A Taste of Tanzania

Last night, I was invited to a meeting of a really great organization, Dining for Women. If you've never heard of them, check them out. Basically, it's groups of women all over the nation in small chapters that meet once a month for dinner. They learn about a charity and raise money for it. Each participant is encouraged to make a small donation, and often about 4,000-5,000 a month is raised from these dinner parties. The dinners are pot luck and each person is encouraged to make a dish from the area being supported. Last night, we learning about Nurturing Minds, a school in Tanzania that is looking to be self-sustaining and educates girls who have previously dropped out of school. Faced with the challenge of what to make from Tanzania (a place I know nothing about), I cam across this recipe.

Maandazi are east African donuts. They aren't nearly as sweet as donuts here. The best way I can describe them would be to say they are like the dough part of a funnel cake, with no powdered sugar (but better). They were a hit and something fun and different to make!

2 1/4 tsp dry yeast

1/2 cup warm water

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp ground Cardamom

3 cups all purpose flour

2-3 Tbsp extra sugar

3/4 cups coconut milk

1 Tbsp oil

oil for deep frying

Dissolve 1 tsp sugar in 1/2 cup warm water. Then, dissolve yeast in same mixture. Cover with plastic wrap until the yeast rises. Add into mixture the remaining sugar, oil, cardamom and 1/2 cup of the coconut milk. In a bowl, mix flour into yeast mixture. If the dough is too hard to handle, add remaining coconut milk, about 1 Tbsp at a time. If it is too soft, add more flour.

On a flat floured surface, continue to knead the dough for 10 minutes or until it becomes elastic. Move the dough to a clean lightly oiled bowl and cover with a clean cloth and let rise. Once it has doubled in size, knead the dough for an additional 2 minutes. With a rolling pin, roll the dough to about 1/2 cm thin. Use a round cookie cutter to cut the dough into circles. Deep fry in vegetable oil until golden brown.

These are more like bread than a donut. They have a faint sweetness to them. And it makes a TON-probably about 3 1/2 dozen. We are now enjoying some of the leftovers as a breakfast treat.