A recipe for puff puffs by Nadiya Hussain

13 March 2025 Ray Bonsall

For Ramadan we are sharing weekly meal inspiration from Nadiya Hussain’s new cookbook, Rooza, including this delightful recipe for Somalian puff puffs.

Nadiya Hussain’s new cookbook celebrates the cuisines of Islamic cultures across the world.

This week is inspired by Somalia as we share Hussain’s recipe for puff puffs, a traditional doughnut-like treat made from yeasted dough dropped into hot oil.

Hussain describes them as yummy, moreish and too-good-to-stop!

Ingredients:

Makes 25-30 puff puffs

For the batter:

600g plain flour

10g fast-action yeast 150g caster sugar

1⁄2 teaspoon salt

550ml lukewarm water

Oil for frying and greasing

For the chocolate sauce:

300g white chocolate

200ml double cream

1 tablespoon butter

4 cardamom pods, husks removed and seeds crushed to a fine powder

Method

Start by making the batter. Put the plain flour in a bowl with the yeast, caster sugar and salt and mix really well.

Pour in the lukewarm water and mix till you have a smooth batter and no spots of flour. Cover and set aside.

While that sits, let’s make the chocolate sauce by breaking up the chocolate into a jug. Put the double cream into a small pan and bring to the boil. As soon as it comes up to the boil, remove and pour straight on to the broken chocolate, leaving it to sit for 3 minutes.

Add the butter and cardamom powder and use a stick blender to make a smooth chocolate sauce. Set aside and get ready to start frying the puff puff.

Take a large pan and fill with oil about two-thirds of the way up. Heat the oil to 180°C. Have a tray lined with kitchen paper to absorb any excess oil and a slotted spoon at the ready.

The batter for the puff is really sticky and gloopy, so grease an ice cream scoop, pick up a scoop and drop it into the oil, greasing your scoop if and when it needs oiling. Keep doing this till you have fried them all.

Pop the puff puffs on to a serving platter and serve with the white chocolate sauce in the centre or drizzle all over.

If you liked this read A recipe for Maas Biran by Nadiya Hussain

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