How to make Chin Chin for sale in Cameroon & Nigeria

Chin Chin is one of the popular home made Christmas snacks that is prepared in most homes in Cameroon (during/prior to Christmas) to be served to guests (mostly children who will come visiting) on Christmas day and on the 1st of January.

For those of you who are hearing about Chin Chin for the first time and are wondering, how does Cameroonian Chin Chin taste like???

Chin Chin is a sweet and crunchy fried snack with a nice flavour. The taste might slightly vary depending on the flavours added.

If you’ve celebrated 3 Christmas in Cameroon (and visited 1 or 2 homes), then the term Chin Chin, needs no introduction coupled with the fact that there are hundreds of people (professional Chin Chin sellers/hawkers) selling Chin Chin in our local markets (and along the streets) all year round (especially in the big cities of Cameroon).

Just like other Christian homes, the Ayuk Family also prepared this traditional Cameroonian Christmas snack as it has been the case for the past 30yrs.

In this article i will be sharing our Cameroonian Chin Chin Recipe with the world. In other words at the end of this article you will be able to make your own Christmas Chin Chin. And if you have also been wondering how to make
crunchy Chin Chin for sale in Cameroon, this article will be of great benefit to you.

Before we delve in to the topic, i will like to assure you that its very easy to make Chin Chin, this explains why, in Cameroon, 80% of the chin-chin on sale (in our local markets, roadside shops and around motor parks by street hawkers) are locally made. So you don’t need to be go to a cooking school to be able to make your own Christmas Chin Chin at home or hire a pastry chef to make Christmas Chin Chin for you. You can DO IT YOURSELF (with our DIY CAMEROONIAN CHIN CHIN RECIPE).

The ingredients for Chin Chin are pretty simple and readily available: wheat flour, butter, sugar, eggs, Peak milk, baking powder, Vanilla sugar, salt and nutmeg. And can be gotten from the stores in your neighborhood.

All ingredients are combined to form a dough which is then rolled out, cut into desired shapes then deep fried.

With our most complimented Cameroonian Chin Chin Recipe you will be able to make an irresistible Chin Chin that cause your guests to keep asking for more like Oliver Twist or wondering what made it taste so sweet, unique and different from the rest.

How much does it to make Chin Chin in Cameroon???

The cost of making Chin Chin varies depending on the quantity of Chin Chin you intend to make.

To make a large quantity of Chin Chin, you will need a large quantity of flour. More flour requires that you buy more quantities of the other essential Chin Chin ingredients i.e. if you intend to make a rich/quality Chin Chin.

It should be noted that what differentiates Christmas Chin from the commercial Chin Chin (available in our local markets, roadside shops and around motor parks) is quality (i.e. the adequate amount of rich ingredients that is used to make it).So when making your Christmas Chin Chin, always strive for quality and don’t minimize ingredients like most business pipo will do just to increase their profit.

Christmas Chin Chin, is richly made with all the necessary ingredients needed for making chin-chin and in adequate quantities … and should be sweet, soft  and crunchy. If your end product doesn’t meet aforementioned description after using my Cameroonian Chin Chin Recipe, then “there must be a mixed up somewhere”.

Below are estimates of the cost of making a quality Cameroonian Chin Chin

Cost of making Chin Chin in Cameroon with 500g of Flour – Will cost you at least 2500 frs CFA
With this quantity of Flour, you can make a quantity of top quality Chin Chin that can fill one and a half liter of container (supermont container). Good for people who want to make Christmas Chin Chin for personal consumption (one mouth only).

Cost of making Chin Chin in Cameroon with 2kg of Flour — Will cost you at least 4000 frs CFA. And with this quantity of Flour, you can make a quantity of top quality Chin Chin that can fill 3 and a half litre of container (supermont container). Good for people who want to make Christmas Chin Chin for a family of 3 (small family) and strictly for family consumption only excluding the guests.

In my opinion, the most adequate quantity of Flour to use in making your Christmas Chin Chin, should be 5kg of Flour i.e. you intend to make a quantity of rich Cameroonian Chin Chin, which your family and guests will eat to their satisfaction.

The cost of making Chin Chin in Cameroon with 5kg of Flour is 10000 frs maximum and this amount of flour produces a large quantity of Chin Chin…adequate for a large family or people who often receive lots of guests during Christmas.

