Topic: H4ppy-chris new naan recipe

[Gav Iscon]

I forgot to mention that I experimented with my Pizza Cooker.  It is an electric unit in flying saucer shape with a stone on the bottom and an exposed element on top.  I must say it works pretty well.

livo, is your pizza cooker modded and can you post a photo of your finished naans off it please.

[livo]

I have 4 in the fridge balled up ready to cook so I'll pop them through tomorrow and take a pic for you.

[livo]

Here are pics of the Mothership Pizza Oven. I have the balls out warming to room temp now so I'll post some pics of cooked Naan in an hour or so.

[livo]

2 Naan, one buttered, one not plus underside.  Eating the buttered one as I type.  Delicious.

[Gav Iscon]

Cheers livo, I take it you oven is just standard.

[livo]

Yeah mate, that's it pictured.  The orange thing.  My mother in law bought it for us last Xmas since I do cook a few pizzas.  It is fine for doing stone baked pizza and I thought it would work just as well for Naan and it did.

[Peripatetic Phil]

The impression I get from the photographs (and this is not intended as a criticism, just as a statement of fact) is that the texture of the cooked outside is closer to that of a pitta bread than it is of a conventional tandoor-cooked naan.  Is this a fair analysis, or do the photographs mislead ?

** Phil.

[livo]

No that is a fair analysis.  I have to admit that the dough I ended up with was not soft or fluffy.  I didn't have SR Flour so used plain and simply added extra Baking Powder and some salt, which according to some sources is all that SR Flour is.  Of course that isn't exactly the case as I've discovered previously and again with these.

It is most likely that the dough was over-worked a bit as well as my hand mixer was not up to the job so I did a fair bit of kneading by hand.  I still have quite a way to go but it did eat up quite well.

The main thing is that the pizza oven will do the job until I find a steel tawa.

[Korma Chameleon]

I spent quite some time trying to crack naans. I'd say 50% of Chris's success here comes from the right ingedients, but to be honest, a lot of recipes are very similar in their ingredients. What cracked it for me was the method Chris uses. For me the missing key was the upside down pan, very quick cook, top and bottom. That's the key. Why can the take-aways somehow manage that naan flavour so easy? Because they have a tandoori oven and we don't! So we need to recreate our own, and we can do that by ensuring the naan sticks to our pan and then turning it over. Nothing else works quite the same, other than a tandoori oven of course.

[livo]

There is still more to it for me.  I haven't found the taste or fluffiness that comes from the shops.
Water Vs Milk, Yogurt or not? Plain white wheat flour or actual Indian Maida Flour. 

I spent a few years baking my own bread and have read up extensively on baking ingredients and techniques.  My naans still need something.  I'll buy a Tawa and build a Tandoor soon but I still think there is something else.