How to Cook Mandazi Fast
Your family members are already fed up with boring everyday meals? You are planning a party and have no idea how to surprise your guests? The answer is obvious – crunchy Mandazi! Try this new Mandazi recipe, a delicious Kenyan desert. Your coffee time has never been so good.
If you have never heard about Mandazi, here’s a short definition and a bit of history. Mandazi or Swahili Bun is small fried bread popular mostly in East Africa, coastal Swahili part of our country and Tanzania. It is the main dish during the coffee breaks, tastes good with tea for breakfast and as a snack during main dishes. Frankly speaking, Mandazi is a great addition to any meal. Some people claim that African fried bread is somehow similar to the well-known American doughnuts. However, Mandazi buns are not that sweet and original Kenya Mandazi recipe doesn’t contain sugar glaze.
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So, how about a bite of soft Mandazi for dessert? Continue reading and you will find out the best Mandazi recipe.
First of all, you will need to prepare all the ingredients. For a standard African Mandazi recipe you will have to get:
- Two cups of warm water. Room temperature will be perfect.
- Two teaspoons of baking powder. If you don’t have one, you may use a teaspoon of dry yeast.
- Three and a half cups of ordinary white flour.
- A half cup of white sugar.
- A pinch of spice. You can use anything you want – cinnamon, ginger, cardamom etc. However, try not to go too far with spices.
- Two tablespoons of butter. If you don’t have butter, you may use margarine or even vegetable oil. They won’t ruin the original taste.
- Half a cup of warm milk. This ingredient is optional. If you or your family member is allergic to lactose, you are free to skip this ingredient.
- One egg. The egg has to be slightly beaten. It is also an optional ingredient.
- Some salt on the tip of the knife
- Some vegetable oil to add in the end to prevent burning
When all ingredients are prepared you may start cooking.
Step 1. If you have stored the Mandazi ingredients in the fridge, make sure they have warmed up to room temperature before doing anything. If you have chosen dry yeast instead of baking powder, you will have to mix it with two teaspoons of warm water.
Step 2. Pick up a capacious mixing bowl, where you will mix flour with the following ingredients - baking powder (prepared yeast, if you don’t have any powder), available spice and half cup sugar. Take another bowl and mix butter (or other chosen ingredient) with water, milk and eggs. Combine this mixture with flour. Don’t forget to knead the dough all the time to avoid clod formation. In case you don't use milk and eggs, add some more water. Continue kneading until the dough becomes sleek and stretchy. This process usually takes from ten to fifteen minutes. If you use baking powder you can leave the dough to rest for a couple of minutes. The situation is different with the dry yeast. In this case, you will need to place the dough in a a bowl, cover it with cloth and put in a dark place with room temperature.
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Step 3. Once the dough is ready, divide it into several small pieces. Take the dough pieces and transform them into small balls. Take a knife and cut the newly formed balls into halves.
Step 4. Warm a couple of cups of vegetable oil up to 350 degrees Fahrenheit in a metallic pot or a deep skillet. Place the dough halves into the oil and fry them until they become golden brown from both sides. Don’t forget to turn them from time to time. Pay attention, that you can only fry a couple of Mandazi at one time, otherwise they will stick together. Place the baked buns on a piece of paper to remove the excess oil.
Now that you know how to make Mandazi, you will always have a delicious dessert idea either for breakfast or coffee breaks. And the best thing is, that you can find numerous variations of soft Mandazi recipe. For example, add three tablespoons of dried coconut to the flour and enjoy delicious Mandazi with coconut taste. Experiment with your African Mandazi recipe and please your relatives with Swahili Bun.
Source: TUKO.co.ke
