It doesn't take much to prompt me to cook Indian food these days, so from the moment that I read that this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe from Baking With Julia was Oasis Naan, all I could think about was a big pot of saag to go along with it. The saag was delicious (thank you Madhur Jaffrey!), but my naan was not-so-great. I haven't decided yet whether I bungled the recipe, or if the outcome was not supposed to be similar to restaurant naan, and so my expectations ruined my experience of it.
As I hand-kneaded the dough, I thought to myself that I was being too generous with the instruction to "add more flour as necessary." The dough was extremely wet and sticky, had glued itself to my lightly floured countertop, and had gloved my hands. It took a lot of flour to get it to a consistency that I could knead. It's highly probable that this is the root of my problem. My finished product was a cross between pizza dough and pita. It baked into stiff, dense breads, with none of that lovely stretchy chewiness that I associate with naan. Oh well. I hope everyone else had a better experience! Now, who's ready for some French Strawberry Cake? I am! I am!
I can't find my camera cord anywhere. I'll upload a pic later, if/when it turns up.
You can find the full recipe on either Maggie's blog, Always Add More Butter, or Phyl's blog, Of Cabbages and King Cakes.
Sorry you consider the naan a bomb. But I'm with you--bring on the French strawberry cake! ;)
ReplyDeleteMy naan was thicker than I expected, and I cheated by kneading it in the stand mixer. Lazy, I know. I am terrified by the thought of the strawberry cake -- layers and all of that piping! I don't expect to come through in one piece. Love your description of the gloved feeling with the dough.
ReplyDeleteHi, I never had naan before so I did not know what to expect...
ReplyDeleteI've added some veg to them and they were yummy. What a pity you did not like them...
Boo, sorry to hear about the camera issues. I just made the French Strawberry Cake this evening!
ReplyDeleteyup too much flour and too much kneading will over-develop gluten and result in tough bread. you should be able to tell if its too sticky by the time you are done mixing the flour mixture and liquid together... thats the stage you should add more flour, but little by little just enough to get the dough from sticky to tacky feeling unless the recipe calls for a sticky dough, in which case you can rub olive oil or water on your hands to work with the dough without feeling like your hands have become one with the dough... its just something that takes a bit of practice. try it again, and just be really cautious about the mixing and kneading! :) also, you want to knead until it just comes together and then let it rest, you can always knead more after it proofs the first time or after ten minutes to see how your dough dose with a rest... all little tricks to help your bread along.. :)
ReplyDeleteI too kept adding more flour trying to get to a smooth dough. Our problem must have been too much flour. And I did not let it rest as suggested by a cooking mizer. I will give it one more shot!
ReplyDeleteIt's too bad your naan didn't turn out the way you hoped. I went through an indian food craze and that was one of the trickiest food to master. I had success with America's Test Kitchen recipe though it was inconsistent. Happy that you love the saag though! I heard so many praise from Madhur's recipes, I have to try a few.
ReplyDeleteYours is the third blog this morning I have read that didn't have a photo and I'm finding this idea very intriguing. I think it should be a trend akin to "Wordless Wednesday", etc. It never really would have occurred to me to make non until your group took it on. Now I think I will give it a go. It sounds quite fun.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad I'm not the only one that has problems with bread-type items. Blast them!
ReplyDeleteI added a lot of extra flour too - it didn't occur to me that that was the problem but I think you're probably right. I just got Madhur Jaffrey's Quick and Easy Indian Cooking and just love it. She really is great!
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