Making naan bread with a pizza stone

Video instructions for making Punjabi naan bread at home using a pizza stone to simulate the traditional clay-lined tandoor oven:

The clip above is part of a series of excellent Indian cooking videos produced by Manjula of Manjula's Kithcen.

Below is a clip of a virtuoso naan-shaper baking the goodies on the wall of a tandoor:

Comments

[shrimplate]

The first time I saw a guy baking naan I thought he was going to fall into the tandoori and get roasted alive.

We've made it here at home but I've never thought of using a pizza stone. Good to know!

[GerwingR]

Angelia, that is why i keep coming back to this page. Lindsay is always serving up something and sharing. It is rather grand that this time, it is finger food.

[TomK]

Delicious.

[Uncle Kvetch]

Oh my. We're off to the UK in 6 days for a much-needed vacation, including 3 nights in London. And you've got me contemplating chucking our entire London itinerary of walks, museums, and theatre in favor of a three-day tour of the city's best curry houses.

[Jack]

I'm a pretty serious home cook / baker, and I was introduced to baking this sort of flatbread in the home kitchen when I watched Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid on Julia Child's "Baking With Julia" series several years ago. They are experts on eastern cuisines; their books are terrific reading.

I bought the "Baking With Julia" book (an OUTSTANDING compendium of techniques, instructions, and recipes,actually written by Dorie Greenspan), and tried their pita breads first, then Persian naan, which are long, snowshoe-shaped breads, here a little chewy, there a little crisp. I was amazed at how easy these were once you understood the principles and followed the instructions, which were typically Julia-detailed. I love to bake bread, but I doubt I would have tried these without Alford and Duguid showing how elementary they are.

My son wanted a Middle-Eastern themed mezze buffet (with variations) for the little party we had after his Confirmation a couple of years ago. I was able to make all the pitas and naan we needed -- no commercially bought bread.

[Mike Schmidt]

Interesting that both yeast and baking soda are added. I would imagine that the primary purpose of the baking soda is just to neutralize the acidity of the yogurt--after raising for 3-4 hours, any CO2 from the baking soda will be long gone.