Topic: UK School of Artisan Food Naan

[livo]

This recipe gets the thumbs up from me.     A very positive step forward and no Baking Powder anywhere.
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSxFpyS-kDQ
Closest I've come to a good naan so far, but I have another pan in the fire today.    It did want to drop off the tawa at the end of the inverted cook so again I'm wondering about the butter (oil) in the dough mix.

I already have a few little tweaks for this one I'll be trying out.  The written recipe describes a pre-ferment that doesn't feature in the video. Similar to a sourdough, this could boost the flavour.  The video just uses the ingredients from the pre-ferment and the actual bulk ingredients in one process but it did produce a good textured naan with nice flavour.  I mixed the dough 24 hours ago and refrigerated it till bench warming it for an hour before cooking.

Ingredients to do a full batch without the pre-ferment are:

500 g strong bread flour
10 g instant yeast  (3 tsp)
90 ml water
100 ml Buttermilk
150 ml milk
9 g salt (2 tsp)
20 g softened butter
seeds as desired.

Ends up at 68% hydration.
Bread mother or pre-ferment (or whatever else you want to call it) improves the keeping time of bread and enhances the complexity of the flavour profile.  These are 2 things that I feel have been missing from my naan up to this point.  Test is progress now.

[Peripatetic Phil]

My G@d, Livo, if you write much more on the science of naan bread I will feel forced to actually try making some    Seriously, though, well done on all your research efforts.

** Phil.

[livo]

All good Phil. Onward and upward from here now. What's a curry with a crappy naan? It has just taken a bit of experimentation, some very good advice, a fair deal of research and a bit of mess in the kitchen. I also think I've secured a tandoor oven so it's been a good week.  Also, writing it all down here makes me think around things. I'm taking notes for myself along the way.

[Sverige]

I like the detailed description of technique in that video and will try to replicate this technique with H4C ingredients and a tawa cooking method next time I make naans. Unfortunately it's only a couple of weeks since I last made them, so I have a freezer full (ok, about ten really) so this will have to wait.

[Garp]

Interesting stuff, Livo, and thanks for sharing your attempt to find your perfect naan.

I watched the video and it would have been good to have a look at the inside of the finished bread, and indeed, the bottom. For my preference, it looks a little doughy and heavy, but I could be wrong. Seeing the inside of one would help in that respect, so feel free to tear one in half and post a picture.

While I appreciate your search for a naan with lots of flavour, for me flavour is secondary to texture in this bread. I find the combination of Kalonji seeds, charred bits on the bread and brushing with butter ghee after cooking give sufficient flavour. I am, after all, going to use it to scoop up curry sauce which is the main flavour I want to encounter.

So I want my naan to be fluffy, light in most parts, possibly with a slightly crispier base in parts and a few lightly charred bits on top. H4C's gives me all that (though I may try a little salt next time - never thought it needed it really). Yeast-based recipes I have tried in the past haven't had a naan texture to me - often more like a crumpet (a la the Curry Guy's).

Anyway, keep up the search 

[livo]

I cooked this dough recipe test run single naan on the tawa.  The texture was fine garp. Not crumpety at all and possibly the closest I've come to tandoor one at home.  I have another half batch in the fridge now which I'll cook in few hours so I'll put a picture up. This time I made the dough using the ferment method (not shown in the video). I let the mother ferment for 4 hours @ 30' C.

I also have another test dough ready to cook.  A single naan, which will show two things. It will show if my baking powder is bad (out of date) and it will confirm whether or not H4ppy Chris' recipe has too much of it. I made a small batch of 3% self raising flour with my own plain flour and baking powder, sifted thoroughly and then used it to make the naan dough. I'm guessing I won't taste the baking powder, but we'll see.

[Bing]

Phil,My G@d, Livo, if you write much more on the science of naan bread I will feel forced to actually try making some. Agreed.

Garp,While I appreciate your search for a naan with lots of flavour, for me flavour is secondary to texture in this bread. I find the combination of Kalonji seeds, charred bits on the bread and brushing with butter ghee after cooking give sufficient flavour. I am, after all, going to use it to scoop up curry sauce which is the main flavour I want to encounter.

So I want my naan to be fluffy, light in most parts, possibly with a slightly crispier base in parts and a few lightly charred bits on top. H4C's gives me all that (though I may try a little salt next time - never thought it needed it really). Yeast-based recipes I have tried in the past haven't had a naan texture to me - often more like a crumpet (a la the Curry Guy's).
Anyway, keep up the search
Totally Agree.

Bing, one look at your ingredients list,movie link can show you search with different cultural goal. Not for authentic Indian Bir Naan bread. Two very different breads you make with different ingredients to hand. Bir ingredients confirmed many times over for Naan dough.

Good food science.

[livo]

This recipe may not be an exact BIR naan Bing, but compared to other recipes (and I've tried lots), in my opinion it is far superior.  This is the closest I've ever come to recreating the taste and texture of a Restaurant / Takeaway naan at home. (Australian naan that is).  It was soft, flexible, smooth textured, airy and tasty.  The full flavour probably comes from the ferment but I'll try again without and see what difference it actually makes.  This could easily be brought back into line with BIR.  Water, milk and buttermilk can easily be substituted with water, milk and yogurt as long as the same hydration is attained.  The difference between yogurt and buttermilk will be minimal.  If you want a nice naan, give this recipe a try.

My other test recipe this morning showed me the 2 things I expected it to.  There is nothing wrong with my Baking Powder (even though past the "Best Before" date) and it produced a perfectly good Self Raising Flour at 3%. It clearly showed me as well that H4ppy Chris recipe is Baking Powder overload. For my tastes that is and I may just be sensitive to it.  I ate the whole naan this morning for breakfast and it was delicious.  No baking powder after taste at all.

Now I've got about 5 or 6 naan in the fridge to feed to my last remaining chicken. 

The next thing I need to perfect is filling them with cheese to make Shahi Naan.

[livo]

I just cooked my daughter a cheese stuffed naan from one of the remaining balls of this dough. She says it is the best naan I've ever cooked.  I did have a little taste and it is as close as I'll get to what I want without a Tandoor.  I used about 1/2 cup of 50 / 50 tasty cheddar and mozzarella.

Hopefully one of those isn't far away.  I could get 2 in Melbourne nearly brand spanking new, but the freight isn't worth it.  Nothing in Sydney at the moment.  The one I thought I could get keeps disappearing from the internet and the seller isn't replying.  I cannot find an Australian supplier of Pakistani gas home portable tandoor ovens.  Google just doesn't do it.

[livo]

I made another batch of this dough over the weekend, this time a full quantity as per video ingredient list. It produced enough for 6 small naan and probably 4 or 5 average size. Due to being very busy on Friday evening and all of Saturday I had to arrest the ferment stage in the fridge for 36 hours. It wasn't a problem and the final dough again cooked delicious naan.
Cheese naan is a problem for inverted tawa method. The cheese melts and causes the middle of the naan to belly downward under the weight. It leaks through and also causes the naan to unstick. Might have to go back to the pizza cooker for stuffed naan (but I'm hoping on bringing a tandoor home tomorrow. Fingers crossed.)