Puff puff is a soft but crispy snack made of all-purpose wheat flour, sugar and yeast or baking powder. It is a regular street snack in West African countries like Nigeria, Sierra Leon, Ghana and Cameroon that can also be easily prepared at home.
This fried dough is more delicious when served warm just like Pancakes and doughnuts. it is deep-fried in vegetable oil until it turns golden brown and then eaten plain, with a fruit dip or beans. As a breakfast, it can be served with a hot or cold beverage like cocoa, yogurt, milkshakes or soy milk.
To make puff puff at home is not as complicated as you might think. All you need is to gather the main ingredients and other optional flavors or spices like nutmeg, vanilla and cinnamon, follow the recipe as would be shown below and you’ll make enough of the fried dough to feed an army…or just your family.
Main Ingredient for Puff Puff
750g all-purpose flour
80g Sugar
1 tablespoon instant yeast
60g Butter
A pinch of nutmeg/cinnamon
2 Eggs
1/2 level teaspoon salt
3 tablespoon (tbsp) dry milk
1 1/2 cup (350 ml) Warm water for mixing
Vegetable oil for frying
Recipe
Once you’ve gathered the ingredients, as shown above, you will need a deep fryer or just a deep frying pan or pot and a perforated frying spoon or a deep-fry skimmer. Then follow these procedures for preparation.
1. Mix the dry ingredients – flour, sugar, salt, nutmeg or cinnamon powder and dry milk.
2. Add the eggs and melted butter and mix together to form a dough.
3. Mix a half cup of warm water and yeast together until the yeast is properly dissolved.
4. Pour the yeast solution into the flour mixture and then pour the remaining one cup of water; cautiously in small quantity so that the dough doesn’t become too thick or too light.
5. Leave the dough in the bowl for about half an hour at room temperature.
6. Heat the vegetable oil Deep fry.
7. Using the puff puff dispenser or hand, gently scoop and drop balls of the dough into the hot oil and fry under medium heat until golden brown.
8. Fry in batches and remove once it is cooked and then serve.
Tips: To obtain a hard puff puff, you can reduce the eggs to just one or skip adding the eggs. Also, you can use warm liquid milk in place of water and dry milk.
