A lot of trial and error has gone into making naan breads at our place. Salt quantity, rising time, trying to figure out how to cook naan bread in an Australian kitchen…
We have tried two ways to date, cooking under the oven grill and cooking on the grill on the BBQ. Both ways work quite well, resulting in a nice, soft bread which is slightly crunchy on the outside. It’s served with a small amount of butter rubbed on top, which melts into the bread.
It is just fantastic with all the curries we make, so get in there, tear a bit off, use it to grab some curry (with rice if you like) and enjoy yourself!
Naan Bread
Recipe adapted from VahRehVah
Makes: 6
3 cups plain flour
1 teaspoon dry yeast
1 cup warm water
1 teaspoon oil
3 teaspoons salt
½ teaspoon sugar
¼ cup milk (approximately)
Add warm water into the dry yeast and sugar, set aside to allow yeast to be activated.
Sieve flour and salt in a medium bowl. Add oil to water and yeast mixture and mix well, then add to the flour, mix and add milk to make a soft, sticky dough. Use a bit of oil on your hand if it starts to stick. Lightly flour a clean bench. Knead the dough until smooth. Break dough into six portions and knead lightly. (You can let it stand for a while to prove if you like, although we found it didn’t make much difference to the overall texture).
Heat the grill on very high (approximately 220°C). Stretch each ball into a naan shaped piece of dough (roughly 20-30cm long and 10-15cm across). Place two naan on the grilling tray and cook, watching constantly to make sure it doesn’t burn, and turn when the naan has browned in patches.
Brush some butter on top of the naan and serve with curries.
Well done Anita. I can’t believe all the amazing things you whip up in your kitchen. I’ve never made naan before even though I LOVE Indian food. You’ve inspired me! 🙂
Great recipe and the idea of cooking it on the oven bars to simulate a Tandoor oven is clever, I shall give this a go.
That looks wondeful Anita! Just like a restaurant naan which I admit I love but have never had the guts to make myself. Thanks for the step by step-that will help enormously knowing what teh dough should look like! 🙂
It’s great that you don’t have to wait around for them to rise. They’ve turned out well too – nice and puffy, and the buttery glaze looks good.
Hi Anita, I’m passing on the Kreativ Blogger Award to you and your lovely blog 🙂 Check it out on my blog
My hubby’s aunt makes the best naans but she usually adds an egg. I’ve bookmarked your recipe since my sister-in-law is allergic to eggs.
It looks wonderful. I prefer naans and parathas to rice, but have never tried making them myself.
j
Hey Anita, Naan looks perfect dear!
Love this recipe – I love making any kind of bread at home – most recently whole wheat pitas which were so easy to make!
I’ll have to put your naan on my list of things to try!
Awesome! I never knew that naan can be baked in the oven under a grill! I had always thought that a tandoori oven would be necessary. Thanks for sharing!
By the way, which part of the oven shall I place the naan? Upper, middle or lower part?
Hi Everyone – glad to inform you of how to cook naan without a tandoor oven, let me know if you try it and whether it works in others ovens too. 🙂
Hi Steph – Thanks sooo much for the award, I love reading your blog too!
Hi Jackie – I hope it lives up to the other naan bread 🙂 let me know, if you get a chance.
Hi Pablopabla – I would try closest to the element first – keeping an eye on it, as it can sometimes puff up too high and catch on the element. See if that works and if it burns it without cooking, try lower down. Let me know how it goes 🙂
Hi Anita
I’ve been on a quest to make dumplings when I came across your site.
I too love cooking & at the moment am doing part time course learning to be a Chinese chef.
Any way an idea for you to make naan bread without having to use an oven, place a wok upside down over your biggest burner & get it HOT.
Shape the naan in a big triangle , get a corner on far side to stick to wok & stretch naan over wok. When that side is cooked rotate & fold naan in half.
Keep cooking & folding till you get the size you wont.Then brush butter over this & keep warm in oven.
Trevor
when jeremy cooks naan, he use 2/3 of a cup of yoghurt in the mix. its interesting that your recipe is quite different!
jeremey’s naan bread
2/3 cup greek/natural yoghurt
1 cup hot water
2t yeast
4 cups plain/bread flour
2t salt
2 cloves garlic (finely chopped)
pinch of chilli flakes
mix yogurt, water and yeast together and then let stand for 10 minutes.
mix in other ingredients.
stand for 10 minutes then 30 sec kneed on bench in oil (not flour) (repeat if you have time to improve texture)
let sit for 6 hours (enables dough to sour).
divide in 12 portions (without knocking the air out) and roll into balls. place on an oiled tray.
leave sit for 1 hour.
gently stretch out ball of dough and dry fry in a non-stick pan. brush both sides with melted butter once cooked (whilst still in pan).
eat and enjoy!