Making
naan was a leap of faith. I've never had naan, or if
I have I don't recall it, but I remember a friend posting
about how good it was, and I found a recipe that looked
interesting, so... why not?
What you need:
4 cups of all-purpose flour 1 tsp
of baking powder 1/4 tsp of baking soda 1
teaspoon of salt 1 beaten egg 6 tbsp of room-temperature
plain yogurt 3 tablespoons of butter (or ghee,
if you have it) 1 cup of lukewarm milk a little
vegetable oil a little olive oil
(I tried making this dough with my bread machine,
and the result was utterly flat, dense slabs of bread.
I think the heating stage took all the rise out
of the baking powder & soda. So, I recommend making
this by hand.)
Mix the flour, baking soda & powder, and salt
in a bowl. Mix in the egg, yogurt, and butter or ghee.
Pour in 1/2 of the cup of milk and mix; add the rest,
a tablespoon at a time, until the mix balls up.
Put the doughball on a floured working surface and knead
it until it becomes smooth and elastic. If the dough
is too wet and sticky from overmilking, let it soak
up flour as you knead it until it reaches the proper
texture. Lightly
grease a bowl with the vegetable oil and roll the doughball
around in it until it is coated with oil, then put a
damp cloth on top and set it aside somewhere for two
hours.
Preheat your own to 400. Dump the dough out onto
a floured working surface and knead it for a few minutes
more. Tear it into eight pieces (or more or less, depending
on what size you want your units of naan to be), roll
them into balls, and then flatten them with a rolling
pin into tortilla-thin discs. Brush the dough discs lightly
on both sides
with olive oil and set them on a greased baking
sheet. Bake them for 6-10 minutes, until they get puffy
and start to brown on both sides.
Let cool, then serve. Feel free to tear them into
chunks rather than being all polite and using a bread
knife! If you refrigerate these they can get brittle;
microwaving them for 10-15 seconds will soften them
again.
I've also made these with bread flour and cooked
them for 20 minutes. The result, as shown in the second
picture, was thicker, chewier
flatbread that I wouldn't call authentic naan, but I
would call delicious.
Another variation is stuffed
naan, as shown at the right. Just roll out some
naan, put the filling on one half, then fold it over
- pressing down from the center out to avoid trapping
too much air inside - and seal the edges by pressing
them together firmly. So far I've tried shredded cheddar
cheese and brown sugar & raisins. The latter was
especially nice and desserty.
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