First off i'd like to say, when i posted my photos it was because i have, like all of you had LOTS of failures and i'm the sort of person who likes everyone to succeed, i would get no pleasure in posting my efforts if i was just saying look at what i can do (that's not me) i was trying to say thank you to those who have helped me to achieve some of my goals.

I also struggle to recommend any particular method that costs money as i would hate it if you blamed me for it not working for you.

The breadmaker is the second one that i have owned, the first one was when they became popular a few years ago and i have to say it was an unmitigated disaster. The new one i bought with naan and pizza dough in mind, has a larger 2lb capacity which when i double up on the recipe fills just over a third of the bread pan, when proving it will push up into the lid of the machine and has to be monitored to stop it going over the top.

When the naan dough has finished it looks very aerated, sticky, slightly wet and pliable, i don't push my hands in to remove the dough or knock it back as in traditional bread making, i just turn it out and give it a light dusting of flour and allow it to rest for 10/15 mins while the pizza  maker warms up.

I will when i have a bit more time post pictures of the process.

Axe, you asked me to be critical, wow that's so hard as my curry quest started in the mid 80's and i have eaten a lot of bought BIR/TA's in that time, my two local restaurants take different approaches, one is expensive and serves top notch gas tandoor oven baked naans and the other is cheap and serves the biggest naans i've ever seen (they are like a table cloth) they are cooked similar to how Dipuraja's does them in a large oven but are not blistered and scorched, both taste good.

Now mine taste and have the texture of the first BIR that i described and if you eat them  in the restaurant they are  blistered, crisp and light and not hard but if you have them TA from the same place then the moisture in the silver lined naan bread bag makes them soggy and more chewy, if i bring home a naan from the cheap and cheerful place their naan goes hard if you leave it to go cold.

I haven't tried keema naan yet but i have tried peshwari which worked out well to make, unfortunately  the filling wasn't quite right, a work in progress 

Sorry for the ramble i find explaining so hard, Rob.

Hi all,

I'm not the messiah where naan breads are concerned but i have managed after a lot of trial and error to get a very acceptable result using a pizza maker, i still want a tandoor oven but for now this method does it for me.

I've tried all the other methods with yeast and without, splash guard over a gas ring, upturned tava plus grill and bake stone in the oven but for me the pizza maker produces reproducible consistent results.

I have tried mixing my naan dough by hand which i'm sure is what the BIR's would do but the results were always disappointing (heavy and stodgy with a sour yeast after taste) i.e Dips method, which probably works better with a clay oven than his video shows.

In the end i found that a breadmaker machine using very precise measures of ingredients made a soft pliable dough which when left to rise (in the breadmaker) and turned out onto a floured silicon sheet, without punching it down or reworking it and left for 10 mins to rise again.

Then the right amount was pinched out and rolled quite thinly, i've tried shaping by hand and that does work but it seems to puff up and blister quicker when rolled out.


So in a nutshell i don't think it's just the pizza maker but a combination of correct recipe dough and making sure your baking stone is up to temp and more importantly seasoned (give it some abuse with pizza and flat bread for a while) else it will stick.

For the naan recipe i use and the method <a href="https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=4610.0" target="_blank">CLICK HERE</a>

God that was confusing and i wrote it 

Oh well just my 2p's worth, Rob.

No problem Domi just ask when you're ready and i'll try to help if i can.

All noted on the traditional bread making comments, humidity while proving can make or break your efforts for sure and that's why the bread maker took a lot of the guess work out of it, plus the taste of a fresh baked crusty loaf waiting for you in the morning and smothered in butter makes it all worthwhile

CA i'll pop over to that thread and see if there's anything i can add (you never know) lol

Cheers Rob.

Well i wish i could say that my naan making has always been as straight forward as i described but the truth is finding a suitable naan recipe has been bloody frustrating, i think i've tried them all.

IMO the measures are critical and have to be consistant.

