Mandazi — East African Cardamom Doughnuts
East African cardamom and coconut doughnuts, fried until puffed and golden — sold on every street corner and eaten with chai.
Method
- Whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, cardamom and salt together in a large bowl.
- Make a well in the centre, add the egg, coconut milk and melted butter, and bring the mixture together with your hands into a soft dough.
- Knead on a lightly floured surface for 5 to 6 minutes until smooth and elastic. The dough should be soft but not sticky; add flour a tablespoon at a time only if it clings to your hands.
- Cover with a cloth and rest for 1 hour at room temperature. Resting relaxes the gluten so the mandazi puff rather than tighten in the oil.
- Divide the dough into four balls. Roll each into a round about 1cm thick, then cut into quarters to make the traditional triangles.
- Heat the oil to 170°C in a deep pan. Test with a scrap of dough: it should sink briefly, then rise and sizzle steadily within 2 seconds.
- Fry 3 or 4 pieces at a time for 2 to 3 minutes, turning once, until deep golden and puffed. Keep the oil steady; too hot and they brown before the centre cooks, too cool and they soak up fat.
- Lift out with a slotted spoon and drain on a rack rather than paper so the crust stays crisp.
- Serve warm, dusted with a little sugar if you like, alongside Kenyan chai or spiced tea.
How to make Mandazi — East African Cardamom Doughnuts
Mandazi are the doughnuts of the Swahili coast: lightly sweet, perfumed with cardamom and often enriched with coconut milk. They are a street-corner breakfast, a school snack and the standard accompaniment to afternoon chai from Mombasa to Kampala.
Cardamom and coconut
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These two flavours define mandazi. Freshly ground cardamom is markedly more fragrant than pre-ground, and coconut milk gives both richness and a tender crumb. Some recipes add a little grated nutmeg or lemon zest alongside.
Rest the dough
An hour of resting is what lets mandazi puff into their characteristic hollow middle. Dough rolled and fried immediately tends to stay dense, because the gluten is still tight from kneading.
Oil temperature
170°C is the target. Mandazi fried too hot colour quickly and stay raw inside; fried too cool they absorb oil and turn heavy. Fry in small batches and let the oil recover between them.
Shapes and serving
Triangles are traditional, cut from a rolled round, though squares and circles are common too. They are best within a few hours, served plain, dusted with sugar, or split and filled with jam. Day-old mandazi are excellent dipped in tea.
Traditional Swahili coast cookery, eaten across Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda at breakfast and with afternoon tea. Editorially researched from widely documented preparations, and not kitchen-tested by Axadle.
Contains gluten from wheat flour and egg. Made with coconut milk it is dairy-free; versions using cow's milk contain dairy.
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