I had a cup of yogurt from my favourite biodynamic Ontario dairy farm left with only a few days before expiration. I also had leftover stir-fried okra with shallots, stir-fried bitter melon, and a red lentil dal. To me that means it’s time to make naan.
Normally you never make naan at home. Even Indian people don’t make naan at home. You basically have to go to a restaurant unless you have a tandoor oven conveniently located in your kitchen. The oven that reaches incredibly high temperatures – much higher than a conventional oven – has sides against which you’re supposed to slap the naan flatbread and leave them stuck there until they start to puff and char. The bread is done when it slides off the side of the oven.
Madhur Jaffrey does give one recipe for homemade naan in her book “Indian Cooking”, and there are a few other nan (spelled both way) recipes in “Mangoes and Curry Leaves” by Duguid and Alfred (these ones don’t have yogurt in them. Actually they’re mostly just flour and water and sometimes a little salt. Sometimes lard. No yeast, even, and it’s not Indian naan if it’s not leavened), but to me there needs to be yogurt and egg in naan to make it a little fluffier, a little puffier, and there needs to be a little sugar to make it slightly sweet. Maybe just a teaspoon. Most involve ghee but I don’t have that option.
Actually, as a lactose-intolerant person I was taking a big risk using yogurt at all. Usually, baking probiotic yogurt ends up making me sick since it kills off the helpful bacteria that make digesting the lactose easier. But naan!! Oh I wanted naan! Sweet, nutty (since I make it using gluten-free flours), not-too-dense naan (I especially need the fluffiness of the yogurt because I’m using gluten-free flours that don’t rise as easily).
So I gave it a go.
Ingredients:
1 cup plain thick yogurt (blueberry naan, anyone? No?)
2 tsp sugar
2 tsp active dry yeast
3 3/4 cups gluten-free flour blend (2 cups brown rice flour, 1 cup sorghum flour, 1 cup tapioca starch, 1/2 cup potato starch, 1/4 cup sweet rice flour, 2 tsp guar gum). The naan will be nutty from the sorghum.
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp vegetable oil (or other oil)
1 large egg, beaten with a fork
Directions:
In a small bowl combine 2/3 cup of the yogurt, half the sugar, and all the yeast. Stir and then set aside for about 20 minutes until the mixture is frothy. I think here my yeast was not so great because it kind of frothed but kind of in a strange pattern…Anyway, I was nervous from the start. Yours, however, will be fine. Don’t worry.
Meanwhile, soft the flour, salt, and baking powder into a large bowl. I swear the sifting is key because it adds air and especially with gluten-free flour you need as much air and lightness as possible. So get out your sifter or a sieve and get going. Or delegate this task to a less fortunate soul.
Once sifted, add the remaining 1 tsp sugar, the frothing (correctly) yeast mixture, 2 tbsp oil, the remaining 1/3 cup of the yogurt, the lightly beaten egg, and 1 tbsp of the water. Mix it all together and form it into a ball. Add more water, little by little, as necessary to get to a ball stage.
Transfer the ball to a clean counter and knead it for about 10 minutes. If your hands are frigid like mine, heat them under hot water and dry them before kneading. You may need some extra flour on the side in case the dough starts sticking. The ball should be “smooth and satiny” when you’re done kneading but with gluten-free flours…well, good luck. You probably also will need to knead longer since there’s no gluten…at least 20 minutes. think about investing in a KitchenAid with a kneading attachment. Think about it for a good 20-30 minutes while you knead by hand…
Reform your kneading dough into a ball and then take a large bowl, pour about 1/4 tsp of oil into it, and then roll the ball around in the oil. cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set it aside in a warm, draft-free, dark place for an hour or until it doubles in size.
Okay, two notes here:
1. It’s not going to double in size in an hour. It just won’t. Gluten-free flours suck for doubling in size. That being said, it’s not supposed to be a sandwich bread loaf or anything, so if it’s a little dense and flatter, that’s okay. With the yogurt, baking powder, egg, and yeast you’ve done your best. You even kneading for 20-30 minutes. You deserve to be cut some slack.
2. Why plastic wrap? Can it be a kitchen towel? Whenever you leave dough aside it’s always one of these two, but which is the better method? I usually stick mine in the oven with the light on, but that’s only a dark place if you cover with a kitchen towel, not plastic wrap. So maybe palstic wrap and then a kitchen towel? Advice, anyone?
A few hours later when your dough has tried valiantly (but probably in vain) to double in size, preheat your oven to its highest temperature. Make sure you have a rack in the middle or bottom third of the oven and another rack near the top so you can put the naan first in the middle and second under the broiler. Put a heavy baking sheet (not a flimsy, light cookie sheet if possible) in to preheat with the oven. You’re trying to turn it into the sides of a tandoor so room temperature baking sheet is not acceptable.
Punch down the dough and knead it again (there’s no amount of time given, but I’d say about 5 minutes??). Divide it into 6 balls (for big naan), or 12 balls for decent-sized naan. Put one naan on a clean counter surface and cover the others with plastic wrap while you work. Roll the naan into a tear-shape using a rolling pin or empty wine bottle covered in a little flour to keep it from sticking. Or just punch it down with your hand and have a spatula ready to scrape it off the counter without tearing it. (Note: “Tear-shaped” is open to interpretation. If you made 6 naan they’re supposed to be 25 centimetres or 10 inches in length, and 13 centimetres or 5 inches in width-“ish”). If two naan will fit on the baking sheet at a time, roll out a second one.
Preheat your broiler. On my oven you can’t have both the oven on and the broiler, so now you have to switch to the broil setting. If you can turn on the broiler seperately, do so.
Now the fun part. Take the hot pan out of the oven, scrape the naan off the counter (or lift easily, depending on how floured your surface was and how emphatic your pounding or rolling), and slap it onto the hot pan. I really don’t know if this slapping part is for effect or if it actually helps the bread, but it’s really fun, so do it.
Put it immediately into the oven on the rack in the middle of the oven and bake it for 3 minutes. It should puff up, but if it’s doesn’t, don’t worry about it. Not the end of the world. While you’re waiting roll out the next naan (or two – however many will fit on the baking sheet).
After 3 minutes move the pan to the higher rack and broil it for just 30 seconds, or until it browns slightly (imagine the naan in restaurants. that’s the ideal). Do not walk away. Do not change the laundry. Do not answer the phone. Stay put for 30 seconds, for the love of God. On that note, think of a 30 second naan-based prayer to get you through.
The worst case scenario is if you set the rack too high in the oven and it puffs up and catches on fire. I hear that happens…maybe it happened to me once…
So pray that doesn’t happen. But setting off the fire alarm is probably inevitable, prayer or no prayer, so have the kitchen fan going.
Wrap the naan in a clean dish towel to keep warm and moist, and stick the next naan (or two at a time if there’s space on the baking sheet) into the oven for 3 minutes. Do the whole bake then broil thing again. Repeat, repeat, repeat, until all the naan are baked.
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