Bake for the week, Episode 1: Naan

The weekends are a great time to bake or prepare things for the week ahead. This week, we plan on having Chicken Tikka Masala for dinner, so I decided to make some naan to go with it. For those of you who don't know, naan is a yummy Indian flatbread that's usually made by sticking the dough to the inside wall of a tandoori oven. Since I don't have one of those in my kitchen, I use a heavily buttered skillet to fry up my naan.

This recipe makes quite a lot of naan, so I separate out the dough into balls and freeze them for later. When we want to have Indian again, we can pull out how much we want to make, defrost the balls, roll them out and fry them up.

I'll add pictures of the finished naan tomorrow night after we fry it up!

Ingredients

1 pkg   active dry yeast

1 c       warm water (110°)
¼ c       white sugar
3 T       milk
1          egg, beaten
2 t        salt
4 ½ c    (24.75 oz)bread flour
2 t        minced garlic (optional)
¼ c       butter, melted

Directions

1. In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Let stand about 10 minutes until frothy. 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 in a warm place to rise. Let it rise 1 hour, until the dough has doubled in volume.
2. Punch down dough, knead in garlic. Keeping dough covered, divide dough into 16 equal pieces, roll into balls, and place on a tray.

**If you are making this a night or two ahead, stop here, wrap the balls in plastic wrap and place in the fridge. 30 minutes before dinner, take them out and continue with step 3.

3. Cover with plastic wrap, and allow to rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 30 minutes.

** If you’re going to freeze the naan, stop here and place the whole tray in the freezer until the balls are frozen through. Put frozen dough in a ziplock bag. Allow dough to sit at room temperature for 30 minutes before continuing with step 4.

4. During the second rising, preheat grill or cast iron skillet to high heat.
5. At grill side, roll one ball of dough out into a thin circle. Lightly oil grill or melt butter in pan. Place dough on grill, and cook for about 30 seconds on one side. Brush uncooked side with butter and cook until puffy and brown, about 1-2 minutes. Flip back to side one and cook until browned. Continue with the next piece until all the naan is done.