Easy Homemade Naan Recipe - Oh Sweet Basil (2024)

FAQs

Is yeast or baking powder better for naan? ›

It wasn't a bad taste, but it was noticeable. I also found the baking soda doughs burned more easily. The baking powder-yeast dough compared to the yeast-only dough were nearly identical — similar air bubbles in the pan, similar dough texture, similar flavor — so, in the end, I stuck with yeast alone as a leaven.

My favorite homemade naan recipe is made with basic bread ingredients (flour, water and yeast) plus a generous dollop of yogurt, egg and baking powder to make the bread extra soft and chewy. I also prefer to use touch of honey as a natural sweetener for the bread.

The sweet filling is a mixture of sultanas, almonds, coconut, and butter. This makes this naan a delicious sweet Indian bread great with an extra spicy curry! The bread is fluffy and soft and cooks in a skillet or frying pan in under 5 minutes!

Rolling Vs stretching dough: Naan is always hand stretched and not rolled with a rolling pin. Sometimes rolling toughens the dough and suppresses the bubbles making dense flatbreads. Hand stretched naan have a lovely fluffy & light texture.

Make the dough up to the end of Step 5 – Proof 1. Then after the dough has doubled in size, put the bowl with the dough it in the fridge overnight (I've done 24 hours). Do not punch dough down or touch it – just put it in as is. The fridge stops the dough from rising any further.

Yogurt: Plain Greek yogurt holds the naan dough together and ensures a tender texture. Make sure you get authentic Greek yogurt and not Greek-style yogurt.

Naan has a thicker, fluffier texture because it is made with yogurt. Pita is thinner bread made with less ingredients (flour, water, salt, etc) and no yogurt. Naan is cooked in a skillet while Pita is usually baked at very high temperatures in the oven.

Skip: Naan

And like those fluffy spuds, this soft flatbread has little nutritional value. Most naan recipes call for Greek yogurt to give it that airy texture. But that's more than offset by less healthy ingredients like white flour, sugar, and oil.

While it may contain more carbs and sugars, it earns its reputation as a healthy alternative with its relatively generous amounts of protein and fiber. Despite its high carb content, naan can be considered a more nutrient-dense alternative to white bread and pita.

Naan bread is soft, fluffy, and chewy, whereas pita bread is denser with a slightly crispy texture on the outside. Naan bread also has a buttery flavor due to the ghee and buttermilk in the dough, which adds an extra dimension of flavor compared to pita bread's more neutral taste.

What is the difference between Afghan naan and Indian naan? ›

Afghan naan is different in shape, texture, and taste from Indian varieties. While the main ingredient – wheat flour – is the same, Afghan bakers hand-shape the dough, rather than rolling it out, and their use of a tandoor results in large, pillowy rounds.

Naan is found in the cuisines mainly of Iran, Afghanistan, Central Asia, the Indian subcontinent, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, and the Caribbean. Primarily composed of white or wheat flour combined with a leavening agent, typically yeast, naan dough develops air pockets that contribute to its fluffy and soft texture.

you put it on naans to keep them soft.

Heat a frying pan as hot as you can on the hob (you need to use a frying pan that can go under the grill). Once hot, place a rolled naan onto the pan and count to 20 seconds. Now place the pan under the grill and wait for the naan to puff up and cook. This will take between 30 seconds and 1 minute.

Add Sugar

Adding sugar weakens the gluten structure, absorbs water, and eventually makes the bread lighter and softer. As a result, sugar improves the bread's taste, structure and texture. Yeast also eats up sugar to produce carbon dioxide, which raises the dough and makes bread fluffy.

Unlike baking soda and baking powder, yeast is a live organism. Its biological leavening process (sometimes referred to as fermentation) takes longer and is therefore best suited for doughs that need a little more rising time.

The two ingredients don't only work differently but they're used in different types of recipes, too. While baking powder is used in most baked goods, including cookies, cakes or muffins, Wilk explains, yeast is used mostly for breads, including white bread, whole wheat, brioche and rye.

Though they're flatbreads, naans traditionally get their bubbly texture from yeast (and, very traditionally, from wild yeasts). Some more modern variations, such as that in Vivek Singh's Curry, use baking powder instead, with Jaffrey also adding extra bicarbonate of soda.

These baked items benefit from the fermentation process yeast undergoes during the proofing process. By comparison, you should use baking powder for baked goods that won't benefit from the taste of fermentation, such as banana bread, cookies, and cakes.