Domi the bread maker is worth its weight in gold it again took some trial and error, we've had everything from house bricks to door stops : but it makes excellent traditional bread, pizza dough and even better naans just persist and it soon comes right.

SS the pizza maker has opened up the naan possibilities for me, the only slight problem is the plastic cover on the side has started to melt slightly cos i've got it on afterburn to cook with, mind you it's had some serious use over the couple of months i've owned it and if it went wrong i would definitely buy another.

Rob.

P.S @Willyeckerslike, sorry although i posted the link for Amazon as an example i didn't buy it from there, have a look on here its the makers home page CLICK HERE

It would be a bit rude to say my naans were BIR but damn it they definitely are, fluffy light with a slight crunch in places when eaten straight away and nice the following morning when the leftovers get eaten for breakfast.

Hi,

The naan recipe is from the wifes Kenwood rapid-bake breadmaker and is as follows.

90ml water
45ml natural yoghurt (Tesco's value)
15ml olive oil
225g unbleached white bread flour (Tesco's again)
5ml salt
5ml sugar
25g butter (melted in microwave)
5ml dried yeast (Tesco's fast action) < the only one that doesn't leave a yeast after taste

melted butter for brushing (I used extra virgin olive oil)

Method/  I double up on everything (I like big naans)  ;D

Pour water, yoghurt, olive oil and melted butter into breadmaker pan
Sprinkle over the flour covering the liquids
Add salt and sugar in seperate corners, make a well in centre of flour and add dried yeast
Select dough cycle on machine and leave until finished and risen

I used this type of pizza maker CLICK HERE they're about ?60 and lots of online stores sell them.

Get the stone heated until the light goes out @ setting 1.5 then shape the naans and cook @ full tilt until blistered, finish off with a brush of oil.


One nice trick is to use Wright's cheese and onion bread mix (tesco's) which you just add water following the packets instruction and these although not naans make a quick flat bread alternative if your pushed for time (i still prefer the naan recipe though) and no I don't work for Tesco's 

Have fun, Rob.

Just a few photos of my latest curry efforts, thanks to the recipes on this board 



^^^ Blades tikka marinade ^^^



^^^ Cooked on a gas barbeque ^^^



^^^ Dipuraja's Tikka Massala - using CA's curry base ^^^



^^^ Dipuraja's Mushroom Pilau Rice



^^^ Plain Naan Bread - Breadmaker Recipe baked in a pizza oven ^^^



^^^ Completed Meal - My Best attempt yet ^^^

If anyone wants the breadmaker naan recipe putting up then please ask.

Rob.

Got to give a BIG thumbs up for Dips tikka masala with a few toasted almond flakes added at the end of cooking and a few sprinkled on top for garnish, this is the same as my local BIR

I prefer Blades or the Lasan marinade but the main CTM method does it for me  ;D

Rob.

Well I don't know if this will help Axe.

I personally don't like the smell of a base as its cooking in fact i'd say it was pungent, however as the base comes up to the finishing point its smell changes considerably for the better.

As far as taste is concerned the better ones have a more rounded taste not overpowering but definitely lacking that rawness (the cooking aroma) whereas some of the poorer ones seem to retain it to the end somewhat IMO

The difference for me is a thin fairly tasteless consomme type soup compared to a more cream of onion style soup but never having tasted the real deal i'm just going of my finished dishes.

The other thing that struck me was people saying a base should be bland, which begs the question is bland no heat or no onion taste or indeed both?

With this in mind i tend to not add any chilli at the base cooking stage preferring instead to add it to the final dish as appropriate, this seems to make the base more versatile (for me at least)

Rob.

Too Late..... Doh!!! where's the delete button?

I don't know if its just coincidence but of the four different bases i've tried the raw base has got progressively more tasty with a corresponding improvement in finished dishes along the way, although this could also be put down to experience and better cooking methods.
I still have a small amount of darth's base and a shed load of ashoka base, plus a recent ca base to compare with but on the face of it the tasty bases seem better IMHO 

Rob.