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Meera Sodha’s Naan
Updated May 15, 2024
![Meera Sodha’s Naan](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2024/05/18/multimedia/18mag-MeeraSodhasNaanrex-wlcf/18mag-MeeraSodhasNaanrex-wlcf-articleLarge.jpg?width=1280&quality=75&auto=webp)
- Total Time
- 90 minutes
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
- 4cups all-purpose flour, or 500 grams
- 2tablespoons neutral oil, like canola, plus a teaspoon more
- 4tablespoons whole-milk yogurt
- 1packet of active dried yeast, or 7 grams
- 2teaspoons sugar
- 2teaspoons kosher salt
- 1level teaspoon baking powder
- 1cup whole milk, warmed
Preparation
- Step 1
Put the flour into a large mixing bowl. Make a well in the middle, and add two tablespoons of the oil to it, along with the yogurt, yeast, sugar, salt and baking powder. Use your fingers to combine the ingredients until they resemble crumbs, and then add the warm milk in splashes, mixing until it comes together into a dough.
- Step 2
Put the dough on a clean, well-floured cutting board. It will be very sticky. Flour your hands, and knead the dough for five minutes or so, then scrape off your hands and knead it again, making it into a round ball. Rub a teaspoon of oil over the exterior of the dough, and place it in a clean mixing bowl. Cover with a dish towel, and place in a warm spot to rise for 60 to 90 minutes, or until it has doubled in size.
- Step 3
Using a knife, divide the dough into 12 pieces. Take each piece, roll it into a ball and flatten it between your palms. Dust the dough with flour, and roll each piece out into an oval of about 5 by 8 inches.
- Step 4
Place a large sauté pan over medium-high heat, and allow it to get hot. When it is, cook one naan in it for 30 to 40 seconds on one side, or until it begins to bubble, then use a spatula to flip it over to cook the other side for about the same amount of time, checking regularly to make sure that it does not burn. Flip the naan one more time, and press on it lightly with your spatula for 10 to 15 seconds, then remove to a warm platter. Repeat with the rest of the dough. (Keep the finished naan in a low oven, or wrap in foil until ready to serve.)
Private Notes
Cooking Notes
i've found best success making breads like this (pita and similar types) by starting with mixing all ingredients together EXCEPT the flour. Often, the amount of liquid in recipes won't hold all the flour recipes call for. Proof yeast in warm milk, add other stuff, mix well, gradually add flour. In fact I made recipe twice today using method in recipe and my method above and liked my results better. Just sayin'...
I'll echo previous comments that this recipe is fantastic. Just wanted to add a note that it also freezes beautifully -- I wrapped individual balls in plastic wrap and then froze them in a Ziploc bag. Thawed to room temperature and then cooked on a cast iron griddle. Taste and texture were identical to the first (non-frozen) batch.
Fantastic naan. Used stand mixer: wet ingredients, sugar and yeast in bowl first with paddle attachment, then sprinkled in dry ingredients, mixed to combine. Withheld a few tablespoons flour, since recipe said dough should be soft. Scraped down bowl, switched to dough hook and kneaded four minutes on #2 setting. Rose 60 minutes. Beautiful, pliable dough. Rolled out thicker than a tortilla, tossed on piping hot ungreased griddle, 45 seconds per side. Soft, puffy, with bright, fresh flavor. A+
The downside of doing this deep in the north woods, 35 miles from the nearest grocery store: when you realize you are out of yogurt, it's too late to do anything about it. The upsides include: (a) buttermilk substituted nicely; (b) after a day in 30-degree temperature chopping wood and raking leaves under a cerulean sky, it was far too beautiful to go indoors, so we lit charcoal in the Weber kettle and grilled the naan, about 2 minutes or less per side. Utterly delicious.
I have had great success making naans on a pizza stone or even cookie sheet tray, in an oven. Bake at high temperature, 470 deg F, till the naan puffs, then flip the naans (use tongs) to their other side. Toppings work great, onions, garlic, cilantro, mint etc.
Can some of the dough be refrigerated or frozen for later use? Or should it all be cooked at once?
Hi Hermsoven. Try withholding a few TB of the flour next time and check the consistency of your dough before adding the rest. I bake a lot of breads, and find when something comes out too dense, it's usually because I've added a bit too much flour. This dough should be very soft, almost sticky before rising. I used about 3 TB less flour than the recipe called for. Hope that helps!
Cold and clean, fresh air, the smell of charcoal wafting, and the reward of hot, grilled bread...nice moment you created there. Thanks for the happy moment!
Naan is not oiled when cooking. It can be brushed with ghee or butter afterwards.
From reader: it also freezes beautifully -- I wrapped individual balls in plastic wrap and then froze them in a Ziploc bag. Thawed to room temperature and then cooked on a cast iron griddle. Taste and texture were identical to the first (non-frozen) batch.
