Hello anyone still reading my blog. Thanks for hanging in. Happy New Year! It’s been a flurry of activity over the holidays and while I was busy with shopping, decorating, traveling, celebrating, and all that good stuff, I was a bit lazy in keeping up with my blog. I managed to bake, but not much from the book I’m following that is the inspiration for this blog. I’ve managed to make naan, which I will talk about here, pita, and pizza dough which I will post about shortly. I ended up skipping the lavash recipe; I decided I can always come back to it another time. It’s not like I’ll be penalized for going out of order. Besides, it’s my blog and I can do what I want.
I had high hopes for the naan bread. It is so delicious. I just love going to this fast food Indian restaurant near my work and getting some chicken tikka masala with fresh naan. I tell them to give me double bread and skip the rice. I don’t have time for the rice. I want to dip my bread in that delicious sauce. I was thinking how awesome it would be to be able to make it at home whenever I want. I especially love it with onion. Just yum. But things did not turn out as I had planned.
First, the recipe called for baking the bread in the oven. I didn’t think traditional naan was made in the oven, but I have committed to following the recipes in this Culinary Institute text book and so I just did what the recipe said to do. The dough came together quite wonderfully. It proofed beautifully. I mean, perfect rise. (I absolutely love the newly discovered Standard Proofing option my oven offers. The bread goes in, I set the time, and it comes out perfectly doubled.) I created the rounds (preshape) that would then be rolled out to make the bread. Here’s how that looked:
Then comes the rolling out and baking. I did precisely what it said and baked. I had high hopes but in the end was disappointed with how they turned out. Not how they tasted because the bread tasted good – it wasn’t naan like my fave fast food Indian place – but how they looked. To me, this was more pita than naan though soft bread. I added onion to some of the dough and it was good. I think maybe next time I would pan fry them using a cast iron skillet because I think that’s how you’d get the browned crispy bits on the bread. Traditionally, naan is made in a tandoori oven (clay oven).
So there you go. Not every recipe is a winner. I did like the flavor though so maybe if I were to make it again, I would just play with it to make it what I want. I did enjoy the onion flavor so maybe next time I’ll roll them more like tortillas and add more stuff to it. Or roll it out and use it as a pizza dough. If I do, I’ll write up a post about the experience.
The Pastry Hustle 