Topic: UK School of Artisan Food Naan

[livo]

I made naan last night using this recipe as the main guide but modified it slightly to include aspects from other things going on at the moment.  The result was the best naan I have ever made at home.

I've been recently exploring preferment pizza / calzone dough with retardation by refrigeration as well as sourdough baking in both white and wholemeal / grain breads.  As a bit of an experiment I included some of my white sourdough starter culture in the preferment of this SOAF naan recipe and let it bubble away on the kitchen bench for about 4 hours before building the naan dough.  This slightly changed the hydration of the pre-ferment to almost a heavy batter consistency.

Other changes to the liquid / flour ratio were calculated based on the inclusion of the starter and I also added a 60 g egg to the mix (XXXXX's Deluxe naan).  Just to see what would happen I used Self-Raising flour instead of Plain in the final dough build along with the instant yeast. No superfluous baking powder was used.

Due to a few unforeseen events of the afternoon, the final dough was allowed to sit on the bench for longer than expected and the bench rise was significant to say the least.  I punched it down to degas the dough before dividing and making 6 small rounds.  The texture and characteristic of the dough was outstanding and the resultant inversion tawa cooked naan were without doubt the best I've ever achieved.

A bit of work involved and maybe not how a fast-paced BIR would do it, but absolutely worth the effort.

[livo]

The Deluxe version.  Sourdough starter preferment, Self Raising flour plus egg.

[khemas]

Hi there (from France sorry for the crappy english)

I shortly had a look at the pre-ferment phase and it's really very close to a "biga" which is also one kind of pre-ferment used mainly for neapolitan pizze...Same thing for the dough high hydratation rate with strong flours.
If the idea is to keep things as close as possible to the way you are supposed to prepare and cook an high hydratation pizza, I think you would also need to reduce the quantity of yeast used, which is really A LOT in this recipe. Too much yeast alters your dough flavor and can cause it to "overferment" (don't know if it's an english word lol)

For the pre-ferment phase I would use
200g strong flour (W>270)
100g water
5g fresh yeast or 1,66g of dry yeast
Mix everything very slightly, don't knead as it would develop the glutinous network which is not what we wants, then cling film it and right to the fridge for 48h

For the final dough I would add to our pre-ferment
400g liquid (you can use a mix of water, yoghurt, milk, up to your preferences)
500g strong flour (W>270)
15g mix of salt/sugar (up to you)

Mix the preferment with water until it melts into some kind of paste, then add 50% of the flour, mix, add sea salt, mix, and add the other 50% and mix again for 15-20mn (robot). If you don't have any robot, you can use the autolysis method but you'll have to wait longer until the dough is nice and elastic

(let it rest for 30 min then make the dough balls and let it rest for only 2 hours and your dough it's ready to use.

If you want the best result, cook your naan just below your oven resistance, preheated to its max setting. You can also begin cooking on a pan (or preferably hot tawa), just slightly wet your naan base before you put it on the tawa, and then, finish cooking under your oven grill.

I'm not a naan specialist, but the recipe looks like a pizza recipe "adapted" to naan cooking...

[Peripatetic Phil]

Thanks for that, Khemas

[khemas]

By resistance I mean, the grill part...
What's the english name for that ? Resistor ? Weird I doubted of many words I used, but not this one !!!

[Peripatetic Phil]

OK, now I understand why you used "resistance" !  In practice we just call it the grill "element", where "electric[al] element" is implied; only an electrical engineer would think of it as a resistance (or resistor) although of course that is exactly what it is, and why/how it works ...

** Phil.

[livo]

Useful information khemas and completely correct. There is a lot of similarity between the many different applications of pre-fermenting. The use of a processed yeast, sometimes called spiking, is dependent mainly upon time schedules.  If you have 3 days it is not required, or at least only in small quantity.  If you need to cook same day the biga or poolish or barm or starter will require some help.

Purist artisan Bakers frown upon the practice but commercial bakeries have no problem.

I've made this naan recipe several different ways from same day to 3 days and you are correct in saying that the yeast is too much for the slow version.  For "instant" naan it is required but it will taste different.

The video actually shows the all-in approach with no preferment at all.

[livo]

I'm not a naan specialist, but the recipe looks like a pizza recipe "adapted" to naan cooking...

That is pretty much what it is.

Nan, pronounced naan (or narn) is a general use word that translates to "bread" or more specifically leavened flat bread.  Consequently there is no single correct naan recipe just as there is no single correct bread recipe.  We could just as easily adapt a pizza dough recipe to make a loaf or a Focaccia.

I have a very old photocopied page out of an Indian recipe book which is for Tandoori Roti.

125 g Natural Yogurt
450 g plain flour
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp baking powder [Note: You now have a very weak (5 / 450 X 100 = 1.1%) Self Raising flour]
1/2 tsp salt [Note: In some countries salt is included in SR Flour]
1 ¹/₂ sachets fast action yeast [Note: this is equal to 3 tsp or 10.5 g]
1 level TBSP ghee or unsalted butter
1 medium egg
150 ml warm milk

These ingredients appear to me to be very much the same as would appear in the Deluxe UK naan and some would argue that it isn't a roti at all.  With this amount of yeast the suggested rise time is between ¹/₂ and ³/₄ hour before shaping and cooking.

[Stephen Lindsay]

Are cheese naan served in the Antipodes, Livo ?  The only naan I have ever encountered in the UK (apart from plain, of course) are Peshwari and keema.

** Phil.

I've seen cheese naans on menus here in Scotland, and of course Irn Bru and Mars Bar naans too.

[Garp]

 

My favourite is the haggis and Buckfast naan.