How to get the Best Recipe for your Christmas Chin Chin

So to get the best recipe for your Christmas Chin Chin, when searching on Google, its good to mentioned the amount of flour you intend to use so as to get the correct chin chin ingredients and measurement.
For example, there are…

Chin Chin recipe for 500g of Flour
Chin Chin recipe for 2kg of Flour
Chin Chin Recipe for 3kg of Flour

In this article, i’m going to give you our Chin Chin Recipe for 5kg of Flour

Cameroonian Chin Chin Ingredients and their uses

To be able to make top quality soft and crunchy Cameroonian Chin Chin, you need to understand the individual uses of the cvarious Chin Chin ingredients.

Unlike other people, i won’t  give you the exact proportion/measurements of the Chin Chin ingredients.

With a basic knowledge of the uses of the Chin Chin ingredients you will be able to know the adequate measurement of each of the essential ingredients to be able to come up with a Chin Chin that is sweet and super crunchy (but not hard at all!) with whatever quantity of flour available at your disposal (be it 5kg or even 10kg).

Again, if something goes wrong ( Chin Chin is hard, crumbles in frying pan, oil is foamy), you will be able to diagnose what went wrong and correct your error when next you make another Chin Chin.

Below are the uses of the various Chin Chin ingredients;

1) Use of Wheat Flour in Cameroonian Chin Chin: Forms the dough and determines the quantity of Chin Chin.

2) Use of Sugar in Cameroonian Chin Chin: Gives Chin Chin its sweet yummy taste.

3) Use of Salt in Cameroonian Chin Chin: Helps to shape the sweetness of Chin Chin. Salt is used in Chin Chin for the same reason, it is used in Pancakes. It also responsible for the sour taste that remains in your mouth after eating Chin Chin. Salt also makes possible for the sugar to easily dissolve.

4) Use of butter in Cameroonian Chin: Makes Chin Chin soft and Crunchy. Be careful not to use too much butter. If not your chin chin is going to crumble (scatter while fryin).

Note: Do not use salted butter when making your Chin Chin. It might taste slightly more salty than the one with unsalted butter.

5) Use of Baking Powder in Cameroonian Chin Chin: Also help to make Chin Chin Crunchy.

It should be noted that butter is the core ingredient in Chin Chin which makes it soft and crunchy. In a situation where you have inadequate butter, you can add a sachet of baking powder in to the mixture to complements for the shortage, to ensure that your Chin Chin doesn’t come out hard.

I recently carried out an experiment; in which i made a dough without using baking powder and another one using baking powder. i realized that even without baking powder, Chin Chin still came out crispy.

Summarily you may decide to leave out baking powder, if the amount of butter in your Chin Chin mixture is sufficient. Adding baking powder when there is enough butter in the mix, may cause  chin chin to soak up some oil and become less crispy.

6) Use of Eggs in Chin Chin : Combines Flour with the other ingredients to form a dough; which is then rolled out, cut into desired shapes then deep fried. Eggs also ensures that your Chin Chin dough doesn’t scatter in a frying pan while frying. Hence without eggs, it will be impossible to form the dough as egg is like the glue in the Chin Chin mixture.

7) Use of Peak Milk in Cameroonian Chin Chin; gives a Cameroonian Chin Chin a milkish flavour and also adds to the sweetness of the Chin Chin. In Cameroon, one tin of Peak milk cost 500frs

5) Vanilla Sugar – Adds flavour to Chin Chin and a little sweetness. In Cameroon, a sachet of Vanilla sugar cost 300frs

7)  Groundnut Oil: Used to fry Chin Chin and for greasing your working surface or tray.

Other Essential Items for Making Cameroonian Chin Chin Include;

1) A Pot or Bowl for mixing your Chin Chin ingredients to form the Chin Chin dough

2) A working surface for kneading the dough

3) A pasta machine helps in rolling out the dough and shaping it (this is optional as you can still do it manually).

Ok, now that you are aware of the various Cameroonian Chin Chin ingredients and their uses, go to the market and purchase the various ingredients and let’s start making our Cameroonian Chin Chin.

However before we delve in to the main topic, its important to note that a well made Cameroonian Chin Chin or a good Cameroon Chin Chin  will enable you to produce a  Chin Chin which is sweet soft and crunchy.

Procedures to make Christmas Chin Chin in Cameroon (Cameroonian Chin Chin Recipe).

