Chin-chin is a beloved Nigerian snack! I have great memories of Christmas time and making chin-chin with the family to offer all the guests that come around the festive period. I saw chocolate and coconut chin-chin on Instagram recently, the foodie in me was absolutely curious. So I went into my test kitchen with my trusted chin-chin recipe and tweaked it to make delicious chocolate and coconut chin-chin. For the chocolate it was a simple swap of a portion of the flour for cocoa powder. The coconut chin-chin was more interesting, I used desiccated coconut, coconut milk and for good flavour, lime zest. A mouthful of all three flavours is pure magic!
Ingredients
- 350g all-purpose flour
- 1 egg
- 100g sugar
- 80g unsalted butter
- 2g or ½ teaspoon baking powder
- Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg.
- 60ml/¼ cup evaporated milk
- 4g or ½ teaspoon salt
- 320g all-purpose flour
- 30g cocoa powder (sifted)
- 1 egg
- 100g sugar
- 80g unsalted butter
- 2g or ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 60ml/¼ cup evaporated milk
- 4g or ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 320g all-purpose flour
- 60g unsweetened desiccated coconut
- 1 egg
- 100g sugar
- 80g unsalted butter
- 2g or ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 60ml/¼ cup coconut milk
- 4g or ½ teaspoon salt
- Zest of 1 lime.
Instructions
- Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl.
- Cut butter in small pieces and rub into the dry mix, till it resembles fine bread crumbles.
- Make a well in the dough and add the egg. Mix in till well incorporated. Then add the milk/liquid and mix till well combined and smooth. Do not overwork the dough, otherwise it gets tough. Wrap dough in cling film and allow to rest a few minutes in the fridge while making the other doughs.
- Flatten dough on a well-floured surface and roll out dough to desired thickness with a rolling pin. You can get really creative with the shapes. If you have a pasta roller, you can use it to make the thin ones. A pizza cutter can be very helpful while cutting chin-chin dough. A good old knife works every time too.
- When you cut chin-chin, place then on a lined and floured tray and dust the pieces with flour so they don’t stick to each other.
- Heat your frying oil to 190˚C, you can try a piece of dough to see if your oil is ready. If you have a deep fryer with clean oil, this is perfect and the temperature stays regulated for you.
- Fry till dough is golden brown, pay special attention to the chocolate chin-chin because it is already dark so as not to overcook it. Set on kitchen towels to take off some grease. It will seem soft at first but within a minute, you have that crunch you love.
- When cooled completely, store in airtight container.There are endless ways to enjoy your delicious chin-chin, I want to hear about it.
