Zwieback substitute

Best substitute

Plain rusks, melba toast or Dutch beschuit

Use the same amount by weight as the zwieback you are replacing

Best for cheesecake and torte crumb bases

Close match

For a crumb base under a cheesecake or torte, plain rusks or melba toast are the closest match at 1:1, and British digestive biscuits are the best supermarket swap, also 1:1. Graham crackers work well but are sweeter and taste of honey and cinnamon, so cut the sugar in the base by about a third. For use as a binder in Frikadellen, meatballs or dumplings, ordinary dry breadcrumbs do the same job, though you need slightly less by volume because they pack more densely. Or make your own in half an hour: dry slices of plain white bread or brioche in a 150 C oven until they are crisp all the way through and just off-white, and you have Zwieback. Whichever you choose, keep hold of what the rusk is contributing, which is dry starch that soaks up butter or milk without turning to paste, a mild toasty sweetness, and enough rigidity to hold a crust together.

Other zwieback substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Digestive biscuits or wheatmeal biscuits
Close match
Use the same amount by weight
Lightly sweet wholemeal biscuits, the standard base for cheesecakes in Britain and Ireland.
What changes
Best for
cheesecake bases, torte and tart bases, no-bake fridge cakes, crumb toppings
Prep. Blitz to crumbs and use about a fifth less butter than the recipe specifies.
The most reliable off-the-shelf answer for anything sweet. Digestives are slightly sweeter than Zwieback and a good deal more wheaty and nutty, with a faint malty flavour and a little more fat built in. Two practical consequences: reduce the melted butter in the base by about a fifth, because the biscuits already carry fat and will otherwise make a greasy crust, and the finished base will be a shade darker and softer, with a sandy crumble rather than the drier, snappier bite Zwieback gives. In a cheesecake with a strong topping, nobody notices. They are not a good binder for meatballs, being too rich and too sweet.
3Graham crackers
Different taste
Use the same amount by weight, and reduce added sugar by about a third
Sweet American wholewheat crackers flavoured with honey and often cinnamon.
What changes
Best for
cheesecake bases, icebox cakes, tart shells, crumb toppings
Prep. Blitz to fine crumbs; taste the mixture before adding any of the recipe's sugar.
The default American swap, and it works, with one caveat worth taking seriously: graham crackers taste of honey and usually cinnamon, and they are noticeably sweeter than a plain rusk. In a German cheesecake or a Kaesekuchen base, where the point is a clean, neutral, faintly toasty crust under a delicate filling, that honey-and-spice note is loud and reads as American rather than German. Cut the sugar in the base by a third and skip any cinnamon the recipe adds separately. The texture is a good match, perhaps slightly softer and more crumbly. Do not use graham crackers as a binder in savoury dishes.
4Oven-dried white bread, brioche or challah
Close match
About 1.4 times the weight of fresh bread to get the weight of rusk called for
Ordinary bread sliced and slowly dried until crisp, which is exactly how Zwieback is made.
What changes
Best for
crumb bases, binding Frikadellen, meatballs and Koenigsberger Klopse, bread dumplings and Semmelknoedel, stuffings, coating schnitzel
Prep. Dry at 150 C until fully crisp and cool completely before crushing, or the crumbs will be gummy.
The purist's answer and genuinely the closest, because you are simply doing the second bake yourself. Slice bread about a centimetre thick, lay it on a rack or a tray, and bake at 150 C for twenty to thirty minutes, turning once, until the slices are dry right through to the middle and only just coloured. They must snap rather than bend, or the crumbs will stay chewy and a crumb base will not set. Use enriched bread such as brioche or challah if the recipe is sweet, plain white bread if it is savoury. The only real cost is time, and the fact that plain bread contains no sugar, so add a tablespoon or two per 200 g of crumbs for a dessert base.
5Vanilla wafers or plain sponge biscuits
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount by weight, and reduce added sugar by about half
Crisp, light, sweet biscuits with a pronounced vanilla flavour.
What changes
Best for
cheesecake bases, banana and cream pies, no-bake desserts, trifle-style layered puddings
Prep. Use about a quarter less butter than the recipe states and chill the base well before filling.
Fine for desserts, useless for anything savoury. Vanilla wafers are considerably sweeter than Zwieback and carry an unmistakable vanilla-and-butter perfume, so the base tastes like a biscuit rather than like toasted bread. They also contain more fat and sugar, which means the crust sets harder and can go slightly toffee-like at the edges, so use about a quarter less butter and press the base more lightly. Cut the recipe's sugar by half. They crush to a very fine, almost powdery crumb, which makes a smooth, dense base rather than a rustic one.
6Dry breadcrumbs or panko, for binding rather than for crusts
Different texture
About ¾ the volume of crushed Zwieback
Ready-made dried bread crumbs, fine or flaked.
What changes
Best for
Frikadellen and Buletten, meatballs and Koenigsberger Klopse, meatloaf, bread dumplings, stuffings and fillings
Prep. Soak in milk for five minutes, squeeze out the excess, then mix into the meat.
When Zwieback appears in a savoury German recipe it is almost always acting as a panade: you soak it in milk, squeeze it out and work it into minced meat, where it holds moisture and keeps the patties tender instead of tight. Ordinary dry breadcrumbs do that job perfectly. Two adjustments. Fine breadcrumbs pack down much more densely than crushed rusk, so measure about three quarters of the volume or you will make the mixture stiff and dry. And panko, being flaked and very absorbent, takes up more milk, so soak it in a little extra and give it five minutes. The finished Frikadelle is slightly denser and less airy with fine crumbs, and slightly lighter with panko. Use plain unseasoned crumbs, not the golden Italian-seasoned kind, which will make a German recipe taste of oregano.

