Bread. Peshwari Naan

Makes 3 Naan.



Ingredients:

225 g/8 oz/ 2 cups unbleached white flour
2.5 ml/ ½ tsp salt
15 g/ ½ oz fresh yeast
60 ml/ 4 tbsp lukewarm milk
15 ml/ 1 tbsp vegetable oil
30 ml/ 2 tbsp natural yoghurt
1 egg
30-45 ml/ 2-3 tbsp melted ghee or butter, for brushing.


- Sift the flour and salt together into a large bowl. In a smaller bowl, cream the yeast with the milk. Set aside for 15 minutes.
- Add the yeast mixture, oil, yoghurt and egg to the flour and mix to a soft dough.
- Turn out the dough on to a lightly floured surface and knead for about 10 minutes until smooth and elastic. Place in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with lightly oiled clear film and leave to rise, in a warm place, for 45 minutes, or until doubled in bulk.
- Preheat the oven to its highest setting, at least 230°C. Place 3 heavy baking sheets in the oven to heat. Turn the dough out on to a lightly floured surface and knock back. Divide into 3 equal pieces and shape into balls.
- Cover two of the balls of dough with oiled clear film and roll out the third into a teardrop shape about 25 cm long, 13 cm wide and a thickness about 5mm.
- Preheat the grill to its highest setting. Meanwhile, place the naan from the oven on the hot baking sheet and bake for 3-4 minutes, or until puffed up. Remove the naan from the oven and place under the hot grill a few seconds or until the top of the naan browns slightly.
- Wrap the cooked naan in a dish towel to keep it warm while rolling out and cooking the remaining naan. Brush with melted ghee or butter and serve warm.

You can flavour NAAN in numerous different ways:

- To make poppy seeds naan, brush the rolled-out naan with a little ghee and sprinkle with poppy seeds. Press lightly to make sure that they stick.
- To make onion flavoured naan, add 114 g finely chopped onion to the dough in step 2. You may need to reduce the amount of egg if the onion is very moist to prevent making the dough to soft.
- To make peppered naan, brush the rolled-out naan with a little of ghee and dust generously with coarsely ground black pepper.
- To make spicy naan, add 5 ml each ground coriander and ground cumin to the flour in step 1. If you would like the naan to be extra fiery, add 2.5- 5 ml hot chilli powder.