Buttery Garlic Naan

Indian food is great. Ironically, I didn't actually have much experience with it until moving to Owensboro. Who knows where life will lead you?

There are no Indian restaurants in the actual city of Owensboro itself, but nearby Evansville does have one. Called the Taj Mahal, John and I make the occasional journey there, to satisfy cravings. It's debatable as to what, exactly, it is we're craving when we go: is it the chicken tikka masala? Korma? Or maybe, possibly, the naan bread?

Naan is a triangular sharped flat-bread, and a complete must when eating Indian. When I saw a recipe for Garlic Naan on Girl Versus Dough, I felt the craving, but not the desire to head out of town to fulfill it. Bake time!

Apparently there are two varieties of naan, yeast and yeastless, yeast being the more difficult to make. I opted for the yeast variety. (What's the point, if it isn't a time consuming challenge? Plus, my parent's are coming down from Nebraska in about a day or so for my birthday. This means I have to dirty my kitchen up with a project recipe, just to get ready for them.)

There are also a bunch of different ways to cook naan, apparently. Most Indian restaurants probably have a tandoori, the traditional way of making it. John frowns upon the idea of getting a tandoori for the house, so that left me with the choice of stove, grill, or fry pan. I opted for the last, feeling that it would probably get me closest to that real tandoori feel. (That and there was no way I was heating up the grill.)

I kneaded my dough by hand. I don't have a stand mixer strong enough to handle dough, and no food processor either. Left me with my hands and fingers! I kneaded for about 10 minutes, until the dough was elastic and smooth. Because I used whole wheat flour, it wound up being a bit dryer than I needed, so I added an extra splash of milk. You don't want the dough to be sticky, either, simply add more flour if you're experiencing that problem.

I used whole wheat flour for my naan, which made it less flexible than white flour naan. Tasted just as good as white though, in my opinion.

After splitting the dough into 8 pieces for the second rise, I used a cheese cloth to cover them up. Thought it looked a bit like mummy wrappings. Which made me think of Halloween. Which is coming up so soon! This summer has flown by.

Serve your naan with your favorite Indian dish, using it to scoop sauce up, like John and I did with my from-scratch Tikka Masala. I'll put a post up about how I make Tikka Masala sauce shortly.

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Indian Garlic Naan

by Adapted from UseRealButter.com August-14-2012

Ingredients

• 1 envelope or 2 1/2 tsps dry yeast
• 2 TBS sugar
• 4 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 cloves minced garlic
• 3 TBS skim milk
• 2 TBS Greek yogurt (I used fat-free)
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 2 TBS vegetable oil, then more for bowl
• 3 TBS melted salted butter (I used light butter)

Instructions

Dough, Part 1) Place the sugar, yeast and 1/4 cup of warm water in a small bowl, allow to sit for 5 minutes, until it becomes foamy. (Be careful when waking your yeast up. Too hot of water, you'll kill it. Let it sit too long after adding to sugar water, it'll give your bread an alcohol taste.) Put the flour and baking powder in a large bowl, mixing. Pour the yeast mixture 2 cloves minced garlic, milk, yogurt, egg, 2 TBS vegetable oil and 3/4 cup warm water into the bowl and knead until the dough forms a ball that is smooth and elastic. Should be about 8 to 10 minutes by hand. Though dough should be soft but not sticky. If too dry, add a splash of milk. Put the dough in a lightly-oiled large bowl. Turn the dough around to coat oil on all sides, then cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it sit in a warm, dry, draft-free place for 60 to 90 minutes. (I heated up the over to 170 degrees, then turned off. After turning off, I placed ceramic bowl into over for 1 hour.)Dough, Part 2) Punch down the dough, then cut it into 8 pieces. Roll them into balls and set on a floured baking sheet, covering with a damp cloth. Let rise until doubled in size. (About 60 minutes or less.)Cooking) Place a little butter in a large, hot skillet. Brush the naan with water on one side, and then place in skillet, water-side down. Large bubble should begin to puff up within a minute. (See picture. Looks like lumpy lizard skin). Brush the top of the naan with water, and flip it over for another minute or so. Remove to a plate and brush with melted butter. Repeat until you have 8 naan.

Details

Prep time: 3 hour 30 mins Cook time: 16 mins Total time: 4 hours