Swahili sweet bread

These delicious, sweet, soft, breads are from West Africa and known in Swahili as Mandazi.

They are my husbands favourite, so after watching my mother in law make them a few times I gave it a go myself.

They are really easy, and can be used instead of naan breads with a curry based meal.

You will need:

2 cups of self raising flour 

3 quarters of a cup of caster sugar

1 teaspoon of yeast

1 teaspoon of cardamom powder

Half a cup of milk

Half a cup of luke warm water

Mix all the dry ingredients with an electric whisk.

Then add the water and milk to bring the dough together.

Once the dough has come together leave it to rest in a warm place for 2 hours.

This will make your Mandazi light and fluffy.

Once your dough has risen you will need to divide it into roughly 4 equal portions.

Cut the ball into 4 and shape them into balls.

Then you will need to divide each of the 4 balls into 2.

 This will give you 8 portions.

To make them into the the triangle shape 

use a rolling pin to flatten the dough ball, and then cut them into quarters.

Don't forget to flour the side so that the dough does not stick to the kitchen surface.

Continue to roll out and cut the dough balls untill you have used all of the dough.

These will need to be deep fried.

I put my electric cooker between 4 and 5 the top setting is 6.

Use a little piece of dough to test the oil, if it floats to the top after you drop it in your oil is hot enough.

Place the dough gently in to the hot oil, it will sink and then rise to the top.

Use a spoon to gentle splash the oil over the top this will puff out the bread.

When it turns golden brown flip it over and do the same on the other side.

It should take about 90 seconds to cook each one.

They shouldn't be greasy and have a similar texture of a doughnut.

Enjoy!