Puff Puff (West African doughnuts)

Serving Size: Depending on the size of your spoons or scoop, you’ll make about 35-40 balls

• Dissolve your yeast in the warm water.
• Mix together, flour, sugar, nutmeg, salt, and the water & yeast mixture with a wooden spoon until the batter is smooth. The consistency of your batter should be slightly thicker than pancake batter and you should have no lumps. You may need to add a bit more flour if you find that your batter is too liquidy but remember this is not meant to be as thick a bread dough either!
• Cover your batter with a clean kitchen towel and place it in a warm place to rise. It should double in size – this will take about 2-2.5 hours depending on how warm it is.
• Put vegetable oil in a pot deep enough for frying. Unless you are an expert I would suggest you only fry 2 or 3 at a time. I like to use a wok for this job. If you use too little oil you will have flatter puff puff but they’ll be tasty too.
• Take the temperature of your oil (if you own a thermometer) should be about 170ºC (338ºF) or test if the oil is hot enough by dropping a tiny bit of your batter in. If the batter rises to the top, your oil is hot enough.
• When the oil is hot enough, use a teaspoon or a tablespoon to scoop up the batter and a second spoon to push the batter into your hot oil. You are trying to achieve the shape of a ball.
• Fry for a few minutes until the bottom side is golden brown and then turn over (if you can) to fry the other side. Another technique I like to use is to bathe the dough with oil.
• Remove the puff puff from the oil unto a plate lined with a sheet of paper towel to absorb any excess oil.