I love these warm pillows of goodness and my boys love watching them bake. As the dough puffs on the stone in the oven, the boys proclaim it to be “magic.” And when I take the rounds out of the oven, the boys are so excited they can’t keep their hands off them. They think it’s pure torture to wait while I brush on the garlic butter and sprinkle the sesame seeds.
The interior is soft and light thanks to the addition of milk and yogurt. They’ll only keep for a couple days, but if you have someone in your house who loves bread like my boys do, you won’t have to worry about it.
Fluffy Naan Bread
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
Author: Andrea Meyers
Serves: 8 loaves
Ingredients
- 14 ounces (397 g) unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 teaspoon granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons instant yeast
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 cup (120 g) plain lowfat yogurt
- 1/2 cup (120 ml) lowfat or skim milk
- garlic butter, melted (3 tablespoons unsalted butter + 1 clove garlic, finely minced)
- toasted sesame seeds
Preparation
- In the bowl of the stand mixer, stir together the flour, salt, baking powder, sugar, and yeast. In the small bowl, mix together the egg, yogurt, and milk. Pour the egg mixture into the dry ingredients and stir for about 1 minute, until the dry ingredients are completely incorporated into the wet ingredients.
- Increase machine speed to 2, and knead the dough until it is smooth and shiny. Remove the bowl from the mixer and cover with a towel. Leave in a warm place to rise until the dough doubles in size, about an hour.
- Put a baking stone or heavy baking sheet on the lowest rack of your oven. Preheat the oven to the hottest setting, most likely 450° to 500° F depending on your oven.
- Divide the dough into eight pieces and form into teardrop shapes with your hands, about 6 to 8 inches across. I press the dough out with the palm of my hand, then I pick up the dough and turn it in circles in my hands until I get the teardrop shape.
- Cook two or three pieces at a time. Drop the dough onto the hot stone and shut the oven door, watching until they are just starting to turn brown in places, about 3 to 5 minutes.
- Remove the naan and lay on a board. Smear on the garlic butter as soon as they come out of the oven and sprinkle toasted sesame seeds on top. Serve warm with a nice curry.
More Information
Equipment:
stand mixer with dough hook
small bowl
baking stone
Recipe Notes:
Total Time includes rising time.
stand mixer with dough hook
small bowl
baking stone
Recipe Notes:
Total Time includes rising time.
Resources
janelle says
January 15, 2007 at 1:38 pmI SO need to go make these: I am hungry!
Sara says
January 17, 2007 at 2:09 pmThose look great, I’ve always wanted to learn to make naan.
Meeta says
February 28, 2008 at 5:56 amAndrea, I have to apologize that I missed this post!! I love it. Simple yet perfectly gorgeous!
Andrea says
February 28, 2008 at 12:11 pmMeeta, thanks! I don’t have many Indian foods posted yet, but we’re making more and more these days. Your Bollywood series is wonderful!
adam says
September 7, 2008 at 3:20 amHi, this is the first recipe I have seen using egg, I can’t wait to try it! My naans have been turning out so different each time I try them but this recipe looks a lot of fun. I have a question; does the type of flour substantially change the way the bread bakes? I have tried using strong bread flour and tried adding wholemeal but cant seem to get the perfect balance…
Andrea says
September 7, 2008 at 10:51 pmHi Adam, thanks for stopping by. Yes, flour type will definitely affect the outcome of the naan. This recipe calls for all-purpose (aka Type 55/550), which has a lower gluten content than strong bread flours. The naan will come out chewy, not light when using higher gluten content flours.
olivia says
January 19, 2009 at 12:42 amAwesome I love naan and your recipie/directions are clear and wonderful (i usually reference joy of cooking for everything after doing that i have found it is not that great) your website is my new trusty recipie source!
What if you don’t have dough hooks? i have a stand mixer w/ the hooks that look like cellenatani pasta, wavy line-ish. could i use those?
for a baking stone i have an extra peice of 12″x12″ inch granite tile, could that be used?
thanks!
Andrea says
January 24, 2009 at 5:34 pmHi Olivia! I’ve never used those type of hooks, but I imagine they would work. The best kind of baking stone is either a commercial one or an unglazed red quarry tile that you can find at home improvement stores pretty cheap. As for using granite, I’m no geologist, but I found an interesting discussion on The Fresh Loaf that mentioned granite as a material to avoid. http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/507
jessiev says
January 23, 2009 at 9:02 amwhat a super yummy recipe! thanks!
Melanie says
February 12, 2009 at 6:49 pmI made this a couple of weeks ago and it was fantastic! My kids loved it and I couldn’t get enough. I posted about it on my blog, if you don’t mind.