naan bread
I bet I’m not the only one who loves naan bread! I often order one to accompany a curry when I go to an Indian restaurant. It’s one of my favourite things. Despite my love for it, for some reasons, I never attempted making one until now. I thought it was complicated and you needed a special oven. But apparently not so: you can use a normal oven at a very high temperature. A bit like what you would do for a pizza. So I had a go (being very interested in bread, as you know) at making some to accompany a vegetarian Indian dish called dal recommended to me by my son Tom (recipe to follow). The naan bread turned out just as it should be: lovely and fluffy on the inside and slightly crispy on the outside. Great! Definitely something I shall do again. By the way the recipe I used is by Madhur Jaffrey, slightly adapted.
INGREDIENTS (I halved them as I only wanted to make enough for two)
- 150ml warm Milk
- 2 tsp caster sugar
- 2 tsp dried active Yeast (I used the one you can mix straight with the flour)
- 450g plain flour
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1 tsp Baking powder
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil, plus a little extra
- 150ml natural Yogurt
- 1 large Eggs, lightly beaten
METHOD
Sift the flour, salt and baking powder into a large bowl. Add the sugar, the yeast , milk,vegetable oil the yogurt and egg. Mix and form a ball of dough.
Empty the ball of dough on to a clean surface and knead it for 10 minutes or more, until it is smooth and satiny (I used the kneading macjine). Form into a ball. Pour about 0.25 tsp oil into a large bowl and roll the ball of dough in it. Cover the bowl with a piece of cling film and set aside in a warm, draught-free place for an hour or until the dough has doubled in bulk.
Pre-heat your oven to the highest temperature. Put the heaviest baking tray you own to heat in the oven (or your pizza stone).
Punch down the dough and knead it again. Divide into 6 equal balls. Keep 5 of them covered while you work with the sixth. Roll this ball into a tear-shaped naan, about 25cm in length and about 13cm at its widest. Remove the hot baking tray from the oven and slap the naan on to it. Put it immediately into the oven for 3 minutes. It should puff up. Wrap the naan in a clean tea towel. Make all the naans this way and serve hot. The original recipe suggested grilling the top of the naan for a few seconds at the end but I didn’t think it was necessary.
Incredibile cara Lucina! Non immaginavo potessi osare cosi’ tanto……… Well done girl! 😉
Chi non risica non rosica mia cara Carmelita!!! Comunque la verità è ,come ho detto ,che non è difficile da fare. HONEST!
This is the recipe I use for Naan, so good! It freezes really well as well, just sprinkle with water and put under the grill for a minute or so after defrosting
I never have any left to freeze! He he
Finalmente ci abbiamo provato. Un solo problema: il mio vecchio forno Miele arriva solo a 200° e probabilmente è troppo poco, anche usanto la pietra più calda possibile. I naan rimangono un po’ palliducci anche se si gonfiano lo stesso. Se faccio cuocere di più si seccano tipo cracker. Abbiamo provato allora in padella, con una antiaderente dal fondo molto spesso facendola arroventare e usando un coperchio-campana per dare l’effetto forno. Sono venuti.