Naan Bread

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Soft, fluffy naan bread with crispy, caramelised bubbles of air. Serve brushed with butter or ghee and, if you like, sprinkle with sesame seeds and/or chopped herbs. Serve with curries, stew and grilled meats or fish or slice into fingers and serve with a dip.

Quick and easy to make but:

• you have to remember to start them a couple of hours before you want to eat to give the dough time to rise, and
• they need to be cooked individually just before you serve, so I try to avoid serving them with dishes which need a lot of complicated cooking just before you eat

How to make Naan Bread

Collect all your ingredients together:

• strong plain white flour
• easy blend yeast
• fine salt
• sugar
• baking powder
• bicarbonate of/ baking soda
• natural plain yoghurt
• milk
• vegetable oil
• extra flour for rolling
• butter or ghee

I have included a lot of pictures which I hope will help; please don’t let the number of pictures put you off. I promise you they are really easy to make – you just need to remember to leave plenty of time to allow for the dough to rise.

• First you need to mix the flour, yeast, salt, sugar, baking powder and bicarbonate of/ baking soda in the bowl of a mixer with a dough hook
• Mix the yoghurt, milk and oil and pour onto the flour mixture and knead on a low speed for 2 minutes. After 2 minutes the mixture should be completely combined. 
• Check the texture of the dough to see if it needs any more water. It should feel soft and quite sticky and mostly sticking together on the dough hook.
• Knead on a low speed for a further 3 minutes until the dough is in a cohesive ball and less sticky. If it is not at this point, continue to knead for a further minute.
• Transfer the dough to a bowl lightly greased with vegetable oil. Cover with cling film and leave to rise until double in size. This can take from 45 minutes – 2 hours depending on the temperature. 
• When the dough is ready, lightly flour the dough and punch down with your fist. Tip the dough onto a floured work surface and knead by hand for 1 minute.

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• Preheat the oven on low and put a plate lined with a clean drying up cloth in the oven.
• Divide the dough into 6 equal size pieces and knead each into an oval ball.
• Roll out each dough ball until roughly 3 – 5mm thick and measures approximately 20cm/8 inches by 10cms/4inches. I roll them all out before I start cooking – they cook quickly and can burn easily so I prefer to keep my eye on them and not get distracted by rolling out the dough.
• Heat a cast iron frying pan or a thick based non-stick frying pan over a hot temperature. (My hob heats from 1 – 9. I heat up on 7½. You may need to reduce the heat slightly when you are cooking the naan – this will depend on your pan and how well it conducts and holds the heat.)
• Brush the tops side of the naan with water and when the pan is hot slap the first naan in the pan, water side down.
• Put the lid on immediately. As the bottom cooks, the top side will bubble up. When the base looks cooked (see photographs) turn the naan over and continue to cook, with the lid on, until the bubbled areas are medium to dark brown. It should take only 1-1½ minutes per side.

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Take the plate and drying up cloth out of the oven and then take the naan out of the pan and place on the cloth on the plate. Brush the top with butter or ghee, if you have it. You could also sprinkle on some sesame seeds or chopped herbs. Cover with the cloth and place in the oven to keep warm whilst you make the rest of the naan.  

NB – when you take one naan out of the pan do not immediately add the next. Instead, put the lid back on immediately whilst you butter the previous naan, add seeds and/or herbs and pop in the oven. This will give the pan sufficient time to heat up before you cook the next one.

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Made this recipe?

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