Review of the Naan Bread Recipe
Hi, Ray here again.
I made a great eggplant curry a few weeks ago (here is the review of the eggplant curry). At the time, I also made some naan bread.
I discovered that making the bread is easy but you do need to experiment with the baking process to make the results good. A lot of recipes are forgiving if you cook the food a little too long by a few minutes, but baking bread does not have a large margin of error.
I couldn’t buy fresh yeast anywhere, even in my local Indian store that usually has everything that I need. So I bought a jar of dried yeast as a substitute. But the label did not have any guide as to how much dried yeast equals fresh yeast. I searched the net and eventually found out that 4 teaspoons of dried yeast equals an ounce of fresh yeast. I also learnt that yeast is sold in units called envelopes (I won’t bore you with the details – do some searching on the net if you want to find out more). I’ve updated the website recipe with this important piece of information.
Now to the recipe.
I mixed up the ingredients and added the water to make the dough. The dough was a bit dry so I added a two extra teaspoons of water and it did the trick. My measures might have been slightly off and you need to be able to improvise a little in the kitchen.
I put the dough into a plastic bag and left it for 3 hours to rise. I could not work out how to oil the bag without making a big mess so I rubbed some oil over the dough and popped it into the plastic bag.
The dough rose good.
I put the oven on to heat up.
Whilst the oven was heating up, I divided up the dough and rolled out the first naan. I only rolled out one because I had been warned not to roll the dough too thin or too thick. If the naan is too thin then it will be crisp and burnt but if the naan is too thick, the inside won’t be cooked properly. I needed to experiment a little to see what worked.
The first naan was a bit thinner than the 1/4 inch that the recipe stated.
In went the first naan and I hovered around the oven wondering what was going on inside. I sneaked a peek after 5 minutes and the naan had puffed up and looked good. After 9 minutes the outside was all brown and it looked burnt in a couple of places so I took it out of the oven. It was awful. Burnt, dry and crisp, with no dough inside the crust at all. I tried a small piece and it was tasted awful. The naan went outside for the birds.
The second naan that I made was the same thickness because I wanted to see if it was the cooking time that was the problem, rather than the thickness. After 6 minutes I pulled out the naan from the oven. It was better than the first one – a better flavor – but still nothing inside the crust and too crunchy. Another naan for the birds.
I had learnt my first lesson. It was the thickness that was the problem.
The third naan was thicker, being the 1/4 inch that the recipe called for. I pulled the naan out after 6 minutes. This time the dough in the middle wasn’t cooked properly but the flavor was better. Third time lucky for the birds again.
The fourth naan was the same 1/4 inch thick and this time I baked it for 8 minutes. It was perfect, with a good browned outside, a well cooked inside and a great taste.
The fifth naan was again 1/4 inch thick and this time I cooked it for 10 minutes. It was pretty good but the crust was a bit too crunchy. It wasn’t nearly as good as the 8 minute naan.
I had learnt my second lesson. Ovens cook at different temperatures – one person’s 245C is another person’s 250C.
Now I had found the correct thickness and cooking time for naan in my oven.
Ovens do not have a uniform temperature so you will probably need to experiment a little with your first batch of naans to find what works in your house.
The finished naans are smaller than the ones made in Indian restaurants – about half the size. But I don’t think that this is a problem because I always find that I either end up leaving some naan when I dine out or, even worse for my waistline, I keep eating the naan when I’m full just because I’ve bought it. If you do want bigger naans for yourself then just use more dough – but keep to the same thickness.
If you like naan bread then I definitely urge you to try out this recipe. The dinner guests gave an impressive rating of 9.5 out of 10 for their naans (I didn’t make them eat the first attempts).
But do find out the recipe that works in your oven before inviting dinner guests to eat your delicious naan bread.
