I love flatbreads — with bean or lentil based stews and curries, with Za’atar and olive oil, and used in place of flour tortillas for soft tacos. (Unfortunately most store bought flour tortillas have hydrogenated oil.)
I came across this recipe on Instagram and modified it very little. No baking powder needed in my opinion, but yes a dash of salt, and I like a little butter brushed on the bread before flipping. Here is a short YouTube video of naan being flipped on the fry pan.
I’ve used sourdough starter in all states of growth and dormancy, and the naan has come out great. I’ve also experimented with mixing the dough and leaving it in the fridge for days and days. The resulting naan was delicious and this gives you flexibility to make something fresh and special at the last minute.
While I almost have the recipe memorized, I wanted to write it up so I don’t forget the details or have to keep referring to my notebook scribbles.
This makes 8-10 naan (total uncooked dough weight ~670g).
You’ll need a 10-12 inch cast iron fry pan (this leaves plenty of space at the edges for amateur flipping skills). Also, a bowl, plastic wrap to cover the dough, a rolling pin, basting brush, and a metal or stiff spatula.
INGREDIENTS
275g (2 cups) flour, all purpose and/or some whole grain
200g (1 cup) sourdough starter (any state of activity)
120g (1/2 cup) warm milk
75g (1/4 cup) plain yogurt
pinch of salt
little bowl of water (to brush on one side of dough before frying)
little bowl of 2 Tbsp melted butter (to brush on other side of dough before flipping)
INSTRUCTIONS
Mix all the dough ingredients in a bowl until they are incorporated.
If using that day, cover and set aside for 1-2 hours in a warm place, such as the oven with light on.
If using in the future, cover and put in the refrigerator. I’ve left the dough as many as four days.
COOKING TIME
When ready to cook, scrape the dough on a lightly floured counter, roll it into a tube and cut it in 8-10 pieces.
Start warming up a cast iron fry pan on your stove at medium heat.
Roll out a dough piece into a circle (ish) shape about 1/4 inch thick. Flour your rolling pin and counter if needed.
Brush the top of the rolled out dough with water.
Place in the hot frying pan, water side down.
When the naan has bubbles all over the top and is starting to curl under at the edges, lightly brush it with butter and then flip it over.
Cook until both sides have dark golden brown areas.
Cool on a rack.
TIPS
You can roll out each naan while cooking the previous naan and be done in about 20 minutes.
Your first naan might be a little unattractive as you gauge how hot you want your pan to be and when to flip.
Thanks for writing this up, Melissa! I have a mix together now … well 1/2 for me and I subbed room temp kefir (home cultured) for the milk/yogurt as I did not have yogurt. I kept meaning to ask after seeing the results on your Instagram.
I make a flour-masa tortilla dough about same proportions: 150 g Masa Harina, 200 g flour, 248 g starter, 1 tsp salt, 1/3 cup oil, 1/2 cup water. And similarly, let it sit or refrigerate or freeze. I roll out very thin. The masa-flour mix works well for tacos, burritos and my favorite – enchiladas.
Thanks for sharing your tortilla recipe! I love that it mixes corn and wheat. I can never decide which I prefer. 🙂
I think kefir is a great substitution. I might do that some day to try it out. I need to make homemade kefir (and kombucha) some day.
I just made 2 mini naans … added a bit of flour. I used 2/3 cup kefir thinking 3/4 might be too much liquid. The remainder of dough is in the frig to ferment a bit. But, delicious and so easy to mix up. I used my discard starter and it was all puffy in 2 hours. I cooked them in a bit of ghee with a sprinkle of garlic and cumin and wrapped some leftover black eyed peas for a late lunch-snack.
I just realized that I halved everything but the kefir substitution!! Probably 3/8 cup would be perfect – doh!
Garlic and cumin on the naan sounds great. And black eyed peas!
I’ve been known to double or 1.5x a recipe only to do something weird with one ingredient. The most memorable were the molasses cookies of fall 2016. Doubled the recipe. Quadrupled (or more?) the molasses. I could NOT eat them but my kids with their kid taste buds plowed right through them.