Description
Nigerian buns, aka African doughnuts with pumpkin, are the easy pumpkin donut holes you need throughout the fall season! This Nigerian snack reminds me so much about growing up in Nigeria. The pumpkin puree adds unique fall flavors and turns them into healthier pumpkin donut holes. These are not your regular donut holes but healthier ones with less sugar and pumpkin purée.
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients:
- 3 cups of flour (plus more as needed)
- ½ cup of coconut sugar
- ¼ – ½ teaspoon of salt
- 2 teaspoons of baking powder
- ½ – 1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon pumpkin spice
Wet ingredients:
- ¾ cup of homemade fresh pumpkin puree (Canned pumpkin purée would work just fine)
- ¼ cup of sweet condensed milk.
- 2 eggs
- ¼ cup butter (melted)
Oil for Frying the Buns:
- Peanut oil (up to 2 – 3 cups) or any other type of oil for frying.
Optional Ingredients:
- 2 TBS sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Instructions
- Combine Dry Ingredients. Add all the dry ingredients into a bowl and combine.
- Mix Wet Ingredients. In a separate bowl, mix the wet ingredients with a whisk.
- Combine Dry and Wet Ingredients. Add the wet ingredients to dry; use your hands to combine until it forms a dough. Add extra flour if needed until it is no longer very sticky.
- Heat Oil. Set a pan on the stove, add frying oil, and allow to heat up.
- Mold dough. Use one tablespoon measure to scoop and mold the dough; if possible, scoop and mold all the dough before you start frying.
- Fry Nigerian buns. Start Frying the dough when the oil gets hot, not too hot, though, because then the dough would burn on the outside and still uncooked on the inside. Fry the dough until golden light brown on all sides (about 4-5 minutes on each side; insert a toothpick or skinny skewer, and if the dough is still raw inside, you see a raw dough pop out.)
- Cook in batches. Fry in batches, and do not overcrowd the pot. This recipe made about 30 pumpkin buns; the serving size is two buns (I ate up to 4 of these 😂). Serve with your favorite beverage or drink. I recommend my healthy pumpkin latte, Watermelon tea, or hot cocoa. Enjoy
- Make cinnamon sugar. Use the additional ingredients to make these buns even more flavorful! Combine the sugar and ground cinnamon, then sprinkle the mixture on the buns.
CHECK OUT THE VIDEO BELOW:
Notes
Add a pinch of salt if not using salted butter.
If the dough is trying to stick to your hands when you mold, dust your palms in flour to stop it from sticking.
Add more flour if needed until the dough isn’t too sticky to handle.
This would be a “light” dough; do not expect a rock-solid dough, lol.
Instead of using your hands to mold the dough, you can use a spoon and scoop the dough into the frying pan.
The amount of time you fry your dough will depend on how big or small your “mold” dough is. I used one tablespoon to scoop the dough.
I add up to ½ teaspoon of salt, but ¼ teaspoon would be perfect if you are on a low-sodium diet. Also, you may get away without using salt at all if using salted butter.
I made almost 30 small buns using this recipe. The number of buns you make will depend on how big or small they are.
If possible, mold all the buns before you start frying; that way, when you start frying, you just fry.🤣🙌🏾
If you do not want to use pumpkin puree, that’s ok, but this recipe may change slightly. I suggest you check out My Diaspora Kitchen Buns recipe here. She has a fantastic buns recipe that did not feature pumpkin purée.
Check out how I make my homemade puree recipe for pumpkin season recipes.
