Let's get a closer look shall we? No, it's not quite as nice as the naan you get in restaurants that are actually cooked in a clay oven, but I got pretty close didn't I?
Since naan is a leavened bread, make sure you allow for about 3 hours of rising time.
Naan (Indian Leavened Flatbread)
Adapted from Manjula's Kitchen (Watch her video. She's awesome.) I've increased the yogurt and yeast in her recipe just a tad to make the naan more leavened since I thought her version was a bit doughy.
For half a dozen naan, you'll need:
2 cups white all-purpose flour
3/4 cup lukewarm water
2 tblsp oil
3 tblsp yogurt
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp yeast
Optional: Ghee or melted butter for brushing on naan. Add minced garlic or cilantro to topping.
Dissolve 1 1/2 tsp yeast and 1 tsp sugar in 3/4 cup lukewarm water.
In a large mixing bowl, add 2 cups white all-purpose flour, 2 tblsp oil, 3 tblsp yogurt, 1 tsp salt, and 1/2 tsp baking soda. Slowly pour the yeasty water mixture into the flour. Lightly knead the dough into a ball like so. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and a towel on top and let rise for 3 hours or until doubled in size.
When the dough has sufficiently risen and you're ready to bake, preheat the oven to 500 degrees. Put a pizza stone in the oven to preheat. If you don't have one, substitute with a thick metal baking pan or oven-proof stoneware.
Flour your hands and divide the dough into 6 balls. On a heavily floured surface, you can roll the dough out with a rolling pin or stretch it out with your hands. I actually like naan with thicker and thinner parts so I just kept pressing on the dough with my palms and stretched it out with my hands.
Then, cooking three at a time, lay the naan on the pizza stone and bake for 3 to 5 minutes. Brush with ghee (Indian clarified butter) or regular melted butter before serving.
Enjoy!
My other Indian recipes:
Murgh Makhani (Indian Butter Chicken)
Purple Aloo Gobi (Indian Potatoes and Cauliflower)
*****
1 year ago today, Lien Hoa Chinese BBQ Food To-Go in Westminster is where I go for $1.50 quails.
Making you own naan sounds like fun.
ReplyDeleteThank you. Looks wonderful.
ReplyDeleteIf I was feeling lazy, do you think I could just add some Yogurt to Trader Joe's raw pizza dough?
Kevin,
ReplyDeleteNot nearly as fun as stepping on a plastic bag and making your own udon noodles. ;)
johta,
Doesn't hurt to try. But I think if you were using pre-made pizza dough, you can just keep keep the dough thicker and bake it. It's probably already similar to naan at that point?
hi there, I showed the hubby this recipe and from Manjula's Kitchen on Youtube we found out how to make chapati as well (err to be honest our nan bread didnt turn out quite right so we ended up making chapati). So here's a thank you from the hubby and me for the good link. :)
ReplyDeleteHedgehog,
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome. :)