Naan

Variations

• The dough is a different thing from chapati. Chapati has no yeast and no baking powder and inflates on steam alone from three ingredients; naan has yeast, yoghurt and fat. Which is why a chapati is rolled thin and balloons whole, while a naan stays thick and blisters only in places.
• The yoghurt does two jobs and both are chemistry. Its acid weakens gluten so the bread stays tender rather than chewy, and the lactose in it browns at a lower temperature than sucrose does. The leopard-spotting on a naan that spent barely a minute in a tandoor is that lactose (browning).
• It sticks to the tandoor wall because the dough is slack. Only a wet dough can be slapped on by hand, and against clay above 400°C the underside cooks by conduction while the top cooks by radiant heat from the coals — both at once, in sixty to ninety seconds.
• Garlic naan: brush with butter mixed with minced garlic and coriander.
• Cheese naan: fold mozzarella into the dough before cooking.
• Butter naan: slather generously with melted ghee.
• Wholewheat naan: mix in wholemeal flour for a nuttier bread.

Tips

• Yoghurt makes the dough soft and chewy — do not skip it.
• Get the pan as hot as possible for tandoor-like char and puff.
• Roll into thin teardrops, but not too thin.
• Brush with butter the moment it comes off the heat, for aroma and moisture.
• Covering the pan briefly helps the top puff up too.
• At home the lid stands in for the tandoor's top heat. A cast-iron pan is hot underneath only, so left uncovered the base cooks and the top does not. A lid traps steam, which warms the top surface and lets it rise.
• There is a reason not to roll it too thin. A naan puffs because bubbles already in the dough expand, and they need thickness to expand into. Rolled to paper it simply lets the steam out and what comes out is closer to lavash — a dry sheet.