Making Chin Chin requires 7 easy steps:

1. In a big pot, mix together (butter, peak milk, small quantity of salt and adequate quantity of sugar) for about 5 minutes. The reason for mixing, is to completely dissolve the sugar and form a fine creamy solution.

There’s no need to beat the egg in a separate bowl before adding it in to the mix. Just break the egg in the mixing bowl or pot and let the yoke and white fall in your mixing bowl or pot.

2. After mixing for about 5 minutes add baking powder, vanilla sugar and freshly grated nutmeg and mix again.

3. Add the Flour in to the creamy solution you prepared in step 1 & 2 and mix to form a dough. Remember, when mixing, sprinkle a little bit of water to easily form the dough.

4. Transfer the dough onto a floured working surface and knead again for about 7 minutes.

5.To make the fryable Chin Chin dough/ snack, simply cut out a portion of the dough (about the size of a golf ball). and roll the gold size dough into about ⅛ inch thick using a wine or beer bottle.

6) Cut into 1-inch squares or strips (about 1 by 5 inch).

It should be noted that there are various shapes of Chin Chin snacks. Some shaped like small balls; others kneaded and cut into small 1 inch squares or strips (about 1 by 5 inch). You can shape your dough to suit the shape you like best.  I Prefer the small squared shaped size because it’s very easy to make and doesn’t consume too much time ( especially when you don’t have a pasta machine).

HOW TO CUT CHIN CHIN (Tools for cutting Chin Chin in to attractive shapes without stress). Good for people who intend to make Chin for Sale in Cameroon.

Cutting your Chin Chin dough in to fryable sizes can be very stressful especially when you have a very large dough and have no helpers. The following tools will make the dough shaping or cutting process, a piece of cake (easy peasy).

If you intend to start a Chin Chin business in Cameroon in 2021, i strongly suggest you buy the recommended Chin Chin making tools (machines) below.

All the recommended Cameroonian Chin Chin making tools are available on Amazon and its now possible to buy on Amazon from Cameroon (if you have a debit card or prepaid). Contact me via WhatsApp, if you need more info.

Top 3 must have Chin Chin making tools for making Chin Chin in a large scale

1. Use a pasta maker.

[wpsm_button color=”gold” size=”medium” link=”https://amzn.to/3ptClIs” icon=”none” class=”” target=”_blank” rel=”nofollow sponsored”]Buy on Amazon[/wpsm_button]

If there’s only one tool you need for making Chin Chin in your home or for commercial purpose, its the pasta maker (also used for making Chin Chin).

The pasta maker will enable you to easily shape your dough in to beautiful fryable strips of equal sizes.

And the Chin Chin strips produced by the Pasta Maker always come out crispy or crunchy in the mouth. This explains why its frequently used by the professional Chin Chin makers in Cameroon.

Below are samples of Chin Chin strips made with the Pasta maker.

Now if you can’t afford the pasta maker, no worries!  Keep reading for more suggestions.

2. Use a pizza cutter.

If you can’t afford the highly recommended, Pasta maker machine, you could equally use a pizza cutter.

I strongly recommend you buy the Kitchy Pizza Cutter Wheel.

[wpsm_button color=”gold” size=”medium” link=”https://amzn.to/3rAiDwl” icon=”none” class=”” target=”_blank” rel=”nofollow sponsored”]Buy on Amazon[/wpsm_button]

This Pizza Cutter is much easier to use in cutting the dough than a knife and will leave you shocked with how easy it is to get a nice, clean cut through your Chin Chin dough. One thing i love so much about the Kitchy Pizza Cutter Wheel is the fact that its super sharp and equipped with a protective blade cover which reduces the risk of you accidentally cutting yourself while cutting your Chin Chin.

Other interesting features of the Kitchy Pizza Cutter Wheel include:

***Has a nice professional look
***Round handle-less option saves drawer space
***Kitchy Pizza Cutter Wheel  has a nice grip which  makes this pizza cutter very easy to use/hold while you’re cutting  and fits in the palm of your hand.
***Easy to take apart and clean;The best thing is how easily it comes apart for a thorough cleaning. You can hand wash. It washes & dries well while it’s easy to put back together. It also nicely locks back into place.

*** The blade is of great quality. I don’t foresee any future rusty spots forming.

 

3. Use a knife.

If you are starting your  Chin Chin business with a very tight budget and can’t afford the two recommended tools, you could use your knife to cut beautiful Chin Chin as I do in this post. However this could be very stressful if you intend to make chin for commercial purpose (in a large scale).

