.
• For biscotti, line a baking tray with parchment paper. Preheat the oven at 300 degrees F. Arrange the cake slices on the baking tray and bake for 10 - 20 minutes or until cake hardens into crisp biscotti. Flip the cake slices after every 5 minutes.

Munch on Fruit Cake Rusk anytime you like. I like mine dunked in a hot cuppa tea.