Agege bread is a mainstay in Nigerian food. This popular, locally made bread is loved by Nigerians because it is ubiquitous and affordable.

The bread sellers, who are mostly young girls, can be seen walking around with a tray of bread loaves balanced on their heads. This bread business has changed a young girl’s life.

Agege bread seller turned model Olajumoke Orisaguna grass to grace story tells it all. Jumoke the bread seller has added limelight to this Nigerian bread by giving it more international recognition. We now have more agege bread documentaries especially after featuring on CNN and Huffington Post.

Agege Bread History

The bread is called Agege Bread because it originated from a place in Lagos called Agege. Every day in Lagos you see people hawking them from street to street especially in the morning.

Without any publicity or branding, agege bread has managed to maintain its popularity and demand as The Nº1 Nigerian bread.

Even though it gets a really bad rap for the poor conditions under which some of them are normally baked, it is still in high demand and accessible food items in the country.

Need I mention that people believe that the traditional Agege Bread mostly mass-produced in factories are made with additives like potassium bromate, dough improvers and preservatives such as (Edc 2000, E-281 &E-202).

Even with these entire claims, many still agree that Agege bread tastes better than sliced bread, with some even joking that the poor conditions contribute to its superior taste.

The softness, stretchy and chewy texture of agege bread is its most-loved features. People always target Agege bread sellers coming out of the bakery to buy it fresh from the oven.

Agege Bread can be paired with several staple Nigerian foods including Ewa Agoyin, bean cake (akara), moi-moi, pepper soup, spicy tomato sauce, and fried plantain, warm spread butter on top or beverage of choice.

The soft texture of the bread makes it easy to break and pull apart without needing a knife to slice it into small, or large, pieces.

Now, you don’t need to wait for bread sellers or go to the bakery yourself. Get into the kitchen and prepare yourself on how to make Agege bread at home.

Nigerian Agege Bread Recipe

Ingredients

550 g (3.6 cups) strong bread flour

3 and 1/8 teaspoon (8.8 g) active dry yeast

1 and 1/8 teaspoon (6.4 g) salt

50 gr Butter, at room temperature (cut into smaller pieces)

70 g (1/3 cup) sugar

130 ml milk

Tip for using milk:

– Milk is not added to agege bread, but since it is homemade bread, you can add a little to make the bread richer and softer.

80 ml lukewarm water

200 g tangzhong

How to Make Tangzhong

Tangzhong is an Asian method for making soft fluffy bread. It involves cooking a portion of the flour and liquid in the recipe in to a thick slurry sauce before adding the remaining ingredients.

50 g (1/3 cup) bread flour

250 ml (1 cup) water

Steps

Firstly, combine flour and water in a saucepan or small pot until smooth. Then, cook on medium heat, stirring steadily with a spatula or whisk to prevent burning. After some seconds, you will begin to see lots of small bubbles forming on the top of the roux Then, keep on stirring and when the bubbles disappear, you will see lines in the mixture, stop at this stage. In case you are using a thermometer, this should be about 150°F/65°C. Pour this mixture into a bowl and cover with a cling film sticking onto the tangzhong. Leave to cool to room temperature.

Directions for Bread/How to Prepare the Main Dough