4. Use your hands. You could just use your hands to form small balls out of the Chin Chin dough and deep fry.

5. Use cookie cutters. You could even use small cookie cutters to cut out your Chin Chin. This is going to result in fairly larger Chin Chin than usual but the slices will be pretty even and cute (depending on the shape you use).

How to Fry Chin Chin to get a Lightly Brown Colour like the Commercial Chin Chin

1. Heat up oil in a frying pot or pan. To know if your oil is ready to start frying, throw a small slice or 1 strip of chin chin dough in to the oil. If there are bubbles around it, then the oil is ready.
2. Put a small quantity of Chin Chin in to the oil. Do not overcrowd the frying pan (I have found after years and years of making Chin Chin that this leads to the oil foaming.)
3. After putting an adequate quantity of Chin Chin in to your frying pan, fry until lightly golden in colour. In other words, start removing your Chin Chin from the frying Pan as soon as it becomes lightly golden in colour.

Now your Chin is ready for consumption.

To get the whole Chin Chin experience, make sure you serve it with a cuppa something. It could be milk, juice or your favourite drink. Enjoy!

Like i mentioned earlier, Chin Chin makes great Christmas gift! I love giving out parcels or jars of Chin Chin at Christmas time.

Frequently asked Questions about Cameroonian Chin Chin Recipe

Difficulty i faced through out the process was the oil foaming during frying. please will be grateful if you can give me some knowledge on why it happens…

This is a commonly asked question about making Chin Chin.

About the oil foaming, it could be that your mixture is too rich in butter. Also don’t overcrowd the pan. Fry very little at a time. When the pan is overcrowded it must foam. Also start with clean oil. Used oil might make the chin chin foam quickly. Let me know how it.

Oil Forming when frying Chin Chin often occurs for two reasons;

• Mixture was too rich in butter that is what caused the chin chin to foam or
• You over crowded your frying pan with chin chin while frying (this is the main cause of oil forming while frying Chin Chin) and accounts for 98% of the oil forming cases.

Only fry a handful at a time. That helps to prevent the annoying foaming.

To stop your oil from foaming, follow these tips:

1. Do not overcrowd the frying pan. The key is do not overcrowd the frying pan when frying Chin Chin. Fry only a small quantity of Chin Chin at once.

For example, only fry 1 cup of Chin Chin at once if frying in a 12-14 inch wok. Only fry about half a cup of Chin Chin at once if using a smaller pot or pan.

Avoid the temptation of placing a huge quantity of Chin Chin into the pan at once. I have found after years and years of making Chin Chin that this leads to the oil foaming.

It takes more time to fry only a small quantity of Chin Chin at once but it is worth the wait!

You could be rolling out more dough and cutting on the side while gradually frying the already cut out dough. This is how I do it and it works well for me.

2. Follow the recipe. Also be sure to follow my recipe exactly as it is with the right measurement of ingredients. Do not eyeball anything.

If your ratio of ingredients is off, it might result in the oil foaming.

3. Don’t overfill the frying pan with oil. Another thing to note is do not overfill the frying pan with oil.

Allow at least 3 inches (7 centimeters) between the oil and the top  of the frying pot or pan.

This tip doesn’t directly prevent foaming per se but it prevents your oil from boiling over the frying pot of pan if that happens.

4. A little bit of foaming is normal. Lastly, note that a little bit of foaming is normal when frying Chin Chin. Even after you do everything right, your oil might still lightly foam especially after some frying sessions or if you are using previously used oil.

This is totally normal and that’s why it is important that you do not overfill your frying pot/pan with oil.

Where is foam in oil coming from???

Its coming from the butter in the dough. Foamy oil is bound to occur when the dough is rich in butter. So even if the oil is not overcrowded, you may likely experience this issue if your dough is also rich in butter.

Not sure of the shelf life of this particular recipe. aq How long would Chin Chin last with this exact recipe?

I can’t really tell the shelf life because it hardly lasts for long in my home. But if kept well in an airtight container or bag it could last for weeks or even months.

What is Chin Chin?
Chin Chin is a popular West African snack eaten in countries like Nigeria, Ghana, and Cameroon. It is called “Les Croquettes” in French.

What are the ingredients for making Cameroonian Chin Chin???

