Indian Naan bread

Whenever I throw an Indian dinner I prepare this delicious Indian naan bread as a side dish. It's fast to make and doesn't need any special preparations. This is a basic quick flatbread where all that's needed is a quick starter dough made from yeast, sugar, and water, with one tablespoon of flour. The starter dough needs about 5 minutes until the bubbles appear and we can add it to the flour. The naan itself needs about 20 minutes to one hour for the dough to be ready for baking. It's a fast dough and one of the basics of every Indian cuisine dinner.

History first (in short)

We believe naan existed around 2,500 years ago, by the time yeast travelled all the way from Egypt (where it was used to brew beers) and landed in India. Today's naan is believed to come from Persia. Leavened breads were not common back then for the general population and were considered upper-class and royal breads. Yeast was not abundant and was therefore restricted to the classes that could afford it. Naan was first recorded in the 1300s by the Persian poet Amir Kushrau as naan-e-tunuk (a kind of light bread) and naan-e-tanuri (cooked in a tandoor oven).

Indian Naan bread - the method

The first step in making naan is generating a leavening agent, similar to a quick starter dough. Mix the sugar, yeast, water, and a bit of flour to create a yeast reaction. Afterwards, mix the yeast and flour by hand and quick-proof the dough for a maximum of 1 hour. The dough is flexible, can be easily stretched, and shaped into any form you want. Working with it is easy — just stretch it by hand and place it on a baking pan.

Baking the naan

There are a few ways to bake Indian naan bread. The traditional way is the tandoor oven, which is a brick, stone, or ceramic pot. The shape varies by location but the idea is the same: a charcoal or wood fire source that reaches a high internal temperature of up to 1000°F / 500°C, so baking time is very quick. We try to imitate this at home, but home ovens can usually get as high as 500°F / 250°C. So the closest we can get to the original conditions is setting the baking pan on the upper rack of the oven and switching the oven to grill mode to get as close as possible to the heat source. In many recipes the naan is made on an iron skillet and cooked from both sides for a few minutes, or on direct heat on the gas stove — a method I found very good, but it takes more time. So bottom line, go for the oven option. It'll produce great, effortless, crunchy naan with a soft texture.