Naan is a popular Indian bread that is traditionally made in a hot ‘Tandoor’, an Indian clay oven. A Tandoor cooks food quickly, at very high temperature, which is impossible to achieve in a domestic oven. However, if you cook them on maximum heat that your oven can give or under a preheated grill, or on a pre-heated, heavy bottomed pan/tava, or on a Pizza stone, the results are pretty good. I tend to make them on an old, heavy bottomed frying pan these days, which has been pre-heated, not using the oven at all. I find that the pan cooked Naan are the softest.
Though an Indian bread, naans can also be used with non-Indian meals, like soups or dips. You can either cut up a large naan into strips or make very small naans. I often use a ready cooked Naan for a quick Pizza. Makes approximately 16.
Recipe revised March 2010
Ingredients
| • | For the dough |
| • | 3 cups or approximately 400 gm. plain white flour or maida. |
| • | 1 cup or 125 gm. strong flour (bread flour). If you don’t have it, use all plain flour. |
| • | 1/2 cup or 120 ml. ‘active’ natural yoghurt (dahi) |
| • | 1/2 cup or 120 ml. milk, hand warm (not hot)* (boil first and then cool-see notes below) |
| • | Just over 1/2 cup or 135 ml. hand warm water (not hot) * |
| • | (Total liquid 375 ml. approximately. You will need around 350-360 ml. of liquid. Make extra, because different flours need slightly different amounts of water) |
| • | 3-4 tbs. ghee or oil |
| • | 1 tsp. salt |
| • | 1 1/2 tsp. sugar* |
| • | 2 level tsp. or one 7 gm. sachet of Instant Active dry yeast*, roughly 1/2 tsp. per cup of flour. Use less yeast if you have more time for the dough to rise naturally. Make sure that the packet is fresh. Once it is opened, the leftover yeast will last for |
| • | For cooking |
| • | 1/2 cup flour for dusting during rolling out |
| • | 1 tbs. ghee (optional) |
| • | 2 tbs. poppy seeds (khus-khus) or sesame seeds (Til) or nigella seeds (kalonji/kalaunji) |
| • | *Instant Active Dry Yeast, does not need to be activated/proofed, it can be added directly to the flour. |
| • | *Active Dry Yeast has to be activated. Mix milk, water (warm to touch) & sugar in a jug. Sprinkle yeast & 2-3 tbs. of flour (from the measured amount) on top of the water & stir. Ignore lumps. Cover & keep aside at room temperature, until frothy. |
Instructions
| 1. | The Dough |
| 2. | Sift flour and salt in a bowl. |
| 3. | Mix milk, yoghurt, water, sugar and yeast in a jug. Unless using instant, active yeast, wait until it froths. |
| 4. | Make a well in the centre of the flour and add yoghurt, milk, water, yeast mix, a little at a time, to make a soft and pliable, bread like dough, using required amount of liquid from the warm milk-water-yeast mix. The dough must be soft to get soft naans. You should add a little water at a time, so that you don't end up with very runny and unmanageable dough either. Don't be afraid to add a little more or a little less water than a bread recipe states. I don’t knead the dough too much these days, just bring the flour together, using the Easy bread method. I find that it makes no difference in the long run. |
| 5. | Cover with an oiled cling film or a plastic shower cap and leave to 'mature' in a warm place/kitchen for 10 minutes. |
| 6. | Oil a work surface and your hands liberally with oil from the measured amount and lightly knead it for 20-30 seconds, until it looks smooth. Cover and leave for 10 minutes. |
| 7. | Oil the work surface and your hands again and lightly knead it for another 20-30 seconds. Cover and leave for 10 minutes. |
| 8. | Oil the work surface and your hands again and lightly knead it for another 20-30 seconds. |
| 9. | Cover and leave for 45- minutes to an hour or until it doubles in size. |
| 10. | Knock the dough down and knead it a little, making it into a smooth lump. Cover. It is read to make naans. |
| 11. | Rolling out Naans |
| 12. | Divide dough into 16 portions. Roll them into small balls. Keep covered with a moist cloth. I tend to make one ball at a time, while the previous naan is cooking. |
| 13. | Dust and roll the ball out into an oblong/large tear shape, approximately 20-22 cm. or 8-9 inches in length. Traditionally, naans are ‘tear’ shaped, with one end narrower than the other. This can be achieved by rolling down one end more than other. You can make them round too, that is also fine. |
| 14. | Sprinkle a few Nigella or sesame or poppy seeds on top. Press them in gently. |
| 15. | Cooking : Naans are traditionally cooked in a very hot Tandoor. At home, Indians often cook naans on an upturned wok, but I find that they cook okay in an ordinary frying pan/griddle or under a grill, or in an oven, just as long as they are hot and the naans cook quickly. Slow cooking makes them leathery. |
| 16. | Cooking naans on a griddle or a heavy bottomed pan or tava: |