Sorry, but naan made with baking powder is an abomination. Adding milk is almost as bad. You only want a teaspoon of sugar, to proof the yeast before adding it to the flour.
Naan should have a tangy, sourdough sort of heartiness; the yogurt gives tenderness, but it is a hearty rather than delicate bread. Maybe next time bring us the recipe from an Afghan auntie.
Rapid rise yeast worked fine. After 1 hour , I took 12 balls of dough and rolled them out , stacking them with wax paper in between. I cooked them 2 hours later at dinner time so they would be hot and fresh. They were a little bigger. Easy to peel from the wax paper. I cooked them in my cast iron skillet on medium high heat with a bit of olive oil at the start. 30 sec per side. Did not do the final 10 sec smash. Hot,fresh new cooked dough moisture, flexible for folding. Will cook again.
You know, my Mom (from Trinidad) has been making roti/pita without milk for years and it comes out just as soft. It really is just knowing the consistency from practice and leaving it to rest so it doesn't develop too much gluten, for a softer dough. We've just used warm water instead of milk.
Can the dough be kneaded using a mixer with a dough hook?
Agreed, with Winnie, the trick is to make sure the pan is hot. To cook mine, I heat a cast iron skillet that's been heated in the oven at 450F. Turn the skillet upside down and place the naan on the bottom side and place back in the oven. Same as above, when it starts to bubble, flip over and cook the other side. It's best to have all ingredients close by, a couple of naan rolled out in advance, so you can assembly line and bake them all quickly.
This is so good! Thank you! I usually have fresh yeast and I used basic ratio 42grams/1kg flour.
I mixed all the wet ingredients first before putting in flour little by little! I also did not use flour to roll out the dough to form the oval-ish shape, but maybe my dough wasn’t wet enough.
i have tried other recipes before, this is the only one that has produced perfect Naan for me.
I let some of this dough sit in the fridge for a few three days because life and other such shenanigans intervened, and the three day old dough cooked up infinitely better than the day one stuff. I’m thinking next time I might just have to double the recipe to have some ready for quick meal jazzing
Like many others, I added the yeast & warm milk to the bowl, let it sit briefly, then added the rest of the ingredients and kneaded for 5-ish min on level 3 of my KitchenAid. 1st attempt: ended up adding all 500g of flour & as others said, this was WAY too much. 2nd attempt: started with 375g (about 3 cups), 300 of which was AP and 75 was bread flour. Slowly added flour as I needed until it was tacky but not sticky. Shaped into 8 balls instead of 12 and they were positively scrumtrulescent! :)
The secret for me was to let the balls of dough rise a second time. Roll them until they are very thin - don’t worry too much about the shape - and cook them in a hot cast iron pan. I got wonderful bubbles this way. Not so much at the lower heat. And they froze beautifully. I usually don’t have much luck with frozen dough.
Easy & delicious
Make this with the chicken curry recipe
Looked at the comments and went w/ the suggestion to mix wet ingredients first then add in dry. Used 410g of flour and had no whole milk yogurt so I subbed full fat greek yogurt thinned with a little bit of milk. Next time I’ll probably portion and shape the naan, but wait to roll out as I’m cooking instead of doing everything before going to the stove. Naan came out soooo tender and fluffy!! Yes, it’s a lot of smoke but it’s worth it!!!
I loved this recipe. I followed it exactly. I like to put the salt with the liquid ingredients in any bread recipe so that it doesn’t kill the yeast, so that was one change I made. The fluffy texture is awesome; the best naan recipe I’ve ever tried. I will certainly make this again, & perhaps add some dried onion or garlic to the dough.
Used homemade kefir instead of yogurt, more salt than sugar, Mitoko’s cashew butter instead of oil. plain soy milk instead of cow’s milk, baking soda instead of powder and threw in some rye sourdough stater. I cooked about 5 or 6 minutes each on my pre-heated Etna lava stone. Some completrly puffed like a pita, some didn’t, both tasted good. Next time I will swap same ingredients plus more starter no kefir or soy kefir or probiotic capsule so strict vegan hubby can share.
Made it to accompany Sam Sifton's Oven-Roasted Chicken Shawarma recipe also available on NYT. Huge hit and both recipes are incredibly easy. Served with white sauce, rice pilaf, romaine salad, and sliced cucumbers and tomatoes.
would this work with whole wheat flour?
let it rise waaay more than an hour..like 2-3.....makes perfect naan...add all the yeast and wet ingredients together first then add that to the flour...as suggested
Make this recipe at least twice a month. I brought the Naan with Roman's Artichoke Dip to a party; entered a guest, left a legend :)
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