Naan, Fluffy Style
January 11, 2007 by Andrea 
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Filed under Asian, Breads
I love these warm pillows of goodness and my boys love watching them bake. As the dough puffs on the stone in the oven, the boys proclaim it to be “magic.” And when I take the rounds out of the oven, the boys are so excited they can’t keep their hands off them. They think it’s pure torture to wait while I brush on the garlic butter and sprinkle the sesame seeds.
The interior is soft and light thanks to the addition of milk and yogurt. They’ll only keep for a couple days, but if you have someone in your house who loves bread like my boys do, you won’t have to worry about it.
Equipment
stand mixer with dough hook
small bowl
baking stone
Ingredients
14 ounces unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons instant yeast
1 egg
1/2 cup plain lowfat yogurt
1/2 cup lowfat or skim milk
garlic butter, melted (3 tablespoons unsalted butter + 1 clove garlic, finely minced)
toasted sesame seeds
Preparation
1. In the bowl of the stand mixer, stir together the flour, salt, baking powder, sugar, and yeast. In the small bowl, mix together the egg, yogurt, and milk. Pour the egg mixture into the dry ingredients and stir for about 1 minute, until the dry ingredients are completely incorporated into the wet ingredients.
2. Increase machine speed to 2, and knead the dough until it is smooth and shiny. Remove the bowl from the mixer and cover with a towel. Leave in a warm place to rise until the dough doubles in size, about an hour.
3. Put a baking stone or heavy baking sheet on the lowest rack of your oven. Preheat the oven to the hottest setting, most likely 450° to 500° F depending on your oven.
4. Divide the dough into eight pieces and form into teardrop shapes with your hands, about 6 to 8 inches across. I press the dough out with the palm of my hand, then I pick up the dough and turn it in circles in my hands until I get the teardrop shape.
5. Cook two or three pieces at a time. Drop the dough onto the hot stone and shut the oven door, watching until they are just starting to turn brown in places, about 3 to 5 minutes.
6. Remove the naan and lay on a board. Smear the garlic butter on as soon as they come out of the oven and sprinkle toasted sesame seeds on top. Serve warm with a nice curry.
Resources
I SO need to go make these: I am hungry!
Those look great, I’ve always wanted to learn to make naan.
Andrea, I have to apologize that I missed this post!! I love it. Simple yet perfectly gorgeous!
Meeta, thanks! I don’t have many Indian foods posted yet, but we’re making more and more these days. Your Bollywood series is wonderful!
Hi, this is the first recipe I have seen using egg, I can’t wait to try it! My naans have been turning out so different each time I try them but this recipe looks a lot of fun. I have a question; does the type of flour substantially change the way the bread bakes? I have tried using strong bread flour and tried adding wholemeal but cant seem to get the perfect balance…
Hi Adam, thanks for stopping by. Yes, flour type will definitely affect the outcome of the naan. This recipe calls for all-purpose (aka Type 55/550), which has a lower gluten content than strong bread flours. The naan will come out chewy, not light when using higher gluten content flours.
Awesome I love naan and your recipie/directions are clear and wonderful (i usually reference joy of cooking for everything after doing that i have found it is not that great) your website is my new trusty recipie source!
What if you don’t have dough hooks? i have a stand mixer w/ the hooks that look like cellenatani pasta, wavy line-ish. could i use those?
for a baking stone i have an extra peice of 12″x12″ inch granite tile, could that be used?
thanks!
Hi Olivia! I’ve never used those type of hooks, but I imagine they would work. The best kind of baking stone is either a commercial one or an unglazed red quarry tile that you can find at home improvement stores pretty cheap. As for using granite, I’m no geologist, but I found an interesting discussion on The Fresh Loaf that mentioned granite as a material to avoid. http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/507
what a super yummy recipe! thanks!
I made this a couple of weeks ago and it was fantastic! My kids loved it and I couldn’t get enough. I posted about it on my blog, if you don’t mind.