Homemade Naan

Or… Why Haven’t I Tried This Before!

Last night I took the rare opportunity of having a husband away to have a friend over for dinner.   It was a great opportunity to just have some girl talk, catch up a bit, and enjoy a dinner together.  My friend is a world traveler, and has spent several years living in South Africa, so when I asked what she was in the mood for, and her reply was “anything but chicken livers” I knew that I could dig into the recipe box and pull out my recipes for Indian.  It has been a while since I’ve been in the mood to make or eat Indian, but once it came to me, I couldn’t wait for it.

Funny sidestory.  I haven’t made Indian (as in, food from India) in a while because I could swear, the last time I made it Andy made a comment about having had enough Indian for a while.   So I backed off on it for a bit.  Well, he heard that I was making some Butter Chicken last night and was seriously in mourning because he wouldn’t be home for it!  No worries, today I’ll take some of the leftovers and freeze them for him for lunch one day next week.

Back to dinner.  I planned out my menu- which had to include Butter Chicken (although I did think more than twice about the Kofte), and decided that I would make a Lentil Dal for my side.  I had yogurt and cucumbers to make a Raita, and I had some homemade Cranberry Chutney on hand.  This was all good, and had me very excited for dinner.  But it was missing something.  It was missing a few slices of Naan- the popular flatbread that usually accompanies all these dishes.   This was not something that I could just pick up at my little local grocer.  It had to be picked up at the bigger grocery stores a bit of a drive away, and I really didn’t want to go out just to pick up some flat bread.   I determined that I was going to make some.

Good gravy, this was ridiculously easy to make.  So easy, I tell you!  So let me share what I did.

The first step was to take 2/3 cup of lukewarm milk, 1 teaspoon of sugar, and 1 teaspoon of yeast and combine them.  I mixed them up and then walked away for 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes had passed, I returned to my bowl and added 2 cups of flour, 1 teaspoon salt, 2 tablespoons of oil, and 2 tablespoons of plain yogurt.

All this mixed together easily, and then I turned it out onto a floured counter and kneaded it for 5 minutes.  It was a bit sticky- but I tried really hard to not add too much flour.  After five minutes, the dough went into a greased bowl to rise for 1 1/2 hours.  Timer set, I walked away.

When the timer went off, I dumped the dough back out onto my barely floured counter and began kneading again.  I kneaded for another five minutes.

Then, I took my ball of dough and cut it into six pieces. I set them on the floured counter, covered them with plastic wrap (loosely) and walked away for another 10 minutes.

MEANWHILE, I preheated the oven to 500ºF and set my flat pizza stone in the oven.  I also took some whole Indian spices and toasted them in a skillet.  After toasting, I ground them with some sea salt- I planned to use this to sprinkle the Naan with.  I also took 2 1/2 tablespoons of butter and melted it in the microwave.

*Note about the vegetable oil and butter.   Traditionally, Indian food would be made with Ghee- or clarified butter.  I decided not to clarify my butter, and instead used oil in the dough and melted butter for the baking process.  By all means, use the ghee if you have some or want to make it.

With my oven hot and ready, I took one dough ball at a time and rolled them out.

Once rolled, I picked up the dough and held it over my open hand.  I brushed the surface of the dough with the melted butter, and then gave it a sprinkle of my toasted spices.  This went butter side down onto my baking stone in the oven.  It started to sizzle right away.  I quickly buttered the top side and sprinkled with my spices.

I closed the oven and rolled out and prepped my second dough, and got that on the stone next to the first.  The surface of the first one was looking dry and cooked already, so I flipped it over and was greeted with a beautiful golden brown sight.

I shut the oven again and went to roll out the third dough.  By the time that one was ready, my first dough piece was golden on both sides and ready to come out.  Total, the Naan baked for maybe 4 minutes per piece.   Right away, I knew I made a grave error.  I only made one batch of dough.  😉

This Naan is absolutely delicious.  You certainly don’t need to use the spices if you don’t want, and honestly, this is so easy, and requires so little ingredients, I can also see utilizing this for many things!  The naan was sturdy enough, that with a little modification, I think this would make for an excellent mini pizza crust for lunches or something.

Of course, torn into pieces and used to soak up some amazing butter chicken juices and lentil dal is about my favorite thing in the world to eat.  Zander ate almost half the Naan by himself last night, so you know I’ll be making it again.

Naan

2/3 cup lukewarm milk (water can be substituted)

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon dry yeast

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

2 Tablespoons ghee (I used vegetable oil)

2 Tablespoons plain yogurt

3 Tablespoons ghee or melted butter

2 teaspoons ground Indian spices

Directions:

Combine the milk, sugar and yeast in a mixing bowl.  Mix together and then set aside for ten minutes.

Add the flour, salt, ghee (or oil) and yogurt and combine to form a sticky dough.  Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 5 minutes.  Add as little flour as possible.

Place the dough into a bowl which has been lightly greased.  Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for 1 1/2 hours.

Turn the dough out onto the floured surface and knead for another five minutes- again, adding as little flour as possible.  Divide the dough into six pieces.  Cover with plastic and let rest for 10 minutes.

Preheat an oven to 500ºF and place a baking sheet or pizza stone in the oven to heat as well. (Alternately, these can also be cooked stove top on a hot griddle or cast iron pan.)

Roll out one doughball at a time.  Brush with melted butter (or ghee) and sprinkle with spices, if using.  Place butter side down on the baking sheet.  Working quickly, brush the top of the dough with more butter and sprinkle with spices.  Close the oven and begin work on the next doughball.

The naan is cooked when it has golden brown freckles on both sides.  This should only take about 2 minutes per side.  Remove to a cooling rack to cool before serving.  Repeat the process with the remaining doughballs.