Naan

Ingredients
• 400 gm. or 3 cups approximately plain white flour or maida
• 200 gm. or 1 1/2 cups strong flour (bread flour). Use plain white flour (maida) if you can’t get strong flour.
• 225 ml. hand warm water (not hot)
• 225 ml. milk, boiled and then cooled to hand warm (not hot)
• 1 1/2 tsp. sugar
• 2 level tsp. dry yeast or instant yeast*, roughly 1/2 tsp. per cup of flour. Use less yeast if you have more time for the dough to rise naturally. Make sure that the packet is fresh. Once it is opened, the leftover yeast will last for only 3 months or so,
• 3-4 tbs. ‘active’ natural yoghurt (dahi)
• 1 tsp. salt
• 2-3 tbs. flour, for dusting during rolling out
• 1 tbs. ghee for cooking
• 2 tbs. poppy seeds (khus-khus) or sesame seeds (til) or nigella seeds (kalonji/kalaunji)
• 3-4 tbs. ghee or oil (optional)

Instructions
1. Dry Yeast needs to be activated. Mix milk, water and sugar in a jug. Sprinkle yeast and 2-3 tbs. of flour on top. Stir well to remove lumps. Cover with a cling film and keep aside at room temperature for 2 hours or so, until it rises to 2-3 times and looks quite frothy. This is activated yeast sponge.
2. *Instant yeast, does not need to be activated, it can be added directly to the flour.
3. Sift flour and salt in a bowl.
4. Make a well in the centre of the flour and add yoghurt and oil/ghee. Mix.
5. Now make soft, bread like dough, using required amount of liquid from the warm milk-water-yeast mix. The dough should be soft. So don't be afraid to add a little more or a little less water than the recipe states. Add a little at a time, so that you don't end up with very runny dough either. Knead it well until smooth.
6. Cover with an oiled cling film and leave it to 'mature' in a warm place for 4-6 hours. It may take less in hot weather. The dough should rise to approximately double. You can make dough in a bread maker too. Simply place all ingredients and switch to ‘dough’.
7. Knead the dough again. Allow it to double in size again.
8. Knock it down and divide into 16 portions, rolling them into balls. Keep covered with a moist cloth.
9. Heat oven/grill/griddle/frying pan to maximum (around 225°C), leaving the tray under the grill or inside the oven, so it heats through. Naans placed on a cold tray/pan will stick and you will get stiff/hard/leathery naans! Indians often cook naans on an upturned wok, but I find that they cook okay in an ordinary frying pan/griddle, as long as it is hot and they cook quickly.
10. Dust and roll out one ball at a time into an oblong/large tear shape, approximately 20-22 cm. or 8-9 inches in length, one end narrower than the other. This can be done by rolling down one end more than other, or by pulling one end of the naan to elongate it. Roll out 3-4 naans at a time. Brush with a little ghee (not essential) and sprinkle a few nigella/sesame/poppy seeds on top. Press them in gently.
11. Cooking naans on a griddle or a heavy bottomed pan or tawa is much easier: Place 1-2 naans on a heated griddle/pan. When a few blisters appear, turn over. After about 30-40 seconds, turn over again and gently coax them to balloon up by pressing with a kitchen towel.
12. Cooking in an oven or under a grill: Dust the baking tray with a little flour. Place 3-4 naans at a time on the pre-heated tray. Place the tray in the oven or under the grill. The naans will puff up fairly quickly. When ready, they have a few brown blisters scattered on each surface. Remember that the tray needs to be re-heated fully, before you cook the next batch. If cooking under a hot grill, you need to turn them over to cook the other side.
13. Serve hot, with a curry/dal of choice. Whether you brush it with ghee or not, is your personal choice. I don’t.
14. Crisp and hot naans can be eaten with a little cheese and salad and served with any soup. Tiny naans can be served with dips. You can roll out the next batch of naans while the previous batch is baking.
15. Variations:
16. Topping: Before cooking, you can sprinkle the top of the nan, with 1) a few chopped, blanched almonds or 2) a few nigella/kalonji seeds or 3) a few cumin seeds or 4) a few fennel seeds or 5) chopped green chillies or broken up red chillies or 6) grated/chopped garlic and chopped coriander leaves and a drizzle of ghee or olive oil). Topping should be gently pressed into the nan with a rolling pin.
17. Stuffings:; 1) Kemah Nan, 2) Peshawri Nan, 3) nan stuffed with shredded tandoori or other cooked/leftover chicken. Add extra spices, as it will be inside an un-spiced bread, 4) Nan stuffed with a teaspoon of cooked and spiced spinach/fenugreek leaves. Squeeze and dry the water out completely before stuffing. 5) spiced mashed potatoes. See Aloo Paratha recipe, 6) grated paneer cheese, mixed with spices.
18. Additions to the dough:1) chopped mint or 2) a mix of chopped onions, green chillies, ginger, garlic or 3) other herbs of choice
19. Experiment with other fillings/toppings. To stuff a nan, roll out the ball, place a heaped teaspoon of the stuffing in the centre, pull edges in, to make a ball again. Continue as in plain nan.
20. Kalonji (nigella/onion seeds), can be spelled as Kalowunji on some packets.

Notes
• I have made a few changes to this recipe as kindly suggested by the well known master baker Dan Lepard. 1. I have reduced the amount of yeast, “too much yeast can overwork the dough and cause it to become heavy”. 2. I have added a little strong flour (bread flour), which “gives a more manageable dough”. 3. He also suggested I increase the water, “which makes the dough lighter, as it expands in the heat and the steam bubbles add to the aeration in the crumb”. 4. Boil the milk and cool it before using it to make dough because “raw milk can make dough tough. Boiling and cooling the milk destroys a dairy protein called casein and makes the bread much lighter. In India and Pakistan people often use dried milk and this has the same effect as it has been cooked first.” 5. Cooking suggestion from Dan Lepard: “The shape of a tandoor probably keeps the heat moist and slows the moisture loss from the dough as it is baked upright stuck on the oven wall (so the steam will travel through the length of the dough, rather than flat. I bake mine in a wok with a lid, sat over a moderate heat on the hob, and this (I think) helps produce a very light naan”.
• I have tried all these changes and they definitely help to make lighter naans, just as he said they would. So thank you to Dan-Mamta.