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Say goodbye to hard, dense, dry and unappetising baked ready-made naans. This perfect and easy naan bread recipe is the ideal accompaniment to your homemade curry - no tandoor oven required!
Gone are the days of sprinkling water over my part-baked packaged naans, before whacking them in the oven and being overwhelmingly disappointed with, what I can only describe as, the warm, thick and dry cardboard-like bread spoiling my otherwise perfect homemade curry.
These days, the only naan bread accompanying my lovingly-made home curries, is an equally lovingly-made, fresh naan bread that is soft, pillowy and slightly chewy with crispy charred puffy blisters.
Made in a hot skillet over a high heat, with only 5 minutes prep time, 1 1/2 hours proofing, 3 minutes cooking per naan, and very basic ingredients, there's really no excuse to have to suffer a ready-made naan spoiling your curry ever again!
The Ingredients
Flour - A mixture of equal part all purpose flour and strong bread flour is used for this recipe. After much trial and error I found this to be the best mixture to acheive a chewy yet light, pillowy and crispy texture
Instant/Easy Bake Yeast - This is our raising agent that allows the bread to puff up and blister
Plain Yoghurt - Provides fat and a tangy flavour to the naans
Vegetable oil - Adds a small amount for fat in the dough
Water - Combies the dough
Salt & Sugar - For flavour
Optional Butter, Ghee, or Garlic Butter to brush the naans before serving
Cooking
Naans are traditionally cooked, by being stuck to the inside of a tandoor oven. I'm pretty sure, like me, the majority of you will not have a tandoor oven in your kitchen, but not to worry - these naan breads are cooked on a high heat in a dry, preheated skillet!
When rolling out the naans, you want them to be relatively thin, about 1/8 inch thick, to ensure they are able to puff up and blister properly. Make sure your skillet is very hot before cooking your naans; I recommend heating the skillet for about 5 minutes before cooking. No oil is needed to cook the naans either - could this get any easier?! The naans are cooked for about 1 1/2 minutes per side until they are cooked through with beautiful charred blisters.
Once cooked, serve immediately or, even better, brush with some melted ghee, butter, or garlic butter! A tiny sprinkle of sugar with melted salted butter is also really tasty!
Perfect, Easy Naan Bread
Prep time: 5 minutes
Proofing: 1 to 1 1/2 hours
Cooking time: 3 minutes per naan
Difficulty: Easy
Makes: 3 naan breads
Ingredients List:
85g All purpose flour
85g Strong white bread flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp instant/easy bake yeast
90g warm water
30g plain water
1 1/2 tsp vegetable/olive oil plus extra for greasing bowl
Method:
1. In a bowl, whisk together both flours, salt, sugar and yeast
2. In a separate bowl, mix together warm water, yoghurt and oil
3. Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture and pour in the wet ingredients. Use a fork to mix the dough until it starts to come together
4. Turn out on a lightly floured surface and knead dough with hands a few times until the dough just starts to smooth out and become elasticated. Do not over knead. The dough will be annoyingly sticky but should not be too wet and should certainly not be dry
5. Form the dough into a ball and place in a bowl greased with oil. Cover with cling-film and leave in a warm environment for around 1-1.5 hours until doubled in size. TIP: I like to turn my oven on low for a few minutes then switch off and place my proofing dough inside with the oven door slightly ajar
6. Once doubled in size, turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and roll into rough 6 inch log. Divide the dough into 3 equal portions and roll each piece into a circle or oval about 1/8 inch thick. The naans do not need to be perfectly round but ensure they have a roughly equal thickness all over.
7. Preheat a large skillet on a high heat, no need to add any oil. Place one naan at a time into the pan and cook until large bubbles start to form on the top side. Flip, and cook on the other side for a further minute or minute and a half.
8. Optional: Before serving, brush naan bread with melted ghee, butter or garlic butter and a small sprinkle of sugar/salt
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