The Fresh Loaf

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Question about Naan

JavaGuy's picture
JavaGuy

Question about Naan

I recently had some excellent Naan bread at an Indian restaraunt. The flat bread had a layered texture that was like a crossaint, only without all the butter. Does anyone here know how to get that layered texture?

nosabe332's picture
nosabe332

i only know rudimentary baking principles, but the way puff pastry and croissants work is with solid fat interspersed in the flour. so if there's no butter flavor in the naan, then i would assume the fat would be lard or shortening.

i think that's how it works.

foolishpoolish's picture
foolishpoolish

Perhaps the Naan used Ghee?

Ghee is often used in indian cooking.  Ghee is clarified butter.

 

 

ejm's picture
ejm

From your description of the bread, it sounds a little more like paratha than naan. The image on the left is paratha and the one on the right is naan. Although, paratha isn't really like croissant at all because it's crispy.

 parathanaan

When the naan cook, they puff up like pita bread so they basically have two layers though. We put some butter (we could use ghee but don't bother) and plain yoghurt in our naan dough (and occasionally butter the outside just after they come out of the oven). Both paratha and naan are really easy to make. They might not be exactly like what you had at the restaurant you went to but I'll bet they're equally as good. 

-Elizabeth