Nigerian Buns | Vegan, Egg-Free and Dairy-Free

Nigerian buns are crispy on the outside, soft and pillowy on the inside. Much like its deep-fried cousin Puff Puff, it's a popular snack and street food. The difference between the two is that while puff puff relies on yeast to rise, create air bubbles and puff up, buns tend to be slightly sturdier and are completely yeast free.

Nigerian buns are traditionally non-vegan because they contain eggs and sometimes butter and milk. This recipe calls for just 3 simple vegan ingredients and the results are beautiful. Comparable to yeast free doughnuts in terms of look and texture, quicker to make as you don't have to wait for yeast to do the work, and it's easy to play around with the flavour.

This 3-ingredient recipe provides you with a plain base to work with. To add some more excitement to your buns, you could choose to add a dash of nutmeg or cinnamon or chilli powder. You may wish to drench the crispy treats in melted chocolate, runny peanut butter or almond butter. You may wish to infuse it with desiccated coconut, raisins or chocolate chips. You're straying into non-traditional territory with these additions, but I certainly don't see why they wouldn't work.

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The 3 ingredients:
- Self-raising flour: I understand that this is harder to find outside of the UK, but this can be made at home and is essentially be a blend of all-purpose flour and baking powder as a raising agent. The simple formula is that for every 150g of plain or all-purpose flour, you add 2 teaspoons of baking powder.

- Sugar: I used ordinary caster sugar. Not the best nutrition-wise, but this treat doesn't pretend to be healthy. I haven't tried with sugar substitutes such as agave or maple syrup; I suspect that this would alter the texture slightly but I'd certainly encourage you to try it out and see for yourself.

- Soya yoghurt: plain and unsweetened, preferably. Coconut yoghurt and coconut cream could work too if you don't mind having a strong coconut flavour. In the absence of vegan yoghurt, I've used plant-based milks such as almond, soya and cashew milk.

Makes 12-15 mini buns:
- 8 heap tbsp self-raising flour
- 2 tbsp caster sugar
- 180g soya yoghurt (approx.)
- oil for frying

Method:
- Combine all the ingredients in a bowl to form a thick, sticky, gloopy batter. You may have to eye the yoghurt and add an extra tablespoon or two if your mixture is too dry.

- Heat some sunflower or vegetable oil in a small non-stick saucepan, enough to deep fry.

- Use a teaspoon to scoop rounds of the batter and drop into the hot oil. It will sink at first and then rise to float at the top of the oil. Repeat this to fry multiple at the same time. Keep moving the buns around so that they brown on all sides. Scoop out with a slotted spoon and place on some kitchen paper to drain excess oil. (Tip: before each scoop of batter, I dipped my spoon in a bit of oil. This provides a barrier that stops the batter from sticking to the spoon and makes it easier to drop into the hot oil)

To make larger buns, use a tablespoon to scoop the batter instead.


If you like this recipe, you'll also like:
- Puff Puff
- Banana Lime Fritters
- Akara (bean fritters)
- Plantain Mosa