Naan Bread

If you know me, I am a giant carb sucker. I really can’t say no to any kind of carbs, rice, noodles, pasta, breads, you name it, I love it. I also have this passion for cooking. Except for growing my own rice, I have made pasta, baked my own breads, pizza dough and all. Today I tackled naan bread. I have to say this first, I really haven’t learned how to make naan bread from my Indian friends, so I can’t really claim this is authentic. If you have constructive criticism or suggestion, please leave a comment below or contact me, I’d love to hear from you.

It’s been a while since I used my trusty Kitchen Aid mixture. I immediately wondered how did I let this happen. Fast forward to after I tasted this naan bread, I told myself, this mixture is staying on my counter tonight, cause I am gonna make more tomorrow.

Here is how I made it:

Ingredients:

2 teaspoons of active dry yeast

1 teaspoon of sugar

1/2 cup of luke warm water

1/4 cup of vegetable oil

1 egg

1/3 cup of plain yogurt

3 cups of flour, may need up to 1/2 cup more depends on your location

1/2 teaspoon of salt

Tomorrow, I am going to throw in 1/4 cup of finely chopped green onion, and additional 1/4 cup of vegetable oil for brushing

I made 7 naan breads out of all the above today, but only the 5th one started staying on the plate. The first 4 never really made it to the plate for more than 1 minute. It’s not just me, I promise.

Method:

Add sugar and active dry yeast into luke warm water in a large bowl, mix and set aside. Attach dough hook on the mixer. Put about 2 1/2 cups of flour into mixer bowl, add in salt, turn on the mixer to combine flour and salt. Yeast does not like salt. Once the yeast water is bubbly, crack in the egg, add in oil and yogurt. Mix until it’s combined. Slowly add liquid mixture into flour mixture, with the mixer on low speed. My kids loved watching the dough come together and being pulled away from the sides of the bowl. This takes a few minutes. You can walk away, or clean up the yeast water bowl. If the dough seems too wet and the bottom of the mixing bowl never really gets clean, gradually add in some more flour. Don’t worry, the dough hook will be able to thoroughly mix the dough.

Once the dough ball is able to pull from the sides and bottom of the bowl, your dough is ready. Turn off the mixer, clean the dough off hook. quickly knead the dough on a lightly floured surface to shape a smooth ball. I threw mine back into the mixing bowl, covered the top of the bowl with a dry clean kitchen towel and left it next to the stove. I had something cooking at that time, so this is the warm place in my kitchen at that time. I moved on to play with the kids, clean up the kitchen, made iced tea, and who knows what else.. about an hour later, I came back to check on my dough, it puffed up and doubled in size. Kids went crazy wanting to punch the dough for me. The dough was soft but not sticky, exactly how I wanted it. I took the dough out kneaded it quickly on the lightly floured surface to shape it into a ball again.

Heat up a dry pan on the stove on medium heat. I teared off a piece of dough, about fist size. My daughter – my sous chef for the hour – was in charge of rolling the dough into about 1/2 inch disc. She also poked some dough, after it was rolled out, made her focaccia version.

Lay the flattened out dough into the center of the dry pan. You should hear instant sizzle from the pan. Leave the dough alone for a couple minutes. You will see some bubbles forming on the top of the dough, sort of like heating up a tortilla. Flip the dough when the bottom if golden and cook the other side. The bread will puff up a bit during the cooking process. This means the inside of the bread is soft and fluffy!

In a couple of minutes, the bread is ready to be plated. Like I said, the first 4 pieces were gone instantly. I didn’t get to try it till the 5th piece. Even though it was the first time I made it, and really effortlessly, my kids were impressed, so were my parents! I am making these again tomorrow with my awesome brisket. Can’t wait!