Proper Vegan Naan Bread
I tried looking online for a vegan naan/nan bread recipe and was very disappointed by the recipes I found; they contained stuff like wholemeal flour (WTF?) and soya cream. Naan bread should have yoghurt in it; that's what makes it naan bread!
So, I’ve just made my own recipe and it turned out gorgeous. These are best eaten straight away, though you can freeze them and pop into a toaster straight from the freezer as well.
2 cups (just under a pint) strong white* bread flour
1 tsp dried yeast
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
pinch of baking powder
2 tbsp veg oil
2 heaped tbsp plain soya yoghurt
¾ cup warm water (about room temp or slightly warmer)
1 tbsp dairy-free margarine, melted, for drizzling over at the end
a sprinkle of thyme, coriander or chopped parsley (optional)
1. Stir the yeast and sugar into the warm water and leave to sit for a few mins until it smells yeasty.
2. Add the flour, salt, baking powder, veg oil and yoghurt and mix really, really well with a spoon (a good 5 mins; until the mix becomes elastic and really difficult to stir any further. Then either turn onto a floured surface and knead a couple of mins, or just
knead in the bowl. If the mix is too wet to handle, stir in a little more flour, (though by dough standards it should be fairly moist.)
3. Cover your bowl of dough and place in a warm place (a windowsill above a radiator is perfect) until it doubles in size. This will take 1-2 hours. If after 2 hours it hasn’t doubled, it just means you didn’t quite knead long enough. Don’t worry about it; it should still work fine.
4. Coat a pizza stone, cast iron frying pan or heavy baking dish with a thin layer of oil and pre-heat in a very hot (gas mark eight) oven. Divide your ball of dough into 6 pieces (4 if making really big breads).
5. With oily hands, lift the first hunk of dough and shake a little to let gravity stretch it out into a rough circle about half an inch thick (this is easier that trying to pull it into shape with your fingers). Place the dough circle onto the heated stone/pan/tray and get in the oven immediately. Cook for 3 mins, until it is well risen and has golden brown spots. Turn and give it another half minute on the other side.
6. Put cooked naan on a plate, then re-oil stone/pan/tray if necessary and return to oven to get it back up to temperature. Drizzle a little melted margarine over the cooked naan. Remove your re-heated stone/pan/tray from the oven and repeat steps 5 and 6 for each naan.
(* Please don't ruin this recipe by using wholemeal flour; it is fine for normal bread, but not naan bread.)
