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Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Tasty Tuesday - Homemade Naan Bread

Finally, time for another Tasty Tuesday!!! With all of the emotion and stress in our household these last few days, we haven't had much of an appetite...but tonight we were determined to make something nice, hoping that we would be hungry by the time it was ready. So we were back to our old standby - curry. Tried something new, not as nice as our beloved mahtka gosht but it was alright. The real star of the show was my homemade naan bread! Delicious. I love to bake...breads, pies, cookies, cakes...but it's hard to justify the effort and the huge batches made when it's just the two of us! Bread is one of those staple foods that we never let get old though, so it's the perfect thing for me to bake at this point in our lives!

I've made different breads before, but tonight's was just perfect. Must have something to do with the rainy weather, allowing it to rise just right...!

Here's a little run down of the recipe in case you'd like to try it yourself - it is simple, if you're afraid to bake bread because of fear it won't rise or turn out well, this is a perfect bread to practice with!



Take a packet of yeast and add 1 cup of lukewarm water (temperature is important for the yeast to be able to ferment properly). Let it sit for 10 minutes. In a separate bowl: beat 1 egg,  add 1/4 cup sugar, 3 tablespoons of milk, and 2 teaspoons of salt. Add that bowl to the yeast/water. Mix. While mixing, add 4-4.5cups of flour, or until the dough is soft (not too sticky but not too dry)! Then - and this is the fun part - knead the dough for about 8 minutes (side note: my kneading technique looks strangely similar to giving cheat compressions!haha). Place the dough into an oiled bowl and cover with a damp cloth. Allow it time to rise for 1hr.















After an hour, give the dough a good punch to relieve the air. (I lied - THIS is the best part!!!)


If you like garlic in your naan, add about 3 cloves of minced garlic to the dough before you proceed to knead the dough for a few more minutes. Pull off golf-ball sized pieces, roll them to look nice, then place on a tray before covering them with the damp cloth. Let them sit and rise for another 30 minutes.

Finally, take the balls and roll them out into thin pieces, brush some melted butter or oil onto the front, and bake in a 350degree oven for a few minutes. Watch them closely - they go from dough to done quickly!  And enjoy :)))





Yum, I love food made with sincere effort and time!  And there'll be plenty more of that this week - its Thanksgiving in two days!!!! ;)

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