| 17. | Place 1-2 naans on a heated griddle/pan. When a few blisters appear, turn over. After about 30-40 seconds, turn over again and gently coax them to balloon up by pressing with a kitchen towel. Cook until a few blisters appear on the other side too. See picture. You can turn them over a few times to get even cooking. |
| 18. | Cooking in an oven or under a grill: Heat grill to maximum and oven to around 300°C or the maximum you can get. Remember, a Tandoor is very, very hot! Leave the tray under the grill or inside the oven so it is really hot. Naans placed on a cold tray will stick and you will get stiff/hard/leathery naans! |
| 19. | When cooking under a grill or in an oven, roll out 3-4 naans at a time, as many as will fit on your oven tray easily. You can roll out the next batch of naans while the previous batch is baking. |
| 20. | Place 3-4 naans at a time on the pre-heated tray quickly, so it doesn’t cool down. Place the tray back in the oven/ under the grill. The naans will puff up fairly quickly. If cooking under a hot grill, you need to turn them over to cook the other side. When ready, they will have a few brown blisters scattered on each surface. |
| 21. | Cooking naans in a Tandoor Indian Oven |
| 22. | Heat Tandoor according to your instructions. |
| 23. | Roll Naan on a flat surface. Traditionally it is made by slapping the oiled dough ball between the palm, while rotating and stretching it at the same time. |
| 24. | Place it on a thick roll of cloth and pull one end down to give it a traditional, tear drop shape. |
| 25. | Slap it to the side of the oven wall and let it cook until it blisters will. |
| 26. | Take it off using a long, steel rod. It helps to have 2 rods, so you can catch the naan between the two and take it out without dropping it into the fire! Take care not to burn your hand. |
| 27. | Serve hot. |
| 28. | Whether you brush it with ghee or not, is your personal choice. I don’t. |
| 29. | Serve hot, with a curry/dal of choice. |
| 30. | Crisp and hot naans can be eaten with a little cheese and salad or served with soups. Tiny naans can be served with dips. |
| 31. | Variations: |
| 32. | Topping: Before cooking, you can sprinkle the top of the naan with a few 1) chopped, blanched almonds or 2) cumin seeds or 3) fennel seeds or 4) chopped green chillies or 5) broken up red chillies or 6) grated/chopped garlic and/or chopped coriander leaves and a drizzle of ghee or olive oil. Topping should be gently pressed into the naan with a rolling pin. |
| 33. | Stuffing options:; 1) Keema Nan, 2) Peshawari Nan, 3) Shredded tandoori or other cooked/leftover chicken. Add extra spices to the chicken, because it will be inside unspiced bread, 4) A teaspoon of cooked and spiced spinach/fenugreek leaves. Squeeze and dry the water out completely before stuffing. 5) Spiced mashed potatoes. See Aloo Paratha recipe. 6) Grated paneer cheese, mixed with spices. |
| 34. | Additions to the dough: 1) Chopped mint or 2) a mix of chopped onions, green chillies, ginger, garlic or 3) other herbs of choice. |
| 35. | Experiment with other fillings/toppings. To stuff a naan, roll out the ball, place a heaped teaspoon of the stuffing in the centre, pull edges in, to make a ball again. Continue as in plain naan. |
Notes
| • | I have made a few changes to this recipe as kindly suggested by the well known master baker Dan Lepard. 1. I have reduced the amount of yeast, “too much yeast can overwork the dough and cause it to become heavy”. 2. I have added a little strong flour (bread flour), which “gives more manageable dough”. 3. He also suggested I increase the water, “which makes the dough lighter, as it expands in the heat and the steam bubbles add to the aeration in the crumb”. 4. Boil the milk and cool it before using it to make dough because “raw milk can make dough tough. Boiling and cooling the milk destroys a dairy protein called casein and makes the bread much lighter. Using dried milk has the same effect as it has been cooked first.” 5. Cooking suggestion from Dan Lepard: “The shape of a Tandoor probably keeps the heat moist and slows the moisture loss from the dough as it is baked upright stuck on the oven wall (so the steam will travel through the length of the dough, rather than flat. I bake mine in a wok with a lid, sat over a moderate heat on the hob, and this (I think) helps produce a very light naan”. My thanks to you Dan-Mamta. |
| • | Kalonji (nigella/onion seeds), can be spelled as Kalowunji on some packets. |
| • | Note from reader Surfing69; Different flours will have different adsorption characteristics and will require more or less water. For a particular recipe the variation in water will probably vary +/- 2 to 4 parts to every 100 parts flour. High gluten flours normally require more water as the proteins would need more water to fully hydrate. Also the optimum amount of water to flour sits on a knife edge. Some European bakers deliberately use more water in order to produce more of a random internal structure. |