Naan bread

[Mamta]

I make a perfectly reasonable naan bread but never as wonderful as the ones made by chefs in good Indian restaurants. I have asked many chefs/cooks in restaurants and road side 'Dhabas' in India, tried what they tell me (add milk/don't add milk, add yeast/don't add yeast, add oil /don't add oil, make with live yoghurt alone, cook in oven/under the grill/on a pan and so on) but it is never as good as them .
Every time I make naans, I keep varying things a little but it never is as good. I don't have a 'tandoor' oven with it's high temperatures, but is this the only missing factor? Does anyone here know? I cook them on a hot pan these days, rather than oven.

[Dom]

Mamta,

there isn't a lot of talk on this forum about flat bread and indian breads, though I for one am a big fan.

You may have more to teach us, than we have to teach you!

what recipe are you using currently?

cheers
Dom

[Mamta]

Hello Dom
I am using one or other of these recipes;
http://www.mamtaskitchen.com/recipe_dis ... p?id=10108
http://www.mamtaskitchen.com/recipe_dis ... p?id=13295
As I said, they are okay, but not like the paper light, crispy but soft naans that you get in good Indian restaurants!
I am new here, so not sure about posting links, I hope it is okay, since they are not anyone else's links.
Mamta

[Dom]

Mamta,

thanks for the recipe links - there is no problem with putting links in your posts.
I also found your recipe for chapatis

I have often made chapatis over the years, but you have a number of handy hints on your website that I haven't heard before.
I will have to try them again soon.

cheers
Dom

[pab]

Mamta, I also can't wait to try them! What a splendid website you have created.

One little thought from me on naans - many years ago I had a bread machine (yuk) but the one thing it did well was make naan dough which would grill to perfection.

Pete

[shooz]

Another thumbs up for your website. The chapati tips are helpful, but tell me something - what is chapati flour? Is it ordinary wholewheat flour? Strong bread flour? I'm looking forward to having another bash at making chapatis to go with my weekly dahl

And, I'm going to be spending a lot of time at your site I can tell - huge number of vegetarian recipes, hurrah!

[lepard]

Hi Mamta,

Your website is fascinating! The only tweaks I would make to your recipe would be to increase the water a little (25ml - 50ml), add a little strong flour if your using UK plain flour (Plain flour in the UK is milled for no particular purpose, and it usually shows), and reduce the yeast.

Increasing the water will make dough lighter as it expands in the heat and the steam bubbles add to the aeration in the crumb. In the Tamil "diners" in Tooting, near my home in south London, the naan is mixed, shaped and baked in the windows, and the dough texture is quite soft, elastic and floppy. Adding a little strong flour will mean you can increase the water slightly and still have a manageable dough. Reducing the yeast can give lighter dough, curiously, as too much yeast can overwork the dough and cause it to become heavy. Try halving it. Boil the milk and let it cool before using it, as raw milk can make dough tough. A little steam will help make the naan lighter. The shape of a tandoor probably keeps the heat moist and slows the moisture loss from the dough as it is baked upright stuck on the oven wall (so the steam will travel through the length of the dough, rather than flat). I bake mine in a wok with a lid, sat over a moderate heat on the hob, and this (I think) helps produce a very light naan:



Dan

[Mamta]

Thank you Dan, I am going to try the things you have suggested and get back to you. I think you may have hit the nail on the head about flour. Indian plain flour is probably higher in Gluten than the UK one and rises pretty fast! I did not know that too much yeast can make the dough heavy, but now that you mention it, it makes sense, rising and falling too fast? I did not know about the raw milk either. You see, milk is always boiled before consumption in India, even if it is pasteurized.
I make mine in an old pan these days, it is hardly worth heating an oven for just the two of us and it never gets hot enough for good naans anyway. Many people in India cook it over an upturned wok or have a gas top tandoor.
I have your book ‘The Handmade Loaf’ and I try various recipes from it regularly. Sour dough bread has eluded me so far, having tried many recipes over the last couple of years. The best I have eaten was in San Francisco and it is my dream to get it right. May be I will buy their ‘starter’ flakes one day and cheat a bit !

Dom, hope your chapatties come out nice. They are quite easy to make once you get the hang of rolling them out.
Pab, I do make my naan dough in a beard machine these days, much easier than kneading by hand!

Shooz, chapatti flour is not strong flour. It is plain wheat flour. It comes in different grade. The one most commonly used flour for chapatties and parathas etc. is number 2 or medium chapatti flour, which has some bran removed from it. In India, people (including my mum) used to buy wheat, wash/dry it and then send it to the flour mill for grinding. She still does it, though most people now buy milled flour. When I am in a country where they don’t have chapatti flour, I make chapatties by mixing whole meal and white flour , but never strong flour. Chapatties are flat breads and do not need high gluten to rise.
Mamta

[Dom]

Mamta,

if you send me a PM with your address I can post you some dried starter (though it isn't necessary to get a starter going).

I will have to try rolling out the chapatis with the middle thicker than the edges - as you suggest.
I have never been able to work out why some puff up beautifully, and some just bubble!

cheers
Dom

[choc99veg]

I am wondering if Gram flour (made from chickpeas) is chapati flour?