One of my favorite things about Indian food is naan is always served. Although it’s considered a flatbread, it is thicker and fluffier than its better know cousin pita. It’s a delicious appetizer and also especially good for sopping up gravies and sauces with the main course (like the broth from the Curried Cauliflower Rice Kale Soup I recently made). Unfortunately, I rarely eat naan anymore because it’s hard to find in my area. Until now. This naan bread recipe came with step-by-step instructions that looked pretty easy to follow. I’ve never made bread before, so here we go!
I really love homemade bread, especially this homemade naan. I put together step by step photos and instructions for you guys, so there is really no messing up this one! There is even a video…..ok, you guys have to try this!! You won’t regret it, promise!
The Ingredients
Everything for this naan bread recipe is very basic. Most of the ingredients are things I keep on hand. The only thing I had to shop for was the active dry yeast. I found small jars of yeast in the baking aisle of my local grocery store. Although the jars weren’t very big, they were far more than I needed. I always hate to buy too much of something I’m not sure I’ll use up because I hate to waste food, and my tiny pantry is stuffed full as it is. Fortunately, dry yeast is also sold in small packets. They’re actually strips of 3 packets, and each packet has just over twice the amount needed for this recipe. Perfect!
The Process
This naan bread recipe took some time, 1 hour 43 minutes total, but it really wasn’t difficult. The most time-consuming parts of this recipe were inactive: 10 minutes waiting for the yeast to foam and 1 hour for the dough to rise. That leaves 33 minutes of active time for prep and cooking. Not too bad, really.
I did have to mix the yeast, water, and sugar twice to get it to resemble the author’s picture. I used hot tap water as instructed the first time. I don’t think my tap water was hot enough, however, because the sugar didn’t quite dissolve, and the yeast really hadn’t foamed after sitting for 10 minutes. For the second try, I heated the water in the microwave for 15 seconds first, and my results were picture perfect. The sugar dissolved, and the yeast foamed up after 10 minutes.
Dividing and rolling out the dough was very easy. The dough wasn’t super sticky, but you will still need a floured work surface. Then it’s just a matter of brushing the rolled out naans with melted butter and cooking them. I used a lot of butter—almost a whole stick. I also found I only needed to cook the naan for 1 minute on each side. The recipe does say 1-2 minutes once you flip it, but mine burned a bit when I went much over a minute.
