Garlic Naan Bread (by an American)

Ingredients

3 cups All-Purpose flour
1/2 cup Greek yogurt
1 cup warm water
1 packet yeast
1 tsp kosher salt
6 cloves garlic, diced (about 2-3 tablespoons)
4 Tbsp butter, melted (for brushing after cooking)

Gear

Food processor (optional)
Baking brush
Cast iron skillet or grill (for best results)
Bench Scraper

How to Make it

Add yeast to lukewarm water with a pinch of sugar and let sit until foamy.

Peel garlic and mince. I like to do this in my food processor (I use it a lot on days I make naan as I also make the dough in it, and usually grate cucumber for cucumber yogurt sauce as well), but you can do it by hand.

To mix by hand or in a stand mixer

Add flour, yogurt, salt, and half of your minced garlic to a bowl, then pour in the water/yeast mixture and mix with a wooden spoon or your dough hook until dough starts to come together. It will be pretty sticky at this point. Keep mixing until it forms into a ball but it is still sticking to the sides of the the bowl a little. Scrape the dough off of the sides of the bowl, removing as much of the dough as you can, then lightly spray your hands with oil and form the dough into a ball. Coat the dough with oil and put the dough ball back in the bowl, cover and let rise until doubled.

To mix in a food processor

Add flour, yogurt, salt, and half of your minced garlic to the bowl of your food processor with a dough attachment fitted (it's plastic and not sharp).
Put the top of the food processor on and remove the pusher from the feed tube (yeah, those are apparently what they're called - it's the cylinder that you can remove so you can add stuff and the processor will keep running).

With the food processor running, pour the water/yeast mixture in a steady stream into the bowl. Leave processor running until dough forms a ball or clump. It's a very wet dough so it might not form much of a ball on its own, in that case leave for about 30 more seconds and then turn it off.

Scrape the dough out of the food processor and form into a ball. You may want to lightly oil your hands as it's quite sticky. Place into a lightly oiled bowl, cover and let rise until doubled.

Making the Naan

Once the dough has doubled in size and a finger poked in an inch leaves a indent (the dough doesn't try to fill the hole), it's ready for the next step!

Before you start cooking the naan though, you'll need to combine your remaining garlic with the melted butter so you can brush it on the naans as they finish cooking.

Separate the dough into 8-10 equal size pieces using a bench scraper (sometimes I weigh it but naan is rarely perfectly consistent so I usually don't) and place on oiled surface. You can very lightly form it into balls but don't manipulate the dough too much. Doing so at this point means they'll be harder to roll out and you'll need to let the dough rest before you can get it thin enough.

Naan is a partner activity unless you are an aggressive multi-tasker: it's best to roll each naan as one is cooking, so it doesn't rest too long in between. Naan also cooks very quickly so it's a fast moving process.

When rolling each naan, you'll want to have both your surface and your rolling pin lightly oiled. Place your first piece of dough in the middle of your surface and begin with your rolling pin in the middle and rolling outwards. Move the dough every couple of rolls to make sure it's not sticking. Your dough should end up about 1/4" to 3/8" thick. Thinner and it will burn and be crispy all the way through, thicker and it will cook slower and be much more doughy and pita bread-like. I usually will lightly stretch the dough a bit more as I transfer it to cook.

Cooking in a cast iron skillet

Heat the cast iron skillet on a medium heat until smoking (you'll want your range hood on if you have one), and lightly spray with oil. Pick the first naan up with your hands and place in the middle of your cast iron skillet. Let cook for 45 seconds to a minute - until the dough on top has bubbled and getting more translucent and the bottom is getting browned patches - then flip and cook on second side for about 30 more seconds.

Remove to a plate and brush with garlic butter, then cover with foil while the rest cook. Stacking the naan as you go means each naan also gets a good dose of garlic butter on the bottom side.

Repeat until all naan have been cooked, lightly spraying the pan with oil if the naan starts to stick when you try to flip it at any point.

Cooking on the grill

Naan should be cooked over direct flame on the grill to give it the char. Turn each burner to medium-high to preheat. Lightly coat the grate with oil before starting to cook. The best way to do that is to soak a folded paper towel in oil and use tongs to brush the paper towel along the grate (thanks, America's Test Kitchen).

When prepping to make the naan on the grill, I usually bring a large plastic or wooden cutting board, a dish towel, a rolling pin, spray out and the dough out to our patio table and roll the dough there so I can put it right on the grill.
Place the dish towel on the table, and then the cutting board on the top. This helps so the board doesn't move around. Lightly spray the cutting board with oil and then roll out the naan right on the cutting board.

Because of the larger surface area of the grill, you can do 2-3 at a time.
Place each naan on the grill with a little space in between them, directly over the flame. Close the grill for 45 seconds to a minute and then check. The naan is ready to flip when it's becoming translucent on the top, bubbling, and the bottom has a dark brown char. Flip the naan and finish cooking for about 30 more seconds with the grill top open.

Remove to a plate and brush each with garlic butter, then stack and cover with foil.

And eat!

The Deets

Yield: 8-10 naan depending on size preference