Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Oasis Naan - TWD: Baking with Julia

Tuesdays with Dorie: Baking with Julia - Ninth Installment.  The recipe is Oasis Naan.

After an extra week between recipes, I lost my focus and almost forgot to do this week's baking!  Luckily this recipe was quite easy and perfect for a Sunday when I had some other things on my schedule.  I love bread recipes where you don't have to sweat the timing of the rise (thank you Julia and Dorie for telling us this in the recipe!).  My dough sat for an extra two hours in my cool kitchen, and was just fine.

I have made Naan before, but this was the easiest recipe I think Iused.  It seemed lumpy as I started to stir, but then the lumps just vanished and it smoothed right out.    The dough was rather wet, so I had to use a fair amount of flour while doing the 10 minutes of kneading.

Some specific notes:
  • Salt, scallions, and cumin seed as the topping - YUM!   I used Hawaiian sea salt.  
  • It was useful to have a pizza stone and two peels for handling the dough.  
  • I used all-purpose flour - will be curious to see if others tried it with bread flour, since that can make a chewier bread sometimes.  
  • Now I'd like to find a recipe for whole wheat Naan - anyone out there got one?

The recipe was accurate - it was best the day it was made.  My family and I love Naan, and I will definitely keep this recipe on my roster for the future.