The ingredients for Chin Chin are pretty simple: flour, butter, sugar, eggs, milk, baking powder, salt and some sort of flavour.

All ingredients are combined to form a dough which is then rolled out, cut into desired shapes then deep fried.

What does Cameroonian Chin Chin taste like?
Chin Chin is sweet and crunchy. It tastes like fried cookies. The taste might slightly vary depends on the flavours added.

 Can I bake my Chin Chin instead of frying? will it come out nice?

You can definitely bake it. Arrange on a single layer and bake lightly.

How long do I leave my chin chin to harden before packaging it in a plastic container???

Allow it to cool completely before packaging. How fast it cools will depend on the temperature where you live.

My chin chin does not get hard. After frying it gets soggy even after following the menu. I cannot figure out why this is happening???

When Chin Chin gets soggy while frying, in pidgin we say that its drinking oil LOL. Chin Chin usually gets soggy while frying, when the heat under the frying pan is inadequate (not sufficient).

Next time increase the amount of heat and you won’t experience this issue.

My Chin Chin got too brown cuz, how can i prevent this????

To enable your Chin Chin to have the light brown color like the commercial Chin Chin, remove your Chin Chin from the frying Pan when it becomes light brown. Remove the oil from the fire before taking off the Chin Chin, to ensure that some of the Chin Chin doesn’t get browner in color before you completely take them off the frying pan.

To prevent your Chin Chin from getting too brown, its advisable to remove Chin Chin crumbs from your oil after frying about 3 badges of Chin Chin. I have noticed that Chin Chin gets brown easily or get burnt when there are tons of Chin Chin crumbs in the oil. So i often shifter my oil to get rid of the crumbs when there are too much crumbs in the oil.

Why is my Chin Chin hard (not crispy/crunchy)???

Like i mentioned earlier, butter and baking powder are responsible for the crunchiness in Chin Chin (with butter playing the key role). So if your Chin Chin was hard, the first question that you should ask yourself is, was my butter adequate???. I also mentioned that if you think butter is insufficient, you can add a sachet of baking powder to complement the shortage in butter to ensure that your Chin Chin shouldn’t come out hard.

Butter is the most sensitive ingredient in Chin Chin which must be present and in adequate proportion or else so many things will go wrong. If its too much, your Chin Chin may scatter while frying and when its inadequate, your Chin Chin may come out hard (if baking powder is absent).

Another reason why your Chin Chin was very hard is because of over heat/you left it in the fire for so long. Always remove your Chin Chin from the frying pan when it becomes light brown. And reduce the heat under the frying pan before taking off your Chin Chin Snacks.

Why is my Chin Chin scattering while frying???

How to get a golden color when frying Chin Chin –

Monitor flame/heat and remove Chin Chin from the frying Pan before its gets brown. Additionally, its adviseable to remove your frying pan from the heat source before removing your Chin Chin snack. This is to prevent some of the Chin Chin from getting browner before you completely take it off.

Why is my Chin Chin not Crunchy???

Like i mentioned earlier, butter and baking powder are responsible for the crunchiness in Chin Chin (with butter playing the key role). So if your Chin Chin was hard, the first question that you should ask yourself is, was my butter adequate???. If yes, did you use baking powder when making your Chin Chin???

Why is my oil foamy when frying my Chin Chin???

You over crowded your frying pan with chin chin while frying (this is the main cause of oil forming while frying Chin Chin) and accounts for 98% of the oil forming cases.

Like i mentioned earlier, do not overcrowd the frying pan. Fry only a small quantity of Chin Chin at once.

If you are in a haste or wish to fry more at a time, get a bigger frying pan.

How to preserve Chin Chin??? (Preservatives for Chin Chin)

You can make your Christmas Chin Chin last for months by storing them in air supermont plastic bottles or plastic juice. Plastic juice bottles are very common in most homes in Cameroon nowadays because most juice are sold in plastic bottles  (Planet and Bubble up juice bottles).

For example a sachet of airtight minimie Chin Chin can last for several months.

---

Ok we have come to the end of this article, i hope you were able to make your first badge of Chin Chin using our most complimented Cameroonian Chin Chin recipe.

Although the thought of making chin- chin dough can be a little intimidating, this recipe is surprisingly simple and straightforward.

Chin Chin is one of those things that has to be made for Christmas in my home. Growing up, we always made Chin Chin for Christmas. It is a Christmas tradition that has continued for years and years!