Topic: Cooking Naan Breads

[merrybaker]

Part of the charm of a good naan is that some areas are thicker and fluffy, and some are thin and crisp.  You won't get that using a rolling pin.  You have to pat and stretch it instead.  Another thing, that uneven-ness prevents it from puffing up like a balloon, or pocket pita.

-Mary

[Chilli Prawn]

Well said Mary

CP

[George]

Is there much strong evidence that any/many BIRs prepare their own naan breads from basic dough, whether they make the dough themselves or buy it in?

The reason I wonder is that a friend of a friend works for a firm who supposedly supply many, many Indian restaurants with pre-cooked naan breads a bit like you get from supermarkets. They just reheat them! I am trying to find out more but it may take some time.

Regards
George

[Chilli Prawn]

True George.  Lets face it, bread cooking is a specialised art on its own, and I can't see the halfwits in many BIRs being able to cope with Naans.  However Chappattis are a different matter, Hmmmmm ...........

[spicysarsy]

  Once tried my hand at making Naan in the takeaway which I was doing deliveries for, I got the texture and shape just right, but when it came to sticking it on the wall of the tandoor I burned all the hairs on me bleeding arm and the Naan fell into the bottom. { much to the delight of the staff }.

[Chilli Prawn]

Bet that dampened down the Tandoor then  ;D  Anyone for toast?

[Ashes]

This may come a shock to you.. but there is another type of food called pizza 

This is an interview with an Canadian/American guy who for many years has being trying to perfect the perfect restaurant pizza. Now although this hasn't much to do with nan bread, it goes to show the problems of creating restaurant food in a home set-up.. he explains it pretty well and gives some tips about bread making in general. There is certainly something that will help you one step further along the road to a perfect home made nan. Hope this helps!!

http://jvpizza.sliceny.com/JeffOnCanadianRadioOct06.wmv

Ashes

[Roy22]

Thanks for the replies!  Some interesting points.  The reply with the link to a radio discussion about pizza bases was pretty relevant too, I thought, as this is something I've tried (and failed) to get right too.

The conclusion I came too about pizza bases was that they are cooked in a blazingly hot oven, very fast.  On TV, I think I saw an Italian cook move a pile of burning wood cinders (in an oven) aside a foot or so, and then immediately put the pizza onto the vacated 'hot spot'.  The high temperature crisps the outside whilst leaving the inner moist, provided it is pulled out just minutes later.

My gas oven goes up to Mark 9  which is 240 degrees C.  My guess is that this is nowhere near hot enough.  The 'glowing red hot' ovens of a pizzeria are likely to be at least double this (I work with furnaces but not the sort you can put food in!) and perhaps far hotter.  To the poster who mentioned putting a pizza stone in the oven for a long time, I do doubt that even stabilised at 240C, this would ever suffice.  My hunch is that successful naans are 90% about the cooking and 10% about the dough recipe.

Anyway, the comments on the radio interview link kind of support this idea, as he tampers (dangerously) to override his oven's clean cycle temperature limit.

Another problem with pizza stones, incidentally, is the ease of breaking them.  I didn't dare copy the moist dough as used in a restaurant, which they want to 'stick' to a tandoor's wall, after reading countless stories on Amazon.com of reviewers cracking their Sassafras stones by thermal shock etc.  Cold liquid onto brittle stone at 240C isn't good.

The other factor with a Tandoor is the 'clay effect' which at least a stone should emulate.

Does anyone have an idea of temperatures inside a Tandoor?  I did get a look inside one once, it didn't look all that hot but then it might not have been in proper use at the time.  I know the cooks lose the hair on the arm they use to place naans against the wall.  Can anyone shed any light on how hot tandoors get?  Do the electric ones have a temperature dial to adjust which would give this away?

[DARTHPHALL]

Someone on this forum has bought one, cant remember who, they seemed to get some great results with it, do a search, you will find him & his amazing Oven.

[Ashes]

Didnt Pete have his own tandoor?

According to Pat Chapman a tandoor gets up to temperatures of 370 degrees. Which is hot but not as hot as a clay pizza oven (some use wood others use coal). The pizza places around stockholm which use an electric tray type oven cook at 320 degrees ( ive checked the termometer on the outside). But both use the idea of really high temperatures and clay, which absorbs moister and retains heat.  If you look at the shape of a pizza oven and a tandoor youll see they are both designed to let intense heat circulate, this increases the heat i think, thats why fan assisted ovens need less heat to cook food than a standard oven. Its a shame your standard oven doesnt get hotter than 260 degrees, but i guess youll have all sorts of problems with trying to get rid of that heat.

what a pizza stone will help do is to retain some of the heat when you open and close the door,  also contact heat from a hot stone or a hot iron frying pan (which i sometimes use) or a tava also helps to inject heat. But if you want to get it right youll have to buy a home tandoor, or make one.. but the main problem for people is where to use it.

Regards Ashes