Mandazi

Kenya Snack Food

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Here's a Mandazi recipe for a yummy Kenya snack food. It's an East African fried sweet dough flavoured with cardamom. These fried breads are popular in the Swahili areas of Tanzania as well, and are a traditional food of Kenya.

I first enjoyed this sweet treat that was served by our host in Garissa, Kenya, during our second mission trip in 2008.

We had it warm with a special spiced tea. We sat on the porch lazing away the sunny afternoon, enjoying the warm breeze and hours of good conversation as we got caught up on all the news of our friends in the village.

Here's the recipe:

Mandazi

Ingredients:

• 2 cups warm water
• 1 tsp dry yeast or 2 tsp baking powder
• 3 1/3 cups all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1/4 tsp each of cardamom, cinnamon, allspice and ginger
• 2 Tbsp butter
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 egg, slightly beaten
• pinch of salt
• oil for deep frying

Method:

• Mix the yeast with 1 Tbsp warm water.
• Combine the flour, baking powder (if using), sugar and spices together and add the yeast.
• In a separate bowl add the water, butter, milk and egg together.
• Gradually combine this mixture with the dry ingredients, stirring continually.
• Knead the dough until it is smooth and elastic like - usually takes about 20 minutes.
• Place the dough (if using yeast) is a clean, buttered bowl, and cover it with a cloth. Place in a warm area and let it rise until double in size - usually takes about 1 hour.
• If using baking powder and not yeast, just let the dough rest for a few minutes.
• Now divide the dough into several hand-sized pieces that you press into 1/2 inch thick circles. Cut these into quarters.
• If using the yeast method, these need to rise a second time, so lay the pieces onto a tray and again cover and place in warm area.
• Heat about 2 cups of oil in a deep sided frying pan. The oil is hot enough when a small tester piece of dough sizzles when it hits the oil.
• Fry the dough pieces in small batches of the hot oil until they are golden brown, turning as needed.
• Drain oil on paper towel and fry the next batch.

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