Garlic Naan

My favorite of the thousands of delicious types of Indian flatbreads, this one is truly second to naan. # 118: Garlic Naan

With it’s rich, creamy bases and warming spices, Indian food is one my favorite types of food. My bake this week was naan other than the popular cousin to the pita bread from Northern India. (I will refrain from further naan puns, but c’mon they’re just so fun! I see that smirk, you enjoyed it.)

They resemble pancakes and they can be cooked on a griddle, but that’s where the twinning ends. Naan is a simple yeasted dough that puffs up when heat is applied. The dough includes yogurt and milk, and it’s commonly painted with butter and herbs, or stuffed with cheese, right before hitting the skillet. Most articles I read refer to it as a relative of the pita bread, but pita is known for it’s signature air pocket. Naan has some puffy air bubbles, but not one huge pocket that you can stuff a whole gyro into. It’s more of a fluffy carb spoon to get tikka masala and other delicious curries into your face.

It’s grilled instead of baked and since I don’t have a tandoori oven, a cast-iron pizza griddle had to do.

Mis en place. It’s worth it, I promise. I had everything except the yogurt and luckily I noticed before starting to cook!

I’m getting a little more confident with yeast – but it’s still so bizarre how it bubbles and grows. All it wants is a little sugar and warmth! Me too, yeast, me too.

After mixing in the yogurt and milk. I didn’t realize how much dairy there would be in this recipe, but enriched doughs always have so much flavor that I wasn’t surprised.