Naan Bread Tandoori Oven
Lior Gonzales
Using bread flour is a key to light, delicious, chewy naan bread. Bread flour has a higher protein content than all purpose flour and higher protein content gives bread more chew. All purpose flour can work in a pinch, but I highly recommend using bread flour in all your breads if you can. It will significantly increase the quality of your baked goods just by using bread flour in place of all purpose. In a pinch you can add 1-2 Tablespoons of vital wheat gluten to all purpose flour to increase the protein content and chew of the bread.
I love using this Bosch Mixer to knead bread. This naan bread is no exception. Pour all the dough ingredients into the bowl except the flour. Mix together while adding the flour a cup at a time. As the dough kneads, continue adding flour as needed. Be careful not to over-flour the dough. Once the dough collects on one side of the bowl and the consistency is such that you can pinch off a piece of dough and roll it up in your fingers with just a little sticky residue, stop adding flour. Set a timer and knead for 8-10 minutes. You can also do this by hand or using a different mixer. The dough will become smooth and silky as you knead it.
After the dough has been kneaded, transfer it to a large container and let rise for 1-2 hours until doubled or tripled in size. The ambient room temperature will affect how fast your dough will rise. Once the dough has risen, use a bench scraper or a large knife to separate the dough into 12 equal pieces. Roll each piece of dough into a ball by cupping your hand around the dough and tightly dragging the dough around into a circle. See the pictures below for an example.
Once the dough is shaped into tight balls, cover lightly with plastic wrap and place it in the refrigerator for 1 to 24 hours before baking. Chilling the dough makes it much easier to work with using the Ooni Koda Pizza Oven. This is a great recipe to make a day in advance or in the morning before baking in the evening for dinner.
Preheat the Ooni Koda on the highest setting for about 20-30 minutes before baking your first piece of naan bread. The oven should reach a temperature of over 500 degrees Fahrenheit before you bake. On a wooden cutting board, sprinkle a little bit of flour or cornmeal (something to keep the naan from sticking to the cutting board). Stick the naan dough on the cutting board and launch into the pizza oven by quickly thrusting the board forward, moving the naan off the board and into the oven. Bake for about 1 minute until the naan puffs up and is a little charred on the outside. Use a pizza peel to take the naan out of the oven and transfer to a plate. Repeat this process until all of the naan has been baked. You can fit at least two pieces of naan at a time in the Ooni Koda 16 oven once you get the hang of using the pizza oven.
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Chocolate Caramel Pecan Christmas cookies are the ultimate holiday cookie. A star-shaped buttery crust with a luscious caramel, chocolate and pecan topping. They will be on repeat at your house every Christmas.
I just made this recipe tonight and it came out exceptionally delicious! Such pillowy tender naan. One minute in the ooni was spot on! I was shocked at how quickly it cooked! Excellent recipe, thank you so much!
That problem is usually if the oven is not hot enough. The oven must be between 300 and 325 C and then hopefully the naans should stick to the sides. You need to really slap them on with a heat proof mitten.ThanksDan
I dont sadly own a tandoor, but I have bought a small yet powerful pizza oven to make indian flatbreads :-)Most recipes either use dry yeast OR baking powder/soda, may I ask why you opted to use both at the same time?
Naan dough recipe
Naan dough containsyoghurt and yeast, which makes for a slightly acidic taste and aleavened bread. My recipe is adapted from the excellent article on Il Forno, but here we'll use a real tandoor.
Leaveit for about 15 minutes so that the yeast can start multiplying, thenadd a tablespoon of fine salt for each cup of yoghurt. The salt willdelay the rising, so you could add it with the flour later as well.
Stopadding the flour when you have a non-sticky dough. Knead well for atleast 10 minutes. Cover with a slightly wet towl and let it rise in awarm place until it doubles, about 2 hours usually. Make sure the doughdoes not rise too much or the bread won't be good. If your dough is toosoft, the exterios half of each naan will fall off the tandoor's walls.
Heatthe tandoor up and wait until it reaches at least 400F. Flour theworking surface and your hands. Cut a piece of dough the size of anapple and spread it with your hands until it covers your entire hand.Wet the top a little, then sprinkle aromatic seeds and press to fixthem.
