Remember on Monday when I showed you lots of photos of Shrimp Masala?

My intention, as you may have guessed, was that your eye would be drawn to the contents of the bowl. But did you notice something else lurking in the background?

Remember back at the beginning of February when I declared that I was going to tackle a baking challenge involving this?

Oh yes. I tackled it alright.

A lot of you guessed that my challenge was going to be bread, and while baking my own springy, perfectly formed loaf (ie NOT a lump of stodgy flour that resembles a rock), I was thinking more along the lines of naan. Not wanting to have any enormous kitchen fails, I browsed around for some simple, highly-rated recipes before embarking on this endeavour. Normally I’d trust a source like Food Network to give me a tried-and-tested recipe, but the ones I found seemed a little complex. Instead, I decided on this one from Allrecipes.com and gathered up my ingredients. Since I’m terrible at following recipes I made a couple of substitutions, but nothing major.

This is what I used:*

  • 1/2 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
  • 1/2 cup warm water
  • 2 tbsp Stevia baking blend (originally white sugar)
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons milk
  • 1/2 egg, beaten
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 1/4 cups whole wheat bread flour (the recipe didn’t specify what kind of bread flour, so I went with this)
  • 1 teaspoon minced garlic (optional)
  • olive oil, for misting the pan (originally butter)

* Note: I halved the original quantities because 4 1/2 cups of flour would have made a lot more bread than I could possibly handle on my own – especially if it turned out to be rock-hard naan.

I began by following the first step in the instructions exactly as it told me to:

In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Let stand about 10 minutes, until frothy.

Frothing….

Up next:

Stir in sugar, milk, egg, salt, and enough flour to make a soft dough.

Knead for 6 to 8 minutes on a lightly floured surface, or until smooth. Place dough in a well oiled bowl, cover with a damp cloth, and set aside to rise. Let it rise 1 hour, until the dough has doubled in volume.

Mine wasn’t exactly smooth, and I found I needed to add a little extra milk in order to keep it moist. I suspect this is because of the whole wheat bread flour, as opposed to one with a lower gluten content. However, other amateur bread makers that I found via Google mentioned that they had used the same and had success, so I kept going. The bowl sat, covered with a damp dishtowel….

… and I let it sit there for an hour to do its magic. When the hour was almost up, I was a little scared to peek inside in case I saw a whole lot of nothing going on. When I did, the dough certainly hadn’t doubled in volume, but it was still bigger than the original so I persevered.

Ok, what’s next?

Punch down dough, and knead in garlic. Pinch off small handfuls of dough about the size of a golf ball. Roll into balls, and place on a tray. Cover with a towel, and allow to rise until doubled in size, about 30 minutes. During this rising, preheat grill to high heat.

So a-punching and a-golf ball rolling I went..

Again, these certainly did not double in size but they did puff up a bit after 30 minutes. The recipe said to heat a grill, which is the traditional way of cooking naan, but unfortunately I don’t have an indoor grill (other than my Foreman, and I’m sorry, but George can be a pain to get out and clean sometimes). There was also no way I was venturing outside to the barbeque in our chilly weather, so I opted for the stove method.

At grill side, roll one ball of dough out into a thin circle. Lightly oil grill. Place dough on grill, and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, or until puffy and lightly browned. Brush uncooked side with butter, and turn over. Brush cooked side with butter, and cook until browned, another 2 to 4 minutes. Remove from grill, and continue the process until all the naan has been prepared.

More rolling…

After misting a pan with olive oil, I threw 2 pieces of dough in at a time and fried them up according to the directions. I brushed them with oil instead of butter, and watched as they randomly bubbled up in the middle before flipping them over.

So are you ready to see the final product? The loaves of my labour? Ok.. here they are:

Not bad, don’t you think? I was quite proud of the way I managed to get some lovely black marks on each one during my “grilling” process. If you’re good at burning pancakes, you’ll be GREAT at making these.

My halved recipe made 10 mini naan breads, each one about the size of my hand. Some things I might try next time:

  1. Adding more moisture to the dough in order to encourage better rise
  2. Adding more yeast for the same reason as above (does anyone know if this would work?)
  3. Substituting about 1/3 of the flour for a softer variety to encourage more fluffiness
  4. Baking powder for the same reason as #3? (Again, any insight from the pros out there?)
  5. More garlic – because I’m a garlic queen

Although these were a little more dense than I expected, they did pair really nicely with the shrimp masala, and worked as a very complimentary vehicle for getting the sauce to my mouth. If they didn’t contain garlic, I think they’d also work really well as a base for a breakfast sandwich, or PB and banana slices. Oh the possibilities!

Ok, now tell me…

  • Have you ever tried making bread?
  • Favourite kind of loaf – what is it? I like anything that are full of whole grainy, seedy goodness, as well as a good pumpernickel – WITH crusts!