Leaning Vegetarian

Posts Tagged ‘bread’

Naan is a flatbread that is delicious as a base for beans, sliced grilled meats, or vegetables (or Nutella, for that matter). I like gothicgirl’s recipe from the Fresh Loaf a lot.

It takes about three and a half hours from start to finish, but you only need to be present for about 20 minutes of mixing, 15 minutes of kneading/dividing, and 40 minutes of patting flat and baking (less time if you’ve got a big baking stone or a larger oven than I have so you can cook more than two at once).

Put the milk on the stove and heat it slowly to 110°F to scald it. I’ve also used the first appearance of small bubbles around the edge to know when it reaches this stage.

I understand that there’s an enzyme in milk that interferes with yeast development, and that scalding breaks it down. Someday I’ll look it up.

Dissolve the sugar in the milk and let it cool til just warm.

Mix the flour, yeast, and salt together.
Add the milk and mix – you’ll wind up with a stiff but sticky dough.

If you’ve got a mixer, do use it if you like – I don’t have one so all my recipes are kneaded by hand.

Turn it out onto a clean floured counter and knead for a few minutes until it’s quite smooth.  It’s sticky enough that a dough scraper is very handy.  I’ve made a homemade scraper by cutting down the top of a yogurt container to a rounded square; here I use a spatula which does the trick too. 

Put it back in the bowl to raise for a couple of hours. The original recipe calls for two hours; I’ve left it for three with no ill effects.

Turn it out and give it a couple quick kneads, and then divide it into 12 (if you like rounds you can fit in your hand) or fewer if you’d like something more pizza-sized.  Let these rest for 20 minutes or so while you heat the oven.

If you have a baking stone, you can cook these directly on the stone; I use two cast-iron pans, I suspect a sturdy baking sheet would work too but I’ve not tried it.  Turn the oven up very high – mine doesn’t go to 500°F, so I set it at its max – and put the pans in the oven to heat on the bottom rack.

Pat or roll each dough ball quite thin.

When the oven is heated, flip a naan onto the hot ungreased pan, close the door, and cook for about 2 minutes. Turn with tongs and cook another minute and a half. These should be browned a bit on both sides and quite puffy.  Take them out of the oven, and I like to run a stick of butter lightly over the top.

These are delicious warm but reheat well for 10 sec in the microwave. I can’t testify to how long they keep, since ours never make it more than 2 or 3 days for this dozen.

Next investigations: adding garlic or onion or sesame seeds.