Naan raising agents?

[martinvic]

Thought this was interesting in light of Natterjacks non-rising naans.

http://chemistry.about.com/cs/foodchemistry/f/blbaking.htm

Quite a few none-yeast naan recipes call for baking powder and leaving the dough to rest for a while before cooking.
It seems from this article that unless you have double-acting baking powder, then you should cook your naans immediately, after making the dough, for them to rise best.

Food for thought maybe?

Martin

[natterjak]

Interesting. My non-rising naans may also have been down to not whisking the milk, yoghurt and egg mix very well because the bowl I mixed them in was a bit small and each time I tried whisking I was splashing the work top. So I wonder whether part of what makes CA's naans rise is air dissolved I to the liquid during the whisking.

[martinvic]

Wouldn't have thought so, as I believe it is the carbon dioxide produced by the raising agent that makes things rise.

Another thing I came across was that SR flour (Which you used in CA's naan recipe, and basically is just plain flour that has baking powder and salt already added) can stop working if it is old.


'Self-raising flour will not keep for very long. The baking powder absorbs moisture from the air, which reacts with other ingredients in the flour, affecting its ability to rise.'


Martin