Week 12: Naan Better! - Naan Bread

This week is a quick one.  I just got back from vacation and didn't have my usual time to research and shop.  However, I've had an desire since I made Butter Chicken to make some Naan Bread to go with it.  We already had dinner plans for the evening, however, so I wouldn't be making the chicken, just the bread.

For my research this time, I turned to my trusty Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day book, which just happens to have a recipe!  Really, though, it has more of a "method."  Traditional Naan is cooked on the inside of a tandoori oven, which i don't happen to own.  Artisan Bread, however, suggests using a cast iron skillet.  I've needed a new one of those for a while, so I didn't mind buying one!

The recipe starts by using one of their standard doughs.  I approve of this since it makes a ton of dough and I can go through the whole week baking loaves, whether or not this works out.  It might be better to find a specific dough recipe, but this will work for an experiment like this.

The only ingredient I didn't have was ghee.  It's a clarified butter used in Indian Cooking.  In fact, it was recommended for Butter Chicken, but I didn't manage to find any.  This time, though, I found some at the local Indian grocery.  It wasn't in the dairy section.  It was on a shelf.  Apparently clarified butter doesn't need refrigeration.  

I used the standard "boule" recipe from the book.

3 cups warm water

1.5 TBS yeast

1.5 TBS Kosher salt

6.5 cups flour

Mix it and let it sit for two hours.  Then tear off a chunk.

I rolled it out to about 1/8th inch thick and set the cast iron skillet on the stove on high.

I added the ghee to the pan, spread it out, and then tossed in the dough.  I turned the stove down to medium, and covered it to keep the steam and heat in and let it cook for about 3 minutes before flipping it.

Then I cooked it on the other side until the edges were all done.  It was about another 3.5 minutes.

Tada!

It sure looks like naan!

Results:  Mediocre.  Don't get me wrong, the bread was tasty, but I wouldn't call it "naan."  It was more like an unsweetened pancake, or something.  There were hints of the correct flavor and texture, but not enough.

I think the big problem was probably the dough.  It's bread dough and so I got bread with some ghee flavoring.  I need to track down an actual naan recipe and see if there is a difference.  It might also have been a bit thick, but not by much.

On the plus side I now have enough dough for several good loaves!