How To Make Naan Flat Bread

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How To Make Naan Flat Bread

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Edward Hamann

http://www.mysweetindia.com

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 Afghan, 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 spent the last 4 years as Culinary Manager for Sur La Table Cooking School and was responsible for managing the cooking class program, recipe development, setting curriculum and teaching classes at Sur La Table in Arlington, Virginia.

How To Make Naan Flat Bread

Chef Edward Hamann demonstrates how to make Indian Naan bread.

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Tags:

Dough

Indian

Food

Seed

Naan

Bread

Side

Dish

Butter

Bake

Oven

Shape

Traditional

Recipe

Homemade

How To Make Naan Flat Bread

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.

Transcripts

Edward Hamann: Hello! I'm Edward Hamann and I'm here at Sur La Table Cooking School in Arlington, Virginia. And today I am going to show you how to make Naan Bread.

The ingredients that you are going to need are three cups unbleached all purpose flour, one teaspoon salt, half a cup plain yogurt, half a cup boiling water, one teaspoon active dried yeast, two teaspoons sugar, one large egg, a quarter cup melted unsalted butter, a half to one teaspoon Nigella seeds.

So we have our three cups of unbleached all purpose flour. We're going to take our salt and mix that in, and we're going to pour our half cup boiling water into the yogurt, mix that well with the whisk.

Then we're going to add our one teaspoon of active dried yeast, and two teaspoons sugar, and we're going to mix those well, then we'll add our four tablespoons melted unsalted butter, and our one large egg, mix it all really well.

Now we're going to take our liquid mixture and we're going to pour it into our flour, then we're going to mix just until a soft dough forms. Once the soft dough has formed, and we will knead by pushing and folding. Dipping the hands in the oil as needed.

You are going to continue kneading your dough for at least ten minutes. The dough is ready to rest when it is smooth and elastic. And we are going to cover this and set it aside in a warm place for about four hours. So our dough has been rising for about four hours and it has definitely doubled in volume.

Punch our dough down and we are going to very briefly knead it again, so now we are going to take this dough and we are going to break it down into eight pieces. 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 with the highest temperature that you can get your oven.

So you will take a ball of dough, flour your surface and we are going to roll it out into a 6-7 inch circle. 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. 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. 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. 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 we are going to bake that for about 3-4 minutes until it's puffing up and getting a little bit golden brown spots on top.

So our naan bread is ready to come out of the oven. It comes out really nice crisp and it's also very soft on the inside. Brush it with a little bit of melted butter. Enjoy.