Mandazis are a delight in nearly every Kenyan home and is more commonly had with a hot beverage like tea. These East African doughnuts vary is size, shape and taste. Mandazis can be anywhere from vanilla flavored, to ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon and other warm spicy notes to citrus notes such as lemon and orange. Often times people confuse mandazi and mahamri. The difference between these two is the type of leavening used. Also, typically, mahamri uses coconut milk and cardamom and is usually eaten with mbaazi kwa nazi (pigeon peas in cococnut sauce). If you have been to the coast or a coastal restaurant you know of this delicacy.
When I went vegan, I knew I had to create the perfect vegan mandazi recipe that you can whip up pretty fast and with ingredients you'd find in any vegan kitchen. All that I needed was the perfect egg substitute cause milk substitutes are relatively easier to incorporate. At first i used banana as my egg sustitute but it didn't give mw what I was loking for -this is mainly because of the banana taste. For other egg subs they either also had a flavor/taste or just didn't work out. So I developed the eggiest flax egg recipe which is posted on my IGTV. If you haven't watched it, you might want to stop and pass by here and watch it as it is a key step in making these babies.
These mandazis that I'm about to share with you taste like warm hugs and childhood memories and you'd never guess they're vegan!
Before we start, kneading your dough well is very important for texture, softness and puffing up. For this recipe you know your dough is ready when it is soft, smooth and springs back when you poke it. Another way to make sure the mandazis will be soft and fluffy is to slice the dough with a sharp knife and look for air pockets like these
Prep Time: 15 mins | Rest Time: 1 hour | Cook Time 15 mins | Total Time: 1.5 hours | Yield: 30-40 mandazis depending on size.
Ingredients:
3 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp yeast
1 tsp baking powder
zest of one orange (the really orange ones, za super lol)
1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup luke warm soy milk (I used Nuziwa's unsweetened soy milk)
3 tsbsp oil
2 flax eggs (make flax egg)
Directions:
In a bowl, add your flour, yeast, and baking powder and give it a good mix.
In a separate bowl mix together the remaining ingredients.
Make a well/depression in the flour mixture and add the wet mixture bit by bit. Stir everything together using a wooden spoon, mwiko or your hand until it becomes difficult to stir.
Knead the now forming dough for about 10 mins until its soft, smooth and bounces back when you poke it. If your dough is too wet and soft add more flour (about 2 tbsps at a time), if it's too dry add more milk (about 2 tbsps at a time) To make sure your dough is ready to rest, slit it with a sharp knife and you should see air pockets like in the picture above. If it isn't there yet, keep at it.
Once your dough is ready, cover it with a kitchen towel and let it rest for an hour until it doubles in size.
Once it is well rested, punch down the dough and begin to roll the dough. Make sure your rolling surface is well dusted with flour and roll to about 1/2 inch thickness then cut desired shapes with a knife or cookie cutter.
Once youre nearly done cutting up the mandazi shapes, bring some oil to heat in a sufuria to deep fry the mandazis. Make sure your oil is hot enough before cooking them by putting a wooden spoon or skewer into the oil -bubbles will form around it if the oil is hot enough.
Drop the mandazis into the oil taking care not to overcrowd your pan. Once they begin to brown, turn them and let the other side cook until they're golden brown. Take themout of the oil and place them in a bowl lined with serviettes or recycled khaki packaging bags like that of the flour in order to drain excess oil.
Enjoy them with a hot beverage, some spicy beans or even soda like in high school if that's your jam hahahaha!
