Home Made Naan Bread

rexehuk said:
Then it looks like... I may win :cool:

You could be dedicated and fashion an open fire to do them.

Worth signing up to that curry website by the way french, I've signed up and made 3 posts... the recipes there look promising.
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I'll definitely get round to it. To be honest I thought I'd registered there before but perhaps it's another BIR curry forum. I remember the recipes being pretty good.

On that note, the rest of the videos by "bit o' t' nan bread, like" guy also look interesting.

edit: Maybe I'll try cooking naan in my electric pizza oven :p
 
I also struggled the watch the video but the end result looks fantastic.

Until our extension and new kitchen are built I don't have a gas hob but I'll definitely have to get this a try when it's all done. I'll make sure to pick up a tava.
 
if you can get the attachment that is connected to a tandoor oven on your gas hob then you could easily make one at home using a "thava".

you can buy "naan flour" from the same suppliers restaurants use.

all you need to do is add water to it.

then heat a thava til it's red hot on a gas hob. throw your nan on then scorch the top with a flame thrower.

no need to turn it over and less than 2 mins to make it.
 
Just saw this post even though it is a bit old.

Very funny how the British naan is just one million miles away from an Indian one, but the British one does have more substance. Over here they make the naan more like a chapatti, filling it sometimes but it is not like a bread.

They use the chulla or open flame fire to make it. Flipping it as much as possible and letting it expand.

Think id still pick a British one though.
 
Just to update you guys, I tried the Naan recipe from the youtube video yesterday and today.

Have to say... credit where credit due, it is the dogs balls.

Followed his recipe, to the letter, added a few cumin seeds too maybe half tea spoon. Used normal flour, with 2TSP baking power per 200g to make it into self raising flour.

Day 0
- Made the dough at 12
- Got 2 portions out at 5PM
- Cooked them at 6PM

Pretty good, but we have a non stick tawa, and didnt work well there (kept falling off). So changed the method, stuck it on the tawa, left it cooking, and then held it under 250C top grill to do the top.

Pretty good results, but bottoms were not fantastic, didn't have the brown-ness it's meant to with slight crisp.

Day 1
- Took portions out at 5PM
- Cooked at 7PM (2 hours)

Definitely a change in the dough for day 1 after making.. it's very sticky, and super smooth.

Decided to change the format, as tawa was non stick. I have a traditional oriental wok, no non-stick... stuck it on full heat on medium burner. This time it completely took to the pan (success! :p) cooked it for around 45 seconds, and then flipped over wok and moved it around.

Using the wok works fantastic, as the heat gets trapped in the dome and seems to work fantastic.

It tasted better than a takeaway naan bread, perfectly semi-crisp bottom and lovely soft / chewy texture. After cooking, I had melted butter and brushed this onto the naans. for one of them I brushed on pureed garlic and butter.

Give it a go folks! I doubt you'll find a better recipe, and I'm now not going to make a tandoor, it was that good.

Sorry for no pictures, I have eaten them all. :D
 
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Had a crack at these last night, leading to a crucial error when I discovered midway through the video that there is a lot of resting involved prior to actually cooking the things. Prior to watching, I assumed this wouldn't be necessary given there's no yeast in the bread. Hey-ho, plowed on regardless and gave the mix a proper knead as I assumed the resting was partly to enable the dough to autolyse given the instructions say not to knead. I portioned up my dough into balls and rested it for an hour or so, before rolling them out and then cooking them on a pre-heated cast iron baking stone under the grill.

I definitely rolled the dough too thinly, leading to the finished product being a bit crisp and brittle. I also assume this is also partly down to insufficient resting to allow better gluten formation. First impressions of this slightly botched batch were decent enough though, the flavour of the bread in the thicker parts was very similar to a restaurant naan.

I've reserved half the dough in the fridge so hope to dig that out for another go later in the week. One thought that crossed my mind is the cast iron baking stone will probably retain a lot more heat than the tawa, so I probably don't need to have it quite as searingly hot. This meant my batch had burnt bottoms before the grill finished off the top.
 
One More Solo said:
I've reserved half the dough in the fridge so hope to dig that out for another go later in the week. One thought that crossed my mind is the cast iron baking stone will probably retain a lot more heat than the tawa, so I probably don't need to have it quite as searingly hot. This meant my batch had burnt bottoms before the grill finished off the top.
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You probably just cooked it too long on the bottom. I used a 0.5-1MM iron wok and had the burner on maximum. It stuck and the bottom was spot on to his video, slight browness all over the bottom, with patches of white.

Maximum 1 minute on the bottom, then straight to grill or over the hob. I prefer the hob, if you're able to do it with cast iron, that stuff is heavy! :D
 
The baking stone retains heat a lot better than a wok though (4-5mm thick) so the bottom will keep cooking more than it would with a wok or similar, even once it comes off the heat. I might just buy a tawa. :p
 
One More Solo said:
The baking stone retains heat a lot better than a wok though (4-5mm thick) so the bottom will keep cooking more than it would with a wok or similar, even once it comes off the heat. I might just buy a tawa. :p
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Tawa would be best, or if you don't own a wok...head off to a chinese superstore and get a proper authentic one for less than £8. You will have to season/seal it with oil but is more useful than just a tawa.

If you do get a tawa, make sure it's not a non-stick one! I'll get my pictures up potentially tomorrow showing you Naan! Albeit frozen dough which I've not tested yet.
 
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