Bread Baking Babes make Naan bread

We Bread Baking Babes begin the new year with and Indian bread chosen by master baker Lynn of Cookie Baker Lynn fame. I love Indian food but I really am afraid of making it because I think you need such a lot of knowledge to make it right. Another reason to why I don't make it is because I can't find all the ingredients I need here in my nook of Tuscany BUT we do have a real Indian restaurant in Pistoia that I think is pretty good. Both me and my oldest daughter are big fans of Indian cooking and I am working on the middle son so that we can form a majority here. The silly thing is that I have such a lot of incredible Indian food blogging friends spread all over the world and still I hestitate, it is plain stupid considering all the gourgeous recipes I can find on their blogs. Well, maybe I will dare soon, I am considering ordering an Indian cookbook that Tanna, my fellow Babe, told me about and I hope that will give the final push, just think of all the good things I am missing.

I made plain Naan and they disappeared within minutes, my family showed disquieting signs of primitive behaviour but I am already planning to make more, I will just have to tame them a bit. And practice my nanna making skills as well, I am looking forward to that. If you click over to Lynn's blog (she will also give you the details of how to be a Bread baking Buddy) or check out the other BBBabes' posts, you will find some spicier versions for those of you who are more daring than I am! For the complete list, see here and remember that they might not have woken up yet so if they haven't posted, there's a possibility they will do it later today!





Plain Naan
from Paul Hollywood's 100 Great Breads

- makes 3 naan (which I wonder about - same amount of flour as above, so why half the yield?)

500 g/scant 4 cups white bread flour, plus extra for dusting
1-1/2 tsp salt
15 g/1/2 oz fresh yeast
water to mix
1 tsp cumin seeds, I skipped that
1 tsp caraway seeds, and I skipped these too
olive oil for frying

- Line a baking sheet. Put the flour, salt and yeast into a bowl and add enough water to make a soft, but not sloppy dough. Add the seeds, then divide the dough into three pieces and put on the baking sheet. Let rest for 1 hour.
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured counter and, using a rolling pin, flatten each piece into a circle, 10 inches / 25.5 cm in diameter, and let rest for 5 minutes.
- Heat a skillet to a medium heat and add a splash of olive oil. Shallow-fry each naan until browned on both sides, then set aside to cool slightly before serving.