I have had naan bread on my mind for a few weeks…now it is on the kitchen counter. Finally had a chance to try out the latest recipe I found on the internet. Internet searches for recipes can be quite overwhelming. You can end up with so many versions of one thing that you never get a chance to try any of them. That’s what’s happened with my Chicken Tikka Masala search but I do plan on getting to one of them this week.
Naan bread is traditionally cooked in a tandoor oven. This is a clay oven with an opening on the top. The hot burning coals go in the bottom creating temperatures of up to 500 to 600F and even higher. The bread dough is cooked by sticking your arm into the oven and slapping the dough onto the inside wall of said hot oven. I used to work a tandoor oven back in LA – it literally singes the hair off your arms. I did find a site on the internet that shows you how to make a tandoor in your very own backyard but I figured that project will have to wait another day. I can see it now, the neighbors poppping over and asking what I am up to while I am mixing a bag of cement in the wheel barrel. “Oh, I’m making bread…”
The recipe I settled on had yogurt, yeast and baking powder…of course it had the other typical bread ingredients too. Not able to follow a recipe exactly, I subbed 1/4 c of all purpose flour with gluten flour to give the bread a bit more chewiness and as I was mixing the dough noticed that it was going to be awfully dry so I added a half cup of water. I would have used milk but we didn’t have any.
The texture was almost what I was looking for: chewy yet tender with large air bubbles. Taste wise they were a bit tart for my buds so next time I will cut back on the yogurt – maybe even sub with an egg. I think I’ll stick with using water instead of milk just because it’s one less thing I have to buy special since I don’t usually have milk around.
Wish I had some Chicken Tikka Masala to go with this bread. Hmm, I think there’s some Aloo Gobi in the freezer. Off I go…
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