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How to Make Naan Bread

Naan Bread - Shaping and Baking

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Edward Hamann
Sur la Table
http://surlatable.turnstilesystems.com/  
(703) 414-3580

Edward Hamann grew up in California and credits his grandmother for his early love of cooking as well as the abundance of fresh local produce found in the region. Inspired by the regional cuisines of India during his teenage years, Hamann later found himself traveling extensively throughout India collecting local recipes wherever he could and learning tips and techniques from street vendors, housewives and restaurant chefs.

He studied beside Julie Sahni at The Julie Sahni School of Indian Cooking in NYC and worked closely with Chef Sahni on a variety of events, including some for National Geographic Traveler, and has been teaching others to cook for over ten years.

Hamann’s international travels have greatly influenced him in his culinary pursuits and have given him deep appreciation for the plethora of spices that are available to the home cook but not widely understood or utilized. Through his instruction Hamann hopes to demystify cooking with spices and open up the cuisines of other cultures, such as Mexican, Persian and Afghani, to his students. As Hamann states “Cooking can be a different kind of journey, by preparing the foods of other countries in our own homes we can taste the memories of trips we may have taken or perhaps taste the dreams of trips we hope to take someday.”

Edward Hamann is currently Culinary Coordinator for Sur La Table Cooking School and is responsible for managing the cooking class program, recipe development, setting curriculum and teaching classes in Sur La Table’s Pentagon Row store (1101 South Joyce Street) in Arlington, Virginia.

Naan Bread - Shaping and Baking

This video will show how to shape and bake the naan bread.

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Naan Bread - Shaping and Baking

Ingredients

3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (about 14 ounces), plus additional for dusting
1 teaspoon salt
½ cup plain yogurt, at room temperature
½ cup boiling water
1 teaspoon active dry yeast
2 teaspoons sugar
1 large egg
¼ cup melted unsalted butter, plus additional for brushing
Vegetable as needed
½ - 1 teaspoon nigella seeds (kalonji)

Instructions

1. In a large bowl mix the flour, salt, and nigella seeds. Set aside.

 

2. In another small bowl whisk together the yogurt and boiling water. Add the yeast, sugar, egg, and melted butter and mix well. Pour the yogurt mixture onto the flour and mix just until a soft and sticky dough forms. Wash and dry your hands.

 

3. Place a few tablespoons of vegetable oil in small bowl and keep it next to your work surface. Oil your hands then knead the dough, either in the bowl or on an oiled surface, until smooth and elastic, oiling your fingers as needed to prevent sticking, about 10 minutes.

 

4. Cover and let stand in a warm place for about 4 hours, or until well risen.


5. Place a baking stone on the upper middle rack of your oven and preheat to 550°F or its highest temperature. Allow the oven to heat for at least 30 minutes.


6. Punch down the dough, then knead again for about 1 minute. Divide the dough into 8 equal portions and set aside on an oiled baking tray loosely covered with plastic wrap.


7. Working with two balls at a time; roll out each into a 6-to 7-inch round, dusting with flour to prevent sticking. Using your hands, stretch the round into a teardrop shape 10-to 12-inches long.

 

8. Lightly dust a wooden peel or rimless baking sheet with flour. Carefully transfer the breads one at a time onto the peel, setting them side by side. Brush the breads lightly with melted butter. Sprinkle a pinch of nigella seeds over the bread and press lightly to help them adhere.

 

9. Slide the breads off of the peel onto the baking stone and bake for 3 to 5 minutes, or until they begin to puff and lightly brown in places. Remove and, if desired, brush with additional melted butter. Keep the breads in a covered towel lined dish until ready to serve.


As an alternative, the naan can also be baked on baking sheets. Arrange them in a single layer on lightly oiled baking sheets and bake in the center of the oven. The cooking time remains the same. You may want to place the breads under the broiler briefly to help brown the tops.

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Transcripts

Edward Hamann: Hi! I am Edward and we are here at Sur La Table Cooking School in Arlington, Virginia and today we are making Naan Bread. Right now, we are going to shape and bake our naan bread. So our naan dough has been rising for about four hours and it has definitely doubles in volume. So now, we need to punch our dough down and we are going to very briefly knead it again, for just about a minute and we can do that right in our bowl. You can see after its risen, it's not as sticky as it was when we were forming the dough, much more easy to handle now.

So now we are going to take the naan dough and we are going to break it down into eight pieces and we will use our scraper for that. Then we are going to take these and roll them into little balls and place them on either a nonstick baking tray or a baking tray that has been lightly oiled and we will cover them with plastic wrap and we will work with one ball at a time. So we placed our eight balls of naan dough under plastic wrap on a tray and now we are going to shape one.

So you will take a ball of dough and you will have some extra flour for dusting and you will flour your surface. Our baking stone is in the oven on the upper middle rack and it's been preheating for at least 30 minutes at 550 degrees or the highest temperature that you can get your oven. So we are going to take our ball dough with a rolling pin and we are going to roll it out into a 6-7 inch circle. Dusting with flour as needed. Your rolling pin may need a little bit of flour as well. You should gently rolling it out.

If the dough is very springy and keep sort of springing back and if you just stop and let it rest right on the work surface for a minute or two and that will help it relax a little bit and make the rolling out easier. Once we have dust the rolling dough and we do not want to turn the bread over because we don't want to create a floured surface on the top and at the bottom at the same time. That's look good.

So once we have got it rolled out, we have our wooden peel right here and we are going to dust our peel with a little bit of flour so the bread does not stick to it and we will transfer our dough around right on to the peel. So at this point, I am very happy this round shaped naan, but we are going to make the traditional teardrop shape. So we will take our rounded dough and we are going to stretch it out and pick it up from the back and pull as you go, stretching it out into about a 12 inch long teardrop shape. If it tears a little bit, that's perfectly fine.

Now we are going to brush a little bit of melted butter on the top of the dough and then we are going to sprinkle the some of our Nigella seeds, the kalonji seeds, little bit over the top. You could also use cumin seeds here or perhaps sesame seeds as well and we are going to press tightly on the seeds to help them adhere to the naan bread.

Now we are going to take our dough on the peel to the oven and slide it on to the baking stone. You want to take your peel and shake it back and forth of it to make sure that the bread is not stuck to the peel and carefully take the peel to the stone and you can jerk it back a little bit and once the tip stick on the stone, you can just pull it right out and we are going to bake that for about 3-4 minutes until it's puffing up and getting a little bit golden brown about on top.

So our naan bread is ready to come out of the oven, only 3-4 minutes, it comes out really nice crisp and it's also very soft on the inside and I love to brush it with a little bit of melted butter when it comes out. You can store these, keep them warm in a cloth-lined bread basket until you got them all baked. You can also do these on a baking tray if you don't have a baking stone and a wooden peel. We would just arrange the bread on oiled baking sheet and bake them in the center of the oven until they puff up and get a little brown. It's about the same cooking time. Naan is great in all by itself but of course it's natural with dishes like tandoori chicken or butter chicken. Enjoy.

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