Anise Rusks with Grape & Red Wine Sorbet
Makes approx. 16 rusk pieces & 4-6 portions of sorbet ANISE RUSKS
500g flour
20g fresh yeast 260ml lukewarm milk 50g sugar
50g soft butter
TOPPING
100g soft butter 80g sugar
3 tsp anise seeds
SORBET
5 tbsp lemon juice 150ml red wine (merlot) 150g sugar
1kg black grapes (muscat)
Place the flour in a bowl. Crumble the yeast and dissolve in lukewarm milk. Add to the flour with sugar, butter and a good pinch of salt. Knead with a hand mixer and dough hook until you get a smooth dough. Cover and leave to rest for 1 hour, until the dough has doubled in size.
Knead the dough vigorously once again. Grease a loaf tin (approx. 1L capacity, 30cm long) with butter and dust with flour. Place the dough into the tin. Cover and leave to rise for 30 minutes. Heat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan-forced). Brush with the remaining milk (1 tbsp). Bake the dough on the second from bottom shelf for approx. 1 hour. Allow to cool a little and then remove from the tin and leave to rest for 1 day.
The next day, pre-heat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan-forced). Cut the bread into 1cm thick slices and place side by side on a baking tray. Spread with butter evenly. Mix the sugar and anise seed. Sprinkle evenly onto the butter. Bake on the middle shelf for 20 minutes. Turn off the oven, keep the oven door closed and leave the rusks to dry in the oven heat for 1 more hour. Then remove and allow to cool. before serving with sorbet or storing, dry, in an airtight container.
To make the sorbet, pour the lemon juice, wine and sugar into a saucepan. Bring to the boil and simmer for 4 minutes. Pour into a bowl and allow to cool.
Rinse the grapes thoroughly and pat dry. Remove the stems. Puree briefly with a blender, you want the juice to come out, but the seeds should not be crushed too finely. Pass through a sieve and catch the juice. Take 500ml of the juice from the grapes and mix with the wine syrup. Allow to cool in the fridge for at least 1 hour.
Freeze the sorbet mixture with an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions. If you do not have one, place the mixture in a container in the freezer. During the first 2 hours, puree every 30 minutes with a hand-held blender until smooth. Afterwards, puree the mixture once every hour (approx. 4 hours) until the mixture has a smooth consistency and the sorbet is frozen. Serve with anise rusks.