I hadn't baked in years ...
When I was in graduate school, I baked regularly. A couple of loaves of sourdough whole-wheat bread every week, a big pot of lentil soup, and I had regular but boring meals every night of the week.
Insert extended detour for marriage, child, divorce. I didn't bake bread.
I saw the New York Times no-knead bread recipe and thought, "I can do that!", and indeed, I can. I have been making it with sourdough. I recently branched out to sourdough English muffins and naan.
I'm here because I've scoured the net for a recipe for sourdough naan and I can't find one. My Afghan cookbook says that naan is made daily, and leavened with a blob of dough from yesterday's batch, but gives a recipe made with the usual dry yeast. ALL the naan recipes I've found online use dry yeast.
I don't imagine that many Afghans/Pakistanis/Indians spend money on dry yeast when they can use free starter. Sourdough naan has to be the norm, not the exception. But I can't find any #$%#@$% recipes!
Does anyone here have one?
Is Naun the same thing as Naan? If so, I have a recipe for it. The recipe says it is an Afghanistan bread.
Naan, naun, it's basically the same bread all over South and Central Asia. If you have a recipe, I'd like it. Proportions and rising time are what is needed.
I also posted in the sourdough thread. I'm a little worried about putting yogurt into a sourdough mix and leaving it overnight (or however long the first rising should be). Will the yogurt spoil?
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Felila
Let's jump off that bridge when we come to it.
Okay, here is the recipe--from Ed Wood's "World Sourdoughs From Antiquity"
Naun
2 cups proofed starter
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup water
1 cup white bread flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
Mix dough (you already know how to do this). Oil hands and divide dough into 8 to 10 balls. Flatten with hands or an oiled rolling pin and form elongate ovals 1/2 inch thick. Place on baking sheet and proof, covered, at 85°F for 1 to 2 hours or until doubled in bulk. With an oiled finger, make three parallel grooves about 1/2" deep on the surface of each. Preheat oven to 450°F. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from baking sheet and cool on wire racks.
I always though naan was a flatbread, and while this is sorta flat sounding it is definitely thicker than some flatbreads. Does it sound like what you are looking for?
That recipe looks like it might work! I just started a no-knead loaf, but I'll definitely try the naan after I finish the regular bread. I'll probably fry it in a cast iron frying pan rather than bake it, however. Thank you very much!
Once I know how the dough should "feel," I can try substituting some yogurt for the water. It's not a long rising, so I don't need to worry about things going bad.
Naan is a thick puffy flatbread. Flat flat flat is a chappati or roti. Yes, it should be that thick.
When I get the naan working, I may try sprinkling it with stuff. Like chopped green onions, or zaatar, Middle Eastern spice mixture, which is my newest enthusiasm. I took some no-knead bread to a potluck, with some zaatar mixed with olive oil for a spread, and both the bread and the zaatar disappeared.
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Felila
Let's jump off that bridge when we come to it.
Hello Felila,
I am much interested in this Naan recipe from SourdoLady! But I would like to know if were thinking of replacing all of the water with Yogurt or only some?
Let me know, I think it would taste much better if made with Yogurt...
Thanks a lot
Srishti
I think I would have to experiment with the yogurt. My first thought is to replace the 1/2 cup water with an equivalent amount of thinned yogurt. Or perhaps 1/2 cup yogurt and a little extra water.
Unless someone here has a Punjabi grandmother who knows exactly how it should be done ...
I learned to make Persian-style rice by experiment. My friend Monir couldn't give me exact directions, because it depends on the pot and the stove. After burning or undercooking the rice a few times, I learned what exactly what heat setting works in my kitchen. I expect that, ditto, I may eat some not-so-great naan bread along the way to good bread.
Did you notice that Floyd put an article on naan in the "In the News" section of this website? It has good information on various baking methods.
http://jugalbandi.info/2007/03/naan-breaddeconstructed-and-devoured/