Traditional Naan Bread

We've been eating Indian Food for the past few days and I thought it was about time for me to make some Naan to go with it.  Naan is delicious and easy to make, in your home oven and if you're lucky enough to have a wood fired oven… well even better!

Naan

Naans are traditionally cooked in a Tandoor or earthen oven but can also be made in your oven at home. Serve this delicious bread hot, with Indian food, Tandoori Chicken or kebabs of different kinds. The dough for Naans needs to be made a few hours in advance.

Prep Time: 2 hours

Total Time: 2 hours

Ingredients:

1 1/2 tsp. dry yeast

1 cup warm water (110f about like bath water)

1 1/2 tsp. sugar

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp. salt (or to taste)

6 Tbl. ghee (clarified butter)

3 Tbl. yogurt

3 tsp. onion seeds

Preparation:

Add the dry yeast, sugar and warm water together and stir till the yeast is dissolved. Cover and set aside for 10 minutes or until the mixture begins to form bubbles. This indicates the yeast is active. Set aside.

Mix the flour and salt to taste and sift into a large mixing bowl then add the yeast mixture, 3 Tbl. of ghee and the yogurt.

Use your fingertips to mix into a soft, dough. Once mixed, flour a clean, flat work surface and knead the dough till it is smooth and elastic.

Grease a large bowl with a few drops of cooking oil and place the dough in it. Cover and allow to rest for about 90 minutes or until the dough doubles in volume.

Punch the dough down and knead again for 10 minutes.

Equally divide the dough into pieces and roll between your palms to form round balls.

Lightly flour, (if using a wood fired oven, use rice flour to allow the Naan to slide off the peel)  the work surface and roll out each ball until you have a circle, 7-8 inches in diameter and about1/2" thick. You can also pat it into a the circles with your hands.

Gently pull on one edge of the circle to form the Naan into a teardrop shape. Do not pull too hard or you may tear the dough.

Traditional oven;

Preheat your oven 200 C/ 400 F.

Cover a baking sheet with a piece of aluminum foil and grease lightly with a few drops of cooking oil.

Place as many Naans as will fit without touching each other, on the baking sheet.

Brush each Naan well with some ghee and sprinkle with a pinch of onion seeds.

Put the baking sheet into the oven and cook till the Naan begins to puff out and get lightly brown. Flip the Naan and repeat.

Remove from oven and serve hot in a towel-covered bread-basket.

 

Wood Fired oven;

Push hot coal back away from desired cooking area.  Brush and clean well.  Slide the Naan into the hot oven and stay put, watching the Naan bread.  As it puffs up you may want to rotate the Naan if the side closest to the fire is rising faster.  As soon as it puffs up flip and brown the other side.

Remove from oven and serve hot in a towel-covered bread-basket.

Bricks to Bread the Wood Fired Oven

This post was originally from December 2010.  I get a lot of questions on building a wood fired oven.  This walks through the process in pictures.  Please froward any questions with an e-mail address and I'll get back to you.

So the oven is completed except the stucco and paint, which we will finish after the pavilion that houses the oven is built. We are now working on our bread recipe and the layout of our lot for the future cooking school. Our concept is garden to plate cooking and the education of everything in between. I’m keeping a journal of this process and planning to write a companion book called “From Bricks to Bread, a journey into the wood-fired bread oven”. After a lifetime of cooking with wood I am now going in this natural direction. Bread and the wood-fired oven are both a real challenge. They require a dedication and the learning of the natural cycles of both the oven and the life cycle of natural leavens. I’m enjoying this process much more than I can express. Once again I’m excited about cooking. Kathy and I talk about these processes and possibilities for hours on end. We are planning our next stage of life. It will be based around the wood-fired oven and a cooking school. If this works out Kathy can work from home and we can cater, teach, entertain and offer a location for others to give classes and workshops. We are also going to offering a location for meetings and even weddings.

Below are the pictures of the oven build for those that are interested.

This shot is of the walls and the pour forms for the insulated hearth slab.

There are two layers of concrete, the bottom is insulated concrete, to hold in the thermal mass of the upper slab which is just sack mix concrete, notice the blue foam above that keeps the upper slab from touching the walls. This allows for expansion without cracking the walls, as the hearth heats up.

Wire mesh is bent to tie the two slabs together then tied to the rebar.

The hearth slab is supported by the rebar.

One of the most important bits of information that I have learned while building this oven is to mock up, stop, look and think, before setting in mortar. The shot above shows a hearth and oven wall mock up made with refractory. After looking at this I decided to do the walls with fire brick for more thermal mass. I'm glad I thought this out.

By mocking up the firebrick walls I could see how the layout would work. Below I used foam (it was free, use what you have on hand) to see the arch and as a guide while mortaring the bricks.

A mock up of the oven door opening.

Time for mud!

Use shims to follow the curve while the mortar sets.

Lots of shims!

The mortar coat holds the firebrick together and acts as additional mass.

The basic oven.

Next the oven is wrapped in two layers of heavy duty foil.

Then covered with wire mesh. Notice the pieces of brick used to set the mesh in the middle of the cement.

I used foam and old boards to make my forms. It was crude but saved a lot of money. It comes down to time vs. dollars. I have more time. Prior to pouring the second layer of the oven light a small fire and let it burn for a few hours to allow the oven to expand. Then pour, this will keep the oven from cracking as it expands from use.

Setting up the chimney

I know this looks lop sided, it's the photo.

Use what you have on hand like this strap in case of wind as the flue pipe set!

The oven opening and arch. There are formulas that need to be followed for proper heating and flow of ash and smoke. E-mail me if you have questions or come to an oven building workshop.

Worth the wait!

First bread!

The oven is far from finished but we can start baking. Much more to come!

I used foam to make the form for the cladding, his holds in the heat and functions as mass for extended bakings.

This shot shows all of the cladding before we close it in the walls and add final insulation.

The front arch form and keyway.

Chimney facia with cut to follow roofline.

Rafters and block wall that will hold final insulation.

Top view of oven cladding before zonalite insulation.

Once again "mock up" of tile layout.

Dry stacked block and anchor bolt for rafter tie.

Zonalite insulation.

Our new puppy Max.

Finishing a large leaf into the counter top.

Pour of tables for bread baking classes.

Mesh and bar allow a long table with a clear span. Make sure and let this cure, keep a brace for a few weeks to fully allow the mud to harden.

End view of north table.

Pour in front of oven.

Shot of tile roof. I bought the tile on Craigslist for $35.

Nice view of front of oven. I have hundreds of shots if you need to see anything just shoot me a note and I'll post it.