Bofrot (Ghanian Donuts)

Oh my goodness what a day I have had. I’m under the weather again, I’ve been battling the same cold and chest congestion off and on the last two months. It really puts a damper on my day and energy, but I’m not going to let that keep me down. I just worked my back-to-back 12 hr shift days and am now at the end of the first day of my three days off (hooray). I spent the day doing my favorite thing in the world: taking care of my love bucket Ava, who is a ball of energy, goes all day long, running, playing and barely napping (SMH). To put simply, Ava is not one of those children who likes to watch cartoons and take naps. Instead she likes to dance, jump around and live that carefree life.

Anyhow, in between playing and being mommy I somehow found time to make two meals today. First I made beef and soujouk nachos, and for anyone unfamiliar, soujouk is a Middle-Eastern fermented beef sausage. Then for dinner I made lemony yellow perch with maple sweet potatoes and sauteed kale. I will tell you now that yellow perch is not my favorite..to me it’s dry and too fishy, ick! But who knows, maybe I didn’t cook it properly. So I posted the nacho recipe directly on Instagram (see here), along with my delicious guacamole.

After all the playing, jumping and whining, little Ava has had her nightly bath and has finally fallen asleep in Mommy and Daddy’s bed–yes, I co-sleep. I know it’s bad and I should know better as a postpartum nurse, but believe me, it wasn’t something I planned to do but for one reason or another it happened and I totally don’t recommend it. It’s so hard to get a child out of your bed once you allow them in it. Definitely lesson learned for the next child I have.

Now with the little one asleep, I finally have a some time to myself to post a recipe. Honestly I have a lot of recipes that I haven’t posted yet, so I’m going to start things off with a special delicacy that is very near and dear to my heart. I know there’s a lot of families out there that refuse to share their recipes, but what good is it if you don’t share with the rest of the world?! Now as the title has already given away, these donuts are a deep fried heaven to me…yummy! This is a Ghanaian recipe that my mom taught me when I was young, and I’ve made just some slight modifications to it. Through and through it is her recipe and all credit is given to her–thanks mom 🙂 She has been making them ever since I can remember, and at one point in time even sold them to the general public. So by no means will I steal her thunder (haha).

As a child I loved having them for breakfast, immediately after they finished cooking. Though it wasn’t an everyday thing, I remember wanting it every time I could smell it. In Ghana it is common for street vendors, especially in the main city of Accra, to sell it along the sides of the roads, among other delicacies. Many African countries have their own variations and different names for them. For instance, Nigerians call them puff-puff and in the Congo it’s Mikate. In Ghana, Bofrot is made in the morning and immediately eaten for breakfast with “koko”, which happens to be fermented corn porridge. You may think yuck to fermented corn, but the porridge is sweetened with evaporated milk and sugar. By now you should know my favorite saying…”don’t knock it until you try it,” LOL. But I like to have my donuts anytime of the day sprinkled with powdered sugar. I’ve introduced Michael to them and he approves. Heads up, this recipe will be ready to fry after six hours since we are using rapid rise yeast. If you prefer, you can use active dry yeast, mix the dough late at night to rise, and be ready for frying in the morning. Though the recipe is pretty easy, the hardest part is dropping the dough in oil for frying, because you do have to drop it in a way to have a cohesive ball. However, if you don’t make them perfectly round it’s totally okay and will still turnout tasting great! And for one last tip, the donuts are most delicious to eat as soon as they cool or even the same day. Like any donut, after sitting for a day or longer they require a good 10 seconds in the microwave and will not have the same mouth-watering affect. So don’t delay any further, get on this recipe and fill that belly! Don’t forget to comment 🙂

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Bofrot (Ghanian Donuts)

Deep fried donut

Course

Appetizer, Dessert, Side Dish

Cuisine

African

Prep Time

20 min

Passive Time

3-4 hours or longer depending on warmth area

Servings

Donuts (each person may want 2-3)

Ingredients

• 6 cups all purpose flour Sifted
• 1.5 cups sugar
• 1 3/4 cup luke warm water
• 5 tbsp melted butter
• 1/2 cup evaporated milk You can use full fat coconut milk
• 1 Tbsp rapid rise yeast you can use 1 packet of active dry yeast if you let it sit overnight
• 2 tsp vanilla extract Add 1/2 tsp of almond extract (optional)
• 1.5 tsp cinnamon
• 1.5 tsp ground nutmeg
• 2 whole eggs
• 1/2 tsp salt
• Coconut or oil of choice for frying

Course Appetizer, Dessert, Side Dish Cuisine African Prep Time 20 min Passive Time 3-4 hours or longer depending on warmth area Servings Donuts (each person may want 2-3) Ingredients 6 cups all purpose flour Sifted 1.5 cups sugar 1 3/4 cup luke warm water 5 tbsp melted butter 1/2 cup evaporated milk You can use full fat coconut milk 1 Tbsp rapid rise yeast you can use 1 packet of active dry yeast if you let it sit overnight 2 tsp vanilla extract Add 1/2 tsp of almond extract (optional) 1.5 tsp cinnamon 1.5 tsp ground nutmeg 2 whole eggs 1/2 tsp salt Coconut or oil of choice for frying

Instructions

1. Dissolve sugar in the 1 and 1/4 cup of the luke warm water. Dissolve the yeast in 1/2 cup of warm water and 1 tbsp of sugar, set aside for 10 min , you will notice it get frothy.
2. In a large mixing bowl, add 6 cups of flour, then add salt cinnamon, nutmeg and mix dry with a spoon.
3. Add sugar and water mixture to flour, add eggs, vanilla, all of the butter, evaporated milk and yeast, using your hand mix well until smooth, you could also use a flat beater, or hand mixer. Do not over mix

   
4. You want the dough to be sticky but on the thicker side. Cover with plastic wrap or kitchen towel.

   
5. Place in warm place and let rise 3-4 hrs. I like to use my bread proof setting in my oven.

   
6. Once dough has risen to top of bowl depending on bowl size. In a deep medium non stick sauce pan heat oil on medium heat. To make sure oil is ready place a tiny piece of dough in oil, if it starts to float its ready.

   
7. Fry by taking about 1/4 cup into your hand forming into a ball with your hand and slowly dropping them in oil, place in as many as you can. Use a chopstick to turn them over, make sure not to burn, lower heat if you need to about 5 min, take one out and cut in the middle, if middle is not cooked, adjust cooking time or heat. Once they are ready too come out place on paper towel to soak up some of the oil. you can sprinkle on powdered sugar, or eat by itself or with coffee, tea, hot chocolate, and as we like it in ghana with ( hausa koko) which is a spicy corn porridge. Enjoy and let me know what you think. Thanks, this african

   
8. Optional, you can use 1 packet of active rise yeast. Mix dough at night, cover and let rise overnight to be fried early early morning. Use a large bowl in this case or it will overflow.

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