Interested in making puff puff? We’re not surprised! The soft, fluffy doughnut-like balls are a delicious treat as a dessert, savoury side dish or just on their own as a snack.

To make things easier, we’ve pulled together all the information you’ll need to make puff puff at home, including ingredients, preparation, cooking, storage, reheating and some delicious serving suggestions – with some helpful tips along the way…

Our recipe for making puff puff

Ingredients

· 250ml warm water

· 4g yeast

· 50g sugar

· 245g plain flour

· A pinch of salt

· 2 litres of vegetable oil for frying

Preparation

Start by combining 250ml warm water and 4g of yeast in a jug. Mix well then leave to stand for 10 minutes. The mix will be ready to use once the yeast starts to activate, creating bubbles.

In a large bowl, mix together your 50g sugar, 245g plain flour and a pinch of salt until fully combined.

Tip: You can save time by doing your water and yeast mixture first and weighing out your dry ingredients while waiting for it to bloom.

Once the yeast mixture is ready, slowly pour it into the dry ingredients in your large bowl. Mix for 5 minutes with a wooden spoon to ensure it’s thoroughly combined.

Cover with cling film or a damp tea towel and leave in a warm room for around 2 hours – or until the mixture has doubled in size.

Tip: Mixing all the dry ingredients together in the bowl before adding the wet stuff is very important, as it evenly disperses the raising agent (your yeast) into the mixture once added.

Cooking

First, heat your oil to 180°C.

Tip: If you don’t have a thermometer, you can test whether it’s hot enough by placing a wooden spoon in the oil. If it starts to sizzle almost instantly, the oil is ready.

Using a tablespoon or ice cream scoop, scoop the mixture and gently drop it into the oil to fry. Fry a maximum of 5/6 at a time, ensuring you don’t overcrowd the pan.

Cook for 5-6 minutes until the puff puff turns a rich, dark brown colour and have doubled in size.

Remove from the pan and place on a kitchen towel or clean, dry tea towel. This will absorb any excess oil to stop your puff puff from becoming greasy.

Tip: When frying puff puff, it’s best to use a slotted spoon or spider (see below). Why? It’s ideal for lifting and draining foods from hot oil, soups, stocks and boiler water. So, when deep-frying, you can lift your puff puff from the hot oil and let the excess drain through and return to the pan.

Item in picture - Spider utensil - photo taken by Ngwafu Tansie

Serving puff puff

When making puff puff, we recommend allowing them to cool slightly before serving. That allows them to finish cooking, which will continue for 2-3 minutes after being removed from the oil.

By doing so, you’ll make sure your puff puff are super-fluffy in the middle – not to mention avoiding burning your mouth!

In terms of how to eat your puff puff, the options are endless…

Savoury puff puff

In West African cuisine, puff puff is used as a bread equivalent, which can help you soak up all the flavours from a dish. If you want to go traditional, you can eat puff puff with a big pot of African beans, stew or soup. Or simply try them alongside any other of your favourite dishes to mix things up.

Sweet puff puff

Puff puff are equally mouth-watering as a dessert. Our favourites include melted chocolate and cinnamon sugar.

To make the cinnamon sugar yourself, combine 100g caster sugar with 2 tablespoons of ground cinnamon then mix well with a fork or small whisk to break up any clumps. You can store in any container with a tight-fitting lid and use throughout the next few months.

Or what about making chocolate puff puff? Simply swap out 20g of your plain flour for cocoa powder when mixing the dry ingredients, using the recipe above.

Storage after making puff puff

Once your puff puff is cooked and cooled for a couple of minutes, you can eat them straight away – and you’ll definitely want to. However, they can also be stored in a few different ways to eat at a later date:

· Puff puff is generally okay when kept ambient for 2 days in a cool, dry place. You’ll need to keep them in an airtight container or bag.

· If you would like to extend the shelf life a little longer, you can use the same airtight containers in the fridge for up to 4 days.

· Once cooled, you can also freeze your puff puff in an airtight container or bag. They can be kept frozen for up to 3 months. Any more than that, and they’ll start to absorb the excess water in the freezer, making them chewy once defrosted and reheated.

Reheating puff puff

Next, there’s the small matter of reheating your puff puff. If frozen, you’ll need to defrost them for 8-12 hours in the fridge or 2 hours at room temperature.

Here are our tried-and-tested methods for the best results when reheating…

Microwave

· If heating up to 6 puff puff – place them in a microwaveable bowl and heat for 30 seconds. Then allow them to cool down slightly before eating.

· If heating any more at once – heat for 30 seconds in the microwave, as above. Shake and move the puff puff around the plate or bowl and place back into the microwave for another 30 seconds. Take out of the microwave and allow them to cool down slightly before eating.

Oven

· Pre-heat your oven to 160°C or gas mark 3.

· Remove the puff puff from their container and place them on a baking tray.

· Pop them into the preheated oven for 4 minutes.

· Take out of the oven and shake them around a bit.

· Place back into the oven for another 2 minutes – you might need to add 1-2 minutes if you’re cooking more puff puff in the oven and the tray is a little more crowded.

· Remove from the oven and allow them to cool slightly before eating.

Share the results!

If you’re having a go at making puff puff yourself using our recipe and tips, we’d love to see the results. Send us a picture on Instagram or Facebook and let us know how they taste.

If you’ve got the taste for the delicious little fluffy balls, don’t forget you can order puff puff online too. At gwafuvegan, we have a range of flavours to choose from – all of which are completely vegan and hand-fried to perfection!

Making Puff Puff – A Beginner’s Guide