Trust me when I say, you won’t have to go to a dhaba again to enjoy naans again. Ever since I posted these Butter Naans, there has numerous requests for a detailed step wise recipe. Finally I made it and here I present to you a step wise cooking of Naans with variations to convert them into butter or garlic naan. I’m a bit lazy to click step wise pictures as it takes more time and patience and ever since my previous camera got repaired due to exposure to heat I avoid clicking near the stove or hot food. Phew... this is probably one of the longest posts done by me so far but I totally enjoyed cooking these specially for you all and writing this post. I hope you cook up these and make your family a happy lot too.
You’ll need:
Method:
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1. Trim the brown edges of the bread and roughly tear them into pieces.
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2. Place the torn bread pieces in a mixie and pulse it till resembles bread crumbs and transfer to a bowl in which you are going to knead the dough.
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3. To the bread crumbs add sugar, baking soda, yogurt and milk. Mix well and keep aside to let it rest for 1/2 hour.
4. After half an hour add flour and salt and bring about everything together into a dough. If the dough is sticky add more flour. Grease your palm with oil and knead lightly. Repeat again with another spoon of oil. Finally apply oil to the surface of the dough and close with a lid. Let it rest for at least 3 hours.
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5. I use these 2 types of stainless steel mesh to cook the naans directly over the fire. You can use any wire mesh but avoid iron ones as there is change of it rusting.
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6. Pull an orange size of dough. Sprinkle flour on the rolling board. I did not use a rolling pin but patted the naans with my hand as the dough will be very elastic and soft. Do use a rolling pin and form any shape you prefer. I have an oval shape here.
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7. Place the tawa in the big burner and the mesh over the other burner like shown in the pic above.
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8. Sprinkle water onto the hot tawa and immediately place the naan over the sizzling water and close with a lid. The water will make the naan to stick to the tawa thereby giving it a smoky flavor as there is no way for the steam to escape. The flame should be high. Do not cook over low flame.
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9. Give it a few seconds and insert a spatula under the naan to release it and flip it on to the mesh to cook it directly over the flame. The uncooked part should be facing the flame.
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10. Can you see that ? I have shown the naan being cooked with both the stainless steel mesh. I usually use the ladle type as I can rotate it around with ease holding to the handle. The flame should be high here too. I have simmered the flame to prevent it from burning while I clicked the picture.
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11. The Naan cooked directly over the fire will look like this. Transfer it to a plate and serve hot.
To make Butter Naan: Replace the oil with melted butter in Step 4 and continue to the end. Finally brush the side that got directly cooked over the fire with more melted butter and serve.
To make Garlic Naan: In step 4 along with flour add a tbsp of garlic powder to make the dough and continue cooking. Mix another tbsp of garlic powder to the melted butter and coriander leaves if you are adding and brush the naan before serving.
* Replacement for Garlic Powder: In case you do not get garlic powder, you can use finely chopped garlic cloves instead. But if you do not like the pieces in your mouth, you can pound a few garlic cloves or use homemade garlic paste and let it steep in the milk that you use for kneading. Remember to filter the milk to use before kneading.
Yes, you can but use it in the ratio of 3 : 1 ie., 3 parts all purpose flour and 1 part whole wheat flour. All purpose flour gives the dough more elasticity than the whole wheat flour and does not become sour too quickly if you let it rest for longer duration.
The general rule of thumb to get softer Naans that do not turn into plastic Frisbees is to use 50% of liquid to the quantity of flour we use. If you note the ingredients, I have used 1 cup of liquid (yogurt and milk together) for 2 cups of flour. Use milk instead of water for a good taste.
Notes:
Labels: Indian Bread, Step by Step Recipes