Naan Trial #1

After having some mild success with other bread making ventures, I got the not-so-crazy idea that I could probably make Naan too.  Do you know what I am taking about?  The doughy flaky bread that tastes fluffy and delicious.  Best served warm.  The only place I've had this before is at Indian and Nepalese restaurants, or one time in Jamaica while visiting an Indian family.  I'm guessing it's available at grocery stores somewhere, but part of the enjoyment is eating it warm and fresh.   

Too come up with "how to make naan", I watched a half-dozen or so videos and read a few recipes.  It's been stated on here several times that I am not much of a recipe follower, however for something new I often read many recipes before deciding on one, or in this case using a combination of techniques and ingredients.    

Naan requires yeast - these packets are great if you are a not a regular yeast consumer and end up costing about $0.45 each.  Otherwise one teaspoon of yeast is about the same, and depending on how you purchase it, it can be less than $.05 for a teaspoon of yeast.

Sprinkle the yeast into a cup of warm water.  Temperature words like warm can be quite scary, but key here is not to over-think.   Just get warm water right out of the facet... warmer than for lemonade... cooler than for dishes.  Another helpful thing you can do is put some water in the dish - microwave for 1 minute... dump that water out.  This will keep your dish warm, and will be less likely "shock" the yeast, and more likely to incubate the yeast.   So - after a minute in your warm dish - your yeasty water should look like the photo above.

Sweeteners and Creamer.  Similar to coffee you need to add something to sweeten and cream your yeasty mixture.  In my case I used about 1 tbs sugar, and 1/2 cup of soymilk.   Other for sweetener include:  honey, sugar in the raw, and maybe artificial sweeteners.  Other options for cream include:  any other milk, or yogurt. 

After that's all mixed start throwing in your flour (and a sprinkle of salt).  Add enough that it all stays together in one ball, but remains pretty sticky.

This is still "too" sticky, but getting close

When the dough get to the correct consistency - start to knead it around.  Do this for about 6-8 minutes.  

Have fun with this step, and beat out some aggression in the process.  Also, you can set a timer for the 6-8 minutes if you must - but just beat it around until it feels pretty consistent.  Adding a couple tablespoons of oil here could really be useful but I (whoops!) did not do that.  

Once your dough glob, as we'll call it, is all kneaded up - let it rest while covered for a bit.  (20mins to 1 hour)

Ba boom!  - It's magically huge.  

Okay, smack that thing back into shape (umm - I mean pat it down), and knead it around a bit.  Then make 4 - 6 mini dough globs.  

  I did five, but next time I would do more. 

Ba -boom! They are big again.  

If you haven't caught on - it helps when you say Ba-Boom!

Now flatten these out into Naan shape (i.e. flat and round).  There are many techniques to do this, but I found a rolling pin to be pretty successful.  This could also be read as I found "pretending I was a pizza twirler" pretty unsuccessful. 

Once you get them into the desired shape - Bake them in the oven @475 degrees F for about  5- 10 minutes.  Watch them closely and flip them about half way through point on the baking sheet. 

Here's my semi-circular finished Naan.

Here's how I ate it.

Naan re-cap:  Don't forget the oil - however, it will not ruin the Naan, just make things more difficult for you.  Naan is uber cheap.  The yeast is the most expensive aspect - but if you buy it in larger quantities - less so.  

Cost of Naan

3 cups flour $0.30

1 pkg yeast (.25 ounce) $0.45
1 teaspoon salt $0.01
Olive oil  $0.14
Water $0.01
Sugar $0.02
Soymilk $0.15
 
Total $1.07

In terms of health - Naan doesn't exactly get a gold star.  It's high in calories, low in nutrients.  It's filling and delicious though - right?!  Also, because you made it yourself - it's preservative free and sodium low.  I also used organic - unbleached flour - which I think makes it tastes better and improves the health of it just a bit.