BAHAMIAN Mango Duff

Hey guys, hope everyone is doing well! I have a wonderful and delicious recipe I want share with you! If you don’t know already, I run a home-based business along with my Hubs, Marquest, where we bake and deliver our signature pizza and vegetable patties, cakes,cupcakes, pastries, Bahamian Guava Duff and other delicious Bahamian homemade desserts and treats. It’s called, Taste Of Bahamas, formerly Latoya’s Loft. (This name still appears on our Facebook business page since we were unable to change it….oh well!)

Baking and cooking has to be in my blood! I grew up in my grandmother’s house, where every child learned how to help out in the kitchen, and full course meals were prepared to feed an already large extended family… plus the neighbors! 🙂 My maternal grandfather, who’s now 86, was an executive chef and taught me a few tricks up his sleeve. Even my mother, has unexpected house guests show up every time she’s making dinner and believe me, that’s nothing to sneeze at! And don’t let her be making her famous “guava duff” too. Yep, there’s just something about “duff”  (that delicious rum-sauced covered, cake-like boiled dough, swirled with guava or other desired fruit filling) that just makes us locals go bananas! Just like any other recipe, there are many variations, but fortunately for me, I learned from the best…. plus I decided to step it up a notch! 😉

So you all must be thinking, “is her post about this Guava Duff, she keeps mentioning or Mango Duff? I really wanted to show you how I make guava duff, but I just did not have any ripe, fresh guavas on hand (the best to use to make this dessert) so I promise to revisit this another day, hopefully real soon. Instead , this recipe is for Mango Duff. It is made exactly the same way, except for the preparation of the fruit. Like I mentioned earlier, the dough is somewhat cake like, made with basic ingredients like flour, sugar, butter, shortening, milk, eggs and baking powder. The proportions of each ingredient may vary per recipe, but I’ve formulated one that produces a dough that is soft and moist, once cooked, which is what most of us aim to achieve.

Rolled duff dough with mango filling.

Duff wrapped and covered in foil.

Unfortunately, I was unable to take photos of every stage, but once your dough is made, it’s really not that difficult. It’s just a matter of rolling your dough into a rectangle, spreading the fruit and rolling it up similar to how how you make cinnamon rolls….just without cutting it into pieces. Once you’ve rolled it up, you wrap and cover it with parchment and foil, place it in a large turkey sized oven bag that is tied securely, and carefully place it in boiling hot water to cook on both sides. Sounds easy huh? 😉

Duff wrapped, covered in foil and tied.

Duff boiling in hot water.

After the Duff is boiled, you remove it from the hot water, allow it to cool a bit before unwrapping and then slice and serve with an accompanying rum-flavored sweet sauce. (I’ve also provided the recipe for the sauce below)

Mango Duff cooling and ready to be sliced.

Mango Duff slices.

Hope you try this recipe out soon! You won’t regret it! Cheers! 🙂

• Servings: 10
• Time: 1hr 30mins
• Difficulty: intermediate
• Print

Author: Bettina Bullard

Ingredients:

For The Duff:

• 2 Med. hairless mangoes, thinly diced
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 oz unsalted butter, softened
•  2 oz shortening (I used crisco)
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 Teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3  Large egg whites (room temp.)
• 1 Large whole egg (room temp.)
• 3½ cups sifted all-purpose flour
• 4 Teaspoons baking powder
• 1 Teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cups milk

For The Mango Rum Sauce:

• 1 Large hairless mango, chopped and pureed
•  8 oz unsalted butter, softened
•  4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
• 3 Egg yolks + 2 whole eggs
• 1 Teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup dark or mango flavored rum

Directions:

1. Fill a large wide-bottomed pot or pan midway with hot water and allow to come to a boil on the stove. Turn off heat until ready to boil your dough.
2. Place the thinly diced flesh of the 2 large mangoes in a bowl, blend with the 1/4 cup of granulated sugar and refrigerate until ready to use.
3. Place the sifted flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl and set aside.
4. In a large Mixing bowl and using a wire whisk, cream together the softened butter, crisco and 1/3 cup sugar until smooth.
5. Next, add the egg whites, whole egg and vanilla extract and mix evenly.
6. Gradually stir in the flour into the mixture along with the milk until a soft dough begins to form.
7. Remove the dough from the whisk and continue to form the dough with clean, floured hands, adding more flour or milk until the dough is smooth and pliable. Allow to rest for about 5 minutes.
8. Using a floured rolling pin, gently roll the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, into a rectangle measuring 13″x 13″.
9. Remove the mango diced mango from the refrigerator and with a slotted spoon, apply the mangoes over the top of the dough, leaving about a ½” space from the edges.
10. Starting at the side closest to you tuck and carefully roll the dough, making sure the mangoes do not spill or push out of the sides.
11. On your last roll, tuck in the sides and pinch the seam firmly to seal.
12. Firmly wrap the dough into an appropriately sized  piece of parchment paper, allowing a small amount of space for the dough to swell, then cover in a piece of heavy duty foil. Make sure all ends are securely sealed.
13. Increase the heat under the hot water to high and allow to come to boil again.
14. Place the wrapped duff into a large, oven-proof turkey bag and roll until all air is removed. Immediately tie with a long string or zip-tie.
15. Once the water has returned to a boil, gently rest the dough flat into the water and with a long spoon, press the top of the duff until it sinks a bit.
16. 16. Set your oven timer and allow to boil for 30 minutes. Turn over carefully, using the string and boil for another 25-30 minutes on the other side.
17. While duff is still boiling, place the ingredients for the sauce in a stand mixer (or you can use a hand mixer) and mix on medium-high until the sauce is light and fluffy. Refrigerate until duff is ready to serve.
18. Once The duff has completed boiling, remove it from the water, being careful not to burn yourself. Untie the string and remove the duff from the turkey bag.(You may have to cut it open)
19. Allow to cool a bit before removing the foil and parchment.
20. 20. Serve the Duff slices while still warm and apply the sauce generously on top.

  Note: Recipe makes a small Duff, but can be doubled to make a larger size (cook time will increase by a half hour.)