Naan the wiser

greek was on the dinner menu tonight, and i have a great recipe for flatbread, but i also found an awesome recipe for naan on pinterest. i made it once a few weeks back, and have been dreaming about it ever since. i know naan isn't greek, but it *is* a flatbread, and technically, naan just means "bread," so we should be able to apply it to a variety of food cultures, right? 

i love how perfectly soft this naan is, but with a nice little chew at the same time. today's batch came out with a little crunchy crust, but i had several variables going on compared to my last attempt. number one: since i was working today, i made the dough last night, put it in the fridge overnight and took it out to rise while i was at work (just over 10 hrs), compared to the actual recipe's 3-4hr rise. number two: today i was multi-tasking, so i think my oven didn't stay hot enough (kept the oven door open too long while trying to get the naan in and out, so maybe it didn't stay at a piping 500 degrees) and thus i ended up needing to bake it longer. number three: i made a double recipe (don't think this actually affected the crust). number four: last time, i transported it to my parents' house for dinner, so it went into a bag soon after coming out of the oven, which may have steamed it a bit. regardless, it was still pretty darn yummy. i'm about 5 minutes away from eating some for dessert. so let's get this over with already. 

(i'm drooling just looking at this picture...)

Naan

2 cups bread flour 
1 tsp yeast
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
pinch baking soda
2 tbsp oil
2 1/2 tbsp yogurt
3/4 cup lukewarm water

in a stand mixer, combine yeast with water and pinch of sugar and let it sit for 10 minutes until frothy. with the dough hook, mix in sugar, salt, baking soda, and flour. add oil and yogurt and mix until a soft dough comes together.

cover the dough for 3 to 4 hours to double in volume. (i put it in a large baggie in the fridge overnight, then took it out to rise at room temp for 10 hrs - warning, the double recipe overflowed out of the baggie by the time i got home). 

preheat the pizza stone at 500F, turn the broiler on. flour your work surface, and knead the dough and make six parts. roll into 8" oval shapes. i think i over-did the oblong shape...my naan could stand to be a little rounder.

before putting the naan in the oven, lightly wet hands and take the rolled naan and flip between the palms, so the naan is a little wet. place the naan on the pizza stone and bake for 2 to 3 minutes until they puff up. flip the naan over using tongs, and bake for another minute until golden on top. don't over bake as the naan will get too crispy and tops might get burnt.

the pizza stone must be very hot so before putting the next batch wait for about 2 minutes for it to become hot. 

rub butter or ghee, butter mixed with garlic, onions, sesame seeds or onion seeds for flavours before putting in the oven or after taking it out. serve hot.