It was Indian night at the Kerner household. We made chicken tikka masala and a cauliflower, garbanzo, potato curry. We cheated on the tikka masala using a prepared sauce, but the other curry was made from scratch.
This post is really about the naan though. Naan is an Indian flatbread that is fairly easy to make at home with a pizza stone.
This is a variation of a recipe I found online, using some of the techniques from Cookwise for breads. This recipe over does the yeast in order to give a faster rise. If you’ve got time I would certainly use 1/2 tsp less yeast and give a longer rise. The next time I make this I will substitute yogurt for some of the water to give it a bit of tanginess. I was also lazy and used regular butter rather than ghee (clarified butter), but it was still good.
Naan
Mix the yeast, water, sugar, and milk together in the bowl of a stand mixer and let sit for 5 minutes. Add the salt, melted butter and half of the flour. Mix together well to incorporate air, then add the remaining flour and knead for 4 minutes with the dough hook (I use a Kitchen Aid mixer on speed 4). Getting air into the dough will allow the yeast bubbles to expand – it also distributes the yeast more evenly to mix prior to adding all of the flour. Adding salt prior to the kneading will enhance the gluten development in the bread. The dough should easily form a ball after kneading. Preheat an oven with a baking stone at the bottom to 425°. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let rise for 45 minutes (it didn’t need oiling because of the butter). Divide the dough into pieces and roll thinly with a rolling pin. Toss the flat pices of dough onto the stone and bake for 2-3 minutes a side. Brush very lightly with melted butter and enjoy.