WHAT CAN YOU DO with flour, water, milk, yeast and salt? You can turn them into Naan, just as I did this week. Naan is an ancient, Central-Asian flatbread with a wonderfully-wheaty taste and a crisp but chewy texture. I like to form the dough into long “snowshoe” shapes, and serve them with dinner or as an appetizer at parties. The dough is remarkably easy to make, and forming it with wet fingers is two tons of fun.
I should probably mention that most contemporary recipes for Naan dough call for baking powder and sugar. However, the Naan-making nomads of Central Asia didn’t use baking powder or sugar for their breads, and consequently neither do I.
Here's the recipe in words and pictures, followed by a printer-friendly copy-and-paste version (the latter will give you exact measurements):
First, pour warm water and milk into a big bowl.
Then sprinkle the surface with active dry yeast...
And some kosher salt.
Grab a spoon which won't clash with the color of your mixing bowl, and use it to stir in 2 cups of all-purpose flour.
Be sure to stir in one direction only. This will encourage the strands of gluten to develop.
As you stir, keep adding flour by the 1/2 cupful.
Stop adding flour when the dough becomes too stiff to stir.
Next, scoop the sticky mass onto your generously-floured work surface, and knead the dough until it feels smooth and elastic. This will take about 10 minutes.
As you knead the dough, I hope this gawd-awful tune doesn't run through your head.
In my college years, I was the lead singer in a "cover band" that regularly performed at weddings. And what song did the happy couple always request? The aforementioned, gawd-awful song.
A few years later, I dyed my hair black and red, and became a punk-rock singer. Or, rather, a singer with a punk-rock look. No more weddings. Instead, I performed at CBGBs (seven times!) and The Bitter End in NYC.
But why are asking me about my misspent youth?
After all, we're in the midst of making Naan.
Please try to stay focused.
Now wash out, dry, and lightly oil the mixing bowl. Add the dough, and then flip it so that both sides are coated. Cover with plastic wrap, and let rise in a warm spot until doubled in volume -- about 2 hours. In winter, my "warm spot" is always a heating pad set to "low."
Meanwhile, set a big pizza stone or some unglazed quarry tiles on the center oven rack. One hour before you are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 500°F.
Naan is a fast bread, because it requires only one rise. (Other breads, including the baguettes we made last week, require 3 rises.)
Form the dough into a rough rectangle, and then cut it in half. Place one half under a sheet of lightly oiled (or vegetable-sprayed) plastic wrap.
Cut the other half into 5 equal pieces. Place all but one piece under plastic.
Using a rolling pin, roll out one segment into an 8- by 5-inch rectangle.
Sprinkle the rectangle with a pinch of kosher salt, and, if you wish, a sprinkling of sesame seeds, dried herbs, or fresh, minced chives.
Here comes the first fun part: With very wet fingers, make lots of indentations all over the dough.
Here's the second fun part: Lift the dough onto your wrist, and then raise your arm, and let the dough elongate itself to about 12 inches.
Open the oven door and quickly set the dough on the hot stone or tiles. Bake the snowshoe until its edges puff up, and its color turns from white to spotty brown -- 6-8 minutes. Do not overcook.
Form and bake the other snowshoes. If you are using a large baking stone or unglazed tiles, you can bake 2 or 3 snowshoes at a time.
Now grab a pastry brush, which, in a perfect world, would be purple not red, and brush the warm bread with some melted, unsalted butter.
Or, skip the butter, let the loaves cool, and then freeze them. When you are ready to serve, simply reheat the Naan and then brush it with butter.
Homemade Naan is outrageously delicious.
Can I offer you a crisp, chewy taste?
And here, as promised, is a printer-friendly copy-and-paste version of the above:
Snowshoe Naan
An ancient bread, as made by Kevin Lee Jacobs
Ingredients for 10 loaves, approximately 12 inches long, and 7 inches wide
2 cups warm water (110F degrees)
1 cup warm milk (110F degrees)
1 packet dry active yeast (2 1/4 tsp)
1 Tbsp salt (plus extra for sprinkling tops of loaves)
5-6 cups unbleached, all-purpose or "plain" flour
A little olive oil or vegetable spray for greasing the mixing bowl
Sesame Seeds or fresh or dried herbs, for topping the breads
4 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted (for brushing the bread after it has baked)
Special equipment — A large pizza stone or unglazed ceramic tiles on which to bake the snowshoes.
1. Making the dough — Pour the water and milk into a large bowl; sprinkle on the yeast and salt. Then stir in 2 cups of flour. Stir in one direction to help the strands of gluten develop. Stir in more flour, 1/2 cup at a time, until the dough becomes too stiff to stir.
2. Kneading the dough — Dump the dough onto a floured board, sprinkle more flour on top, and knead until smooth and elastic -- about 10 minutes.
3. The first (and only!) rise — Wash and dry the bowl, and then grease it lightly with olive oil or vegetable spray. Then return the dough to the bowl. Flip the dough so that each side is coated with oil or spray. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and let rise until double in volume - 2 to 3 hours. If you are impatient (like me), set the bowl on a common heating pad set to the lowest setting. The dough will be ready in approximately 1 hour.
4. Preheating the oven — One hour before you are ready to bake, set the pizza stone or unglazed ceramic tiles on the middle oven rack. Preheat the oven to 500°F.
5. Forming the dough – Deflate the dough, and pour it onto your floured surface. Form it into a rough rectangle, and then cut the rectangle in half. Cover one half of the dough with plastic wrap. Cut the other half into 5 equal-size pieces. Place all but one piece under plastic.
Roll out one segment into a rectangular shape about 8 inches long and 5 inches wide. Sprinkle with a pinch of salt and the sesame seeds or herbs. Then, with very wet fingers, make lots of indentations all over the dough. Then lift the dough onto your wrist, raise your arm, and let the dough elongate itself to about 12 inches.
6. Baking the Naan — Open the oven door and quickly set the dough on the hot stone or tiles. Bake until its edges puff up, and its color turns from white to spotty brown -- 6-8 minutes. Do not overcook.
Form and bake the other snowshoes. If you are using a large baking stone or unglazed tiles, you can bake 2 or 3 snowshoes at a time.
7. Serving — Brush the bread with melted butter, and serve at once. Naan — no matter how you make it or bake it — is always at its delicious best while still warm.
Freezing: After baking, omit the butter. Let the loaves cool to room temperature, and then freeze them in a plastic bag. Reheat when you are ready, and then brush with melted butter.
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