The best laid plans......

  Today was another snow day in Nova Scotia, one in a  long list of snow days that we have had this winter. As a day not fit for much else, we decided that it would be a good day to get caught up on some baking. And since we were having a Curried Vegetable Stew for supper, it seemed like the perfect day to make another batch on Naan Bread. Naan Bread is one of our favorite fast breads to make, it takes about an hour and a half from start to finish. As an added bonus it helps to heat the kitchen on a cold blustery day.
  Naan is a leavened flat bread that is kept moist by using yogurt in the dough and a thin coat of butter to protect it after it is finished tanning in the oven.

Naan Bread

2 tsp dry active yeast
1 tsp sugar
1/2 cup warm water
2 1/2 -3 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup plain Greek yogurt
1 large egg

In a small bowl, combine yeast, sugar and water, stir to dissolve and let sit a few minutes until frothy on top then stir in oil, yogurt and egg until evenly combined.

In a medium sized bowl place 1 cup flour and salt. Add in wet ingredients and stir until until well combined. Add more flour 1/2 cup at a time until you can no longer stir it; about 1- 1 1/2 cups later. 

Turn the ball of dough out onto a well floured counter top and knead for about 3 minutes adding flour as necessary to keep the sough from sticking. The dough should be smooth and soft, but not sticky.( we used the stand mixer for this and it turned out great)

Loosely cover the dough and let rise until double in size(about 45 min). Turn the dough out onto a floured counter top and cut into 8 equal pieces and for into balls.

We used a pizza stone to cook the bread, it needs to be heated to 500F for approximately 15 min. Or you can use a heavy bottomed skillet. 
Roll the ball of dough into a circle approx. 15cm(6 in) in diameter and place on the cooking surface. 









Cook until the bottom is golden brown and the top is covered in small bubbles. We prick any really large ones so that they deflate. Flip the dough and cook until golden brown. 








Serve plain or brushed with butter( my vote) and topped with herbs if you like. Brushing with butter as soon as they come out of the oven keeps the bread soft, and tastes good too.

As so often happens, there is an unexpected bump in the road. As we placed the second batch of bread on the stone and closed the door, there was a bang from the oven.The stone had split. We have had this stone for many years and it has given us many batches of wonderful bread and pizzas, but it had finally had enough and quit in the middle of the job. Now what do we do, the stone is at 500F and pulling it out and putting it on the counter is not an option. We took a deep breath and decided to finish the batch of Naan on the broken stone, not something I would really recommend, but in the face of a small disaster we do what we have to.



Naan is a wonderfully versatile bread, we use it as a side dish for our curried stew, we freeze them and pull them out of the freezer to make panini and use them in wraps. They have so many uses that we constantly find that we are needing to bake another batch and have taken to making a double batch to save time. It is a good thing that we have a spare stone, since I don't think this batch will last very long. We tried one today brushed with butter and sprinkled with Cinnamon sugar, it was remarkably close to a Beaver Tail. Mmmmm.

We hope that you enjoy the recipe.We sure do.