During my NYSC
(National Youth service Corps) service year in Makurdi, Benue state, I ate a
chin chin sold by one Oasis bakery that has remained ingrained in my
tastebuds.One of the things that stood out about the Chin chin was that it
contained sesame seeds. Shortly after, I tried making something similar but it
was an epic fail. Fastforward to early this month, I had some Kefir whose best-before date was fast approaching, as well as some leftover sesame seeds and decided to make a second attempt at
sesame chin chin. Replacing whole milk with Kefir in cakes was something I had
done a couple of times, thus I felt I could also work in Chin Chin. To be safe, I halved
my normal recipe in case the outcome turns out inedible.
Like I expected, the
outcome had a nice, nutty flavour which masked the buttery taste my baked chin
chin is known for. I don't think the kefir made any difference, but then,
replacing two items in a recipe means I wouldn't be able to determine which of
the items are responsible for the detected change in taste/texture. Would I try
this again? Certainly! But I may first try to make it with sesame alone as a new
ingredient.
Baked Chin Chin does glisten like fried ones, but it tastes equally as good
Find my recipe below:
Ingredients:
- 500g all purpose flour
- 200g salted butter
- 75g granulated sugar
- 50g sesame seeds
- 3g salt
- 100 ml Kefir
- 2 medium-sized eggs
- One teaspoon baking powder
- About half a teaspoon grated nutmeg
- One tablespoon vanilla extract
Steps:
- Mix all the dry ingredients together ( flour, nutmeg, salt, sugar, baking powder)
- Rub-in the butter until completely combined. Mixture would look crumbly
- Add the liquid ingredients (Kefir, egg) and mix until a solid dough is formed. Do not overmix or the resulting chin chin will be hard.
- Wrap dough in plastic foil and refridgerate for at least one hour (optional)
- Prepare a surface for rolling the dough and pour half the sesame on the surface
- Roll out dough on the seeds using a rolling pin, pour the reaming half of the seeds on the rolled dough and roll-in. Cut dought into desired shapes/sizes
- Place in baking pan lined with baking sheet
- Bake in a preheated oven at 175 degrees Celsius until the dough becomes brown (take about 25 to 35 minutes)
