Naan

I’ve been experimenting with naan recipes. Some of my batches would be great for pizza dough, but tasted nothing like naan. This recipe is close to restaurant-style naan, but I think you need a tandori oven to really pull it off. Apparently if you have a pizza stone, you can get close to tandori-made naan. I don’t have a pizza stone, so I just used a baking sheet.

Ingredients
2 cups of flour (white or whole wheat)
1 teaspoon active dry yeast
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons sugar
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons plain yogurt
3/4 cup lukewarm water
1 teaspoon melted butter or ghee

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 500ºF with pizza stone or baking sheet on the lower rack.
1. Dissolve yeast in lukewarm water and let it sit for about 5 minutes.
2. Sift together sugar, salt, baking soda and flour.
3. Add the oil, water/yeast mixture and yogurt and mix well.
4. Knead until the dough is smooth, about 5-6 minutes. Add more flour if the dough is too sticky.
5. Place dough in an oiled bowl, cover and let rise until doubled in size, 3-4 hours.
8. Gently knead the dough for a couple minutes and divide it into six equal parts.
9. Take each piece of dough, and hand-flatten to a disk about 1/2 thick. Don’t worry if it isn’t even, that gives it character.
10. Place two pieces on the pizza stone/baking sheet at a time. Cook for 3-4 minutes, or until puffy and light golden brown.
11. Allow the stone/baking sheet to heat back up for a few minutes before making the next batch. Since I am impatient, I use two baking sheets. One sheet is heating up while the other is cooking the naan.
11. Remove naan from oven and brush with butter or ghee.
Serve hot.
Yu-umm.