What is Zwieback?

Zwieback is Zwieback is a twice-baked bread rusk, lightly sweetened and enriched, that is baked as a loaf, sliced and then dried in a slow oven until it is completely crisp and faintly golden.

Cooking tips

For a crumb base, the crumbs must be genuinely dry or the crust will never set. This is the whole reason recipes ask for a twice-baked rusk rather than fresh bread. If you are drying your own bread, cool the slices completely before crushing them, because warm bread still holds steam and the crumbs will clump. If a substitute biscuit feels at all soft in the packet, spread the crumbs on a tray and give them ten minutes at 150 C.
Adjust the butter to the fat already in your substitute. A standard crumb base is roughly 200 g of crumbs to 90 g of melted butter, and that ratio assumes a dry, lean rusk. Digestives, graham crackers and vanilla wafers all contain fat of their own, so drop the butter by a fifth to a quarter or the crust turns greasy and slides apart when sliced.
Watch the sugar twice. Zwieback is only faintly sweet, so if you swap in graham crackers or vanilla wafers you are adding sweetness the recipe did not plan for. Cut the sugar in the base itself, and if the filling was written to sit against a neutral crust, consider trimming a tablespoon there too. Tasting the crumb mixture with your finger before you press it into the tin takes five seconds and saves the dessert.
For Frikadellen and meatballs, soak the crumb and squeeze it. The point of the rusk is not to soak up meat juices but to arrive already full of milk, so it releases moisture into the meat as it cooks. Cover the crushed rusk or breadcrumbs with just enough milk, wait five minutes, then squeeze out the drips before mixing. Adding dry crumbs straight to minced meat gives you tight, dry patties, which is the single most common mistake in these recipes.
Store rusks and crumbs airtight and away from anything aromatic. Twice-baked bread is bone dry and behaves like a sponge for humidity and smells, so a half-open packet in a damp kitchen goes leathery within days. Crushed crumbs keep for a month in a sealed jar and freeze indefinitely.

Frequently asked questions

What is Zwieback, exactly?

It is bread baked twice, which is what the German name literally means. A lightly sweetened, slightly enriched dough is baked as a loaf, cooled, sliced, and then returned to a low oven until every trace of moisture has gone and the slices are crisp, pale gold and hard. That double bake makes it shelf-stable and gives it a clean toasty flavour and a very dry, absorbent crumb, which is exactly why German and Austrian recipes use it as a crumb base for cheesecakes and tortes and as a binder in minced meat dishes. Rusk is the correct English word for the same thing.

Are graham crackers a good substitute for Zwieback in a cheesecake base?

Yes, and it is the most common swap in American kitchens. The difference to plan for is flavour rather than texture: graham crackers are sweeter than Zwieback and taste distinctly of honey, and most brands include cinnamon. If the recipe is a German Kaesekuchen or a delicate cream torte, that sweetness and spice will sit on top of the filling rather than under it. Reduce the sugar in the base by about a third, leave out any extra cinnamon, and use the full amount of butter, since grahams are drier than digestives.

Can I just leave the Zwieback out?

In a crumb base, no, because it is the structure: there is nothing else holding the crust together. Use any dry biscuit or dried bread instead. In minced meat dishes such as Frikadellen or meatballs you can leave it out, and the result is still perfectly edible, but it will be noticeably firmer, denser and drier, because the soaked crumb was what kept the inside tender. If you want to skip it for dietary reasons, a couple of tablespoons of cooked rice, mashed potato, rolled oats soaked in milk, or almond flour will play the same role.

How do I make Zwieback at home?

Slice plain white bread, brioche or challah about a centimetre thick, lay the slices on a wire rack set over a baking tray, and bake at 150 C for twenty to thirty minutes, turning once, until they are dry right through and barely coloured. Let them cool completely; they should snap cleanly rather than bend. That is Zwieback, and it will keep for weeks in a sealed tin. Use enriched bread for dessert bases and plain bread for savoury dishes, and remember that homemade rusk from plain bread contains no sugar, so add a tablespoon or two per 200 g of crumbs if you are making a sweet crust.

How much Zwieback do I need for a cheesecake base?

Around 200 g of crumbs with 90 g of melted butter lines a 23 cm springform tin, which is roughly twelve to fourteen rusks depending on their size. If you weigh the crumbs rather than counting biscuits you can swap any of the substitutes above straight across. Press the mixture firmly into the base with the bottom of a glass, chill it for at least twenty minutes before filling, and blind-bake it for ten minutes at 175 C if the filling is wet, which stops the crust going soggy.

Related substitutes

More breadcrumbs substitutes

Zwieback substitute

Other zwieback substitutes

2Digestive biscuits or wheatmeal biscuits

3Graham crackers

4Oven-dried white bread, brioche or challah

5Vanilla wafers or plain sponge biscuits

6Dry breadcrumbs or panko, for binding rather than for crusts