Puta naan on a large kitchen glove, seeded face down. With the oppositehand, take a little water in by dipping your fingers in a bowl and wetthe naan's back. Put your gloved hand in the tandoor and stick the naanfirmly against the inside wall. Check that the naan is well stuck,press again if not. I can put at least 7 in my tandoor, some are easierto place than others depening on the angle.
Removethe naans using a pair of bread seekhs. The pointed one sticks the naanin the middle while the flat seekh goes between the naan and thetandoor to remove it. If the naan is stuck, leave it a little bitlonger, then try again.
The Little Seeds on the Crust
Youcan use several types of seeds to add to the taste of your naan. Justwet a little the side opposite the one you'll stick on the tandoorwalls and spray the seeds, then pass a hand on them to make them stick.My favorites:
Fillings
Youcan incorporate a small layer of filling in your naan to make it evenmore interesting. Just make sure the naan will not separate in two inthe tandoor because the filling split it. Here are some I have tried.
You can either use my instant naan dough recipe or more authentic dough with yeast. Both will work and in those recipes, I show step by step photos of the doughs being made.
You can work ahead using either naan dough recipe. The dough in both recipes is better if it has time to sit overnight. You might just want to get going and cook which you can do with the instant naan dough but even that dough will benefit from a longer resting time.
Depending on the size of your tandoor oven, you will need to reach different temperatures before starting to cook. I personally have a large, gas fuelled tandoor inside and a smaller charcoal burning tandoor outside.
It is a good idea to get a laser thermometer so that you can check the heat of the tandoor walls before starting. When cooking in my large tandoor, those walls need to reach 315c and be no hotter than 330c to cook.
Yes! Put your arm into the oven without a long, heat proof glove and you will lose all the hair on your arm. You might even burn yourself so please be safe and ensure you are well equipped before starting.
Once you slap the naan onto the wall, step back and look at it. If you see any bits of the naan that are not securely stuck to the side of the tandoor wall, go back in with your naan pillow and slap the hanging bits to the side.
I miss Indian food and especially good naan bread. I haven't really tried it, but I wanted to test if it's possible to make naan without a tandoor? Has anyone tried this, do you have some good tips and do you manage to make it just as good as the naan you get in India?
The best method I've used is to grill (American) it. You can do it with a gas grill (barbecue) set to high, or with the hottest of hot charcoal. It doesn't quite approach the 900 F (480 C) typical of a tandoor, but it's close, especially with charcoal. Simply oil the grill and do 2-3 minutes per side.
Although it doesn't simulate a tandoor, I stopped my quest for making the best naan after seeing the result from a Dutch oven on max heat. Fantastic. Lid on keeps the moisture in and stops it from going too crispy or hard, it bubbles up and parts of it get that slight charring.
The keys are very high heat, ie under a domestic grill (watch while they puff up and brown) and yoghurt. You can also make them with baking powder without the need for yeast, which produces surprisingly good results.
I've made naan on a (propane, american) grill with no problems, straight on the grate. (maybe singed a little bit, that's what you want for naan). Well, no problem grilling; I rolled them all out while I was still inside, and had them stacked up with dry waxed paper between them, and the weight of the stack meant that by the time I got maybe 5-6 of 'em done, the whole stack had glued itself together, which slowed me down quite a bit.
I've also done it stovetop in a cast iron pan to get a good sear, and then transfered to the oven to finish cooking while I made up the rest. As I was rolling 'em as I went, I didn't have that sticking problem.
INGREDIENTS:Wheat flour (Maida), 1 TSP curd, water, pinch of salt, 1 TSP ghee or butter STEPS:1. Mix all the ingredients and make a soft dough 2. Cover it with a muslin cloth and rest for 2 hours3. Take a piece of dough, make it round 4. Roll it like a chapati and grease some butter or ghee and make a triangle5. Now roll the triangle chapati6. grease water on one side of naan7. let the tawa or flat pan become a bit hot8. place the watered side of naan on the tawa9. let it be for 30 seconds10. with help of tongs reverse the side of tawa/flat pan on the flame and try to provide flame to all sides of the naan and it will come out automatically.11. The watered naan will have the same crust which a tandoor provides.
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