The glorious, delicious, tantalising and irresistible Nigerian Puff Puff. This recipe guarantees delicious puff puff, just like the street food sellers puff puff, if you’ve tried it you know that the taste is just...mwah! *Chefs kiss*
INGREDIENTS
3 cups plain flour
3/4 cup of caster sugar
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
350ml of warm water (1.5 cups)
1 packet of fast action dried yeast (this packet is 7g of dried yeast which is equivalent to 2 1/4 teaspoons )
METHOD
Start by mixing all the dry ingredients. So to the plain flour, add in the sugar, salt, nutmeg and the yeast. I am using a fast action dried yeast which you add straight into your mixture. This type of yeast does not need reactivating in warm water and sugar before use. However if you are using yeast that instructs on the package to reactivate in water before using then please do so.
Add in the warm water and mix very well.
Mix continuously until its well combined and smooth - the trick is to keep mixing until gluten is developed. The more you mix, the stronger the gluten becomes, and once the yeast ferments and releases gasses to expand the gluten, this is what gives the puff puff that lovely texture. So how I know that i’ve mixed enough is based on how my dough mixture looks, so I look out for a continuous flow with the dough that doesn’t break immediately.This should take about 3 minutes of continuous hand mixing. It does take a bit of effort but it really makes a difference!
Cover the mixing bowl with cling film and a tea towel and allow the dough to rise in a warm area for 1 hour.
After 1 hour your dough should have risen and doubled-in size.
Remove the cling-film and briefly fold just to knock a bit of those air bubbles out and we are ready to fry.
Add enough oil into a pot or a pan for deep frying, you can’t shallow frying puff puff, so make sure you choose a pot or pan that will allow this. Once the oil is hot you can start to fry thee puff puff - a trick to test if the oil is hot enough, is to take a little bit of the dough and add it into the oil, if it bounces back up in a few seconds and floats, you are ready to fry the puff puff.
I like to use my hands to shape the puff puff as it is quicker for me and creates perfectly round balls, but if you can’t use your hands just use a small spoon to scoop the dough and add it in the oil.
Using my hand: I scoop some of the dough into my hand, and then squeeze a bit out from my index finger and thumb while inverting my hand (so basically I just turn my hand upside down while squeezing the dough out)
FRYING TIP - ensure that your hob is not on the highest heat as this will cause the outside of the puff puff to brown too quickly and you could have raw uncooked dough inside. Also don’t have it on a very low heat as the puff puff will just soak up too much oil. So have it on a medium high heat. This will allow the puff to cook perfectly with a golden brown colour. Also make sure not to overcrowd the pan.
Once you finish scooping the dough into the oil, turn the balls, so all sides can brown nicely.
Fry until golden brown (for me on my hob and with the pan I used this took around 4 minutes)
Once done take out the golden puff puffs and drain on a paper towel to absorb any excess oil.
Now you’re ready to enjoy delicious golden brown, soft, light, irresistible and chewy puff puff. Make sure sure to eat it while its still warm.
Enjoy!
Here's a photo:
Watch the recipe tutorial | https://youtu.be/1FftbFeGm4E
#FoodandCowithIvonneAjayi #PuffPuff #NigerianPuffPuff #FoodBlog