African sweet bread is a delightful treat enjoyed across the continent in various forms. From the soft and fluffy Nigerian Agege bread to the sweet and chewy Ghanaian sugar bread, and the delectable East African Mandazi, there's a unique flavor for every palate. This article explores these popular breads, providing recipes and insights into their cultural significance.
Nigerian Agege Bread
Nigerian Agege bread is a popular type of Nigerian bread that is loved by many. This African bread can be eaten with Akara, moin moin, stew, on its own or while warm spread butter on top...oh la la! Agege bread is a sweet, soft, buttery yeast bread that I personally find irresistible at any time of day. This popular treat is a staple in many Nigerian households because of its unmistakable taste and texture, and how versatile it is.
Agege bread history actually begins with a Jamaican immigrant to Nigeria named Amos Shackleford. Shackleford came to be known as the "Bread King of Nigeria" after inventing the dough break, which created the super fluffy texture we know and love. This bread is mostly produced commercially so it's highly standardized. The bakery loaves are commonly baked in rectangular lidded pans so they are nearly flat on all sides. In addition to a distinctive shape, the agege bread taste is also unmistakable.
Key characteristics of Agege Bread:
- Simple to Make: You won't need a bread machine or any special tools or technique to make this simple agege bread recipe.
- Classic Taste: Growing up in Houston, Texas, we called it "Nigerian bread" or simply "sweet bread." Because it is, indeed, sweet...and dense, and pillowy!
It's common knowledge that Agege bread contains additives like pottasium bromate and other chemicals to improve bread, and these additives are not particularly healthy. So what I have done is to replace these chemicals with natural bread improvers such as tangzhong and milk (tried, tested and trusted).
How to Make Tangzhong
Tangzhong is a paste made from flour and water that originates in China and helps give bread a super soft texture, higher rise, and allows it to keep longer.
Read also: Experience Fad's Fine African Cuisine
- Mix flour in water and stir well so you don’t have any lump.
- Cook on medium-low heat, stir consistently with a spoon or whisk to prevent the mixture from burning and sticking while you cook it.
- The mixture will become thicker and thicker. Once you notice lines start to appear in the mixture for every stir you make with the spoon the tangzhong is ready or if you have a thermometer use it to check the temperature. Once it’s 65 degrees it’s done.
- Remove it from heat. Pour this mixture into a bowl and cover with a cling film sticking onto the tangzhong. Leave to cool to room temperature.
Agege Bread Recipe
- In a mixing bowl mix the flour, salt and sugar.
- In a different bowl put the water, 1 teaspoon of sugar and yeast and whisk. Leave the mixture for 5-10 minutes till the yeast foams.
- In another bowl, whisk together the milk, tangzhong(all) and sunflower oil.
- Make a well in the center of the flour and add in the yeast mixture and milk mixture. Mix and knead until the dough comes together. Keep kneading until the dough is smooth.
- Note: The dough will be wet and sticky at first but when you knead and knead well it becomes elastic. When the dough is ready, you should be able to take a piece of it and stretch it to a very thin membrane before it breaks and the break should be from a circle (Window pane test).
- Knead the dough into a ball shape. Grease a bowl with oil, place dough into the greased bowl and cover with a wet towel. Leave the dough till it’s doubled in size. This takes about 50 minutes.
- Punch down the dough and put onto a flat floured surface and divide into 5 portions. Knead into balls. Cover with cling film and let it rest for 10 minutes.
- Shape and place each of the rolls into greased bread pan, cover with the wet towel and let them rise until double the size. This will take approximately another 50 minutes.
- Bake bread in pre heated oven and bake at 180 degrees Centigrade (370F) for 30 minutes. Preheat for 5 minutes. After the 1st 15minutes baste the bread with egg for a shiny glaze. You can skip this part if you wish.
Unlike many homemade breads this bread remains soft and fluffy for days not just when it's out of the oven!
Tips for Baking Agege Bread
- Bread Flour: Bread Flour has a higher protein content than all-purpose flour. This results in more structure in the bread, giving it a nice, chewy texture.
- Milk: Milk can be dairy milk or a plant-based milk like almond milk or oat milk. But I don't recommend buttermilk because of it's acidity which can throw off the chemistry in this recipe.
- Instant Yeast: Instant Yeast makes this recipe quicker with no activation required.
- Egg: Egg is optional for creating an egg wash on the bread as it bakes.
- Vegan Option: Yes, you can make vegan agege bread by using plant-based butter and milk in identical proportions to the written recipe!
How to store agege bread?Because of the tangzhong, this bread will stay fresh at room temperature for up to five days. Beyond that, I recommend refrigerating in an airtight container up to three more days.
Can I freeze agege bread?Yes, you can freeze it. I recommend separating the sections or slicing the bread and wrapping each piece in aluminum foil. Place the wrapped pieces in an airtight, freezer-safe container before freezing and they will keep for up to one month once frozen.
Agege bread pairs well with sweet, spicy, and savory flavors--it's a like a blank canvas.
Ghana Sugar Bread
Ghana Sugar Bread (or sweet bread) is a sweet dense and chewy textured bread commonly eaten in Ghana. Other West Africans eat similar versions of this bread as well (for instance agege bread in Nigeria), and the recipe that I am sharing is tweak-able to cater to your taste.
