Given the cook-at-home nature of Spinneys and natural variations in ingredients, nutritional information is approximated."

Christmas cake rusks

American 30 Mins Prep · 60 Mins Cook

Preheat the oven to 180°C, gas mark 4. Grease and line a 40cm x 30cm baking tin with parchment paper. Set aside.
Melt the butter and sugar together in a large saucepan placed over a low heat. Stir until the sugar has dissolved. Remove from heat and set aside to cool. Once cool, whisk in the egg and buttermilk. Set aside.
Sift the flour, baking powder and spices together into a large bowl.
Zest the orange. Toast the pecans and almond flakes. Grate the marzipan.
Add the zest, toasted nuts, mixed peel, marzipan and crumbled Christmas cake or Christmas pudding to the flour mixture. Mix until well combined.
Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and add the buttermilk mixture. Stir until just combined.
Transfer the dough to the tin and bake until golden brown and a skewer inserted into the centre of the loaf comes out clean, approx. 30 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside to cool in the tin.
Remove the loaf from the tin. Using a serrated bread knife, slice the loaf into slices measuring approx. 7cm.
Arrange the slices on 1 or 2 baking trays and place them in the oven. Keeping the door ajar, set the temperature to 80˚C and leave the slices to dry out, approx. 6 hours or overnight.
Store the rusks in an airtight container for up to one month.