Read also: The Story Behind Cachapas
Ghana Sugar Bread (or sweet bread) is a sweet, dense and chewy textured bread with the most luxurious rolls that is commonly eaten in Ghana.
Striving to be half the baker my mom is, has become one of my greatest motivations. And I must confess those are some grand shoes to fill! Recently, I called up my mom and asked her for the secret to making Ghana Sugar Bread, and getting the perfect texture that for me was so illusive. The secret she shared with me, which I will be sharing with you guys is this: Use a dough conditioner!
Dough Conditioners
A dough conditioner is simply something added to bread dough to enhance the texture of the bread. For this sugar bread, my mum recommended scalded flour and ascorbic acid as dough conditioners to try. These natural dough enhancers elevate your bread from basic bread to the most luxurious textured bread rolls characteristic of Ghana sweet bread.
You prepare the scalded flour by simply cooking 1/4 cup of water with 3/4 cup of bread flour on low- medium heat until it looks like a thick custard. The color of the scalded flour mixture should turn from an opaque white to a translucent off-white color. This indicates that the starch granules have burst, and the flour is scalded.
The ascorbic acid is simply powdered vitamin c (167% worth) but be careful not to be too generous with it; a little goes a long way. Even when doubling the recipe, this is one ingredient I will not double. Sometimes in a pinch when I’ve run out of absorbic acid, I have used lemon juice as a substitute. Be careful when doing this though because it can affect both the texture and the flavor of the bread. If you use lemon juice, substitute 1/8 teaspoon of ascorbic acid with 1 teaspoon of lemon juice.
Read also: Techniques of African Jewellery
Ghana Sugar Bread Recipe
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| Bread Flour | 390 g (2 2/3 cups) |
| Sugar | 1/2 cup |
| Scalded Flour | 3/4 cup |
| Active Dry Yeast | 2 1/4 tsp (1 sachet) |
| Salt | 1 tsp |
| Ascorbic Acid | 1/8 tsp |
- Fill a small bowl with 1 cup of warm water (between 105°F- 115°F), sprinkle one tsp of sugar in the warm water and the yeast. Whisk the mixture till dissolved and set aside for 10 minutes.
- After 10 minutes, the yeast should be foamy and should have bubbled up; if this does not happen, then your yeast may be inactive. Dump that batch and try again with new yeast.
- In a mixing bowl, mix in the flour, sugar, salt and ascorbic acid. Add in the scalded flour and activated yeast.
- Knead the dough for 15 minutes. It should be smooth to touch after kneading and not sticky.
- Place the dough in a bowl that has been greased lightly with vegetable oil, cover, and allow to rise in a warm place till it doubles in size (usually about 1 hour).
- After the dough is doubled, tip it out of the bowl on a clean work surface, and knead for five minutes.
- Preheat an oven to 350°F.
- Divide the dough into 6 even balls and place in a baking pan covered with plastic wrap and allow it to rise until it has doubled in size.
- Bake the bread in the pre-heated oven for 30-35 minutes.
East African Mandazi
Mandazi is a sweet East African bread that puts donuts to shame, and it’s a dish that you can find in Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania (it also goes by the name mahamri).
Mandazi dough is traditionally leavened with yeast, kneaded with cardamom, and flavoured with coconut powder. Once the dough has risen, it’s rolled out and cut into triangle shapes, and then deep-fried in boiling oil until each piece is golden brown and crisp.
There are so many ways to eat mandazi. You can eat it freshly fried, and rip it open to let out the steam in the hollow middle. Or you can save it for a snack, and dunk it into some afternoon chai tea (an East African favourite). It’s also popular for breakfast, and it’s an ideal vessel for anything that’s cooked in sauce - like vyazi ya kanga (potatoes simmered in tomato sauce) or mbazi (pigeon peas in coconut).
Mandazi Recipe
Ingredients:
- 4 cups Flour
- ½ cup Coconut powder
- 1 cup Milk
- ½ cup Sugar
- 2 tbsp Vegetable oil
- ½ tsp Baking powder
- ¾ tsp Yeast
- 1 tbsp Cardamom
Directions:
- Preparing the Dough:
- Mix flour and dry yeast in a bowl.
- Add the remaining ingredients.
- If using a bread mixer, let the dough mix for at least 20 minutes.
- If using your hands, knead the dough well for about 20 minutes as well.
- The dough should be soft and just an itsy bit sticky (add more milk if necessary).
- Divide the dough and shape it into balls. Each ball should be about the size of your palm.
- Cover with a cloth and let it sit and rise for about an hour, or store the dough in a plastic container/cling film and refrigerate or freeze to use later.
- Cooking the Dough:
- Take a ball of dough, and sprinkle lightly with flour. This is to make sure the dough doesn’t stick to a surface when you’re rolling it out.
- Using a rolling pin, roll out the piece of dough into a flat circular shape. Roll it until the dough is about a millimetre thick.
- Slice the dough into 4 pieces, similarly to the way pizza is sliced.
- Now it’s time to fry the dough. Pour oil into a frying pan (the pan should be fairly deep) and set it to medium-high heat.
- Once the oil is hot, put the slices of dough into the oil. Let it simmer on each side for about a minute or so, turning the dough a total of three times.
- Once it’s golden brown and puffed up, take it out of the oil and serve.
