TWD: Oasis Naan

Pfffffft! (<-- That's me blowing dust off the ol' blog.) Well, it's been a little while, hasn't it? Rather than apologize for my inability to post more than one blog entry a week, I'll just share with you a recent Tuesdays with Dorie / Baking with Julia success story - oasis naan.

Let me preface this by confessing my love for all things bread. If it contains flour and yeast, I'm pretty much guaranteed to love it. And thus I knew that right off the back, I was going to enjoy this month's first task. (Eh hem, so much so, that I actually made it weeks ago.) But you know that my little KitchenAid has been put to the test since this whole Tuesdays with Dorie thing began. Imagine my relief when I read through the recipe and discovered that this would all be made ... wait for it ... by hand!

We began by using the base of another recipe in Baking with Julia for Persian naan. Once the yeast, water and flour were combined, I had to stir everything together with a wooden spoon (my favorite kitchen tool, btw) for 100 strokes in order to develop the gluten. But my labor didn't end there - I then had to knead the dough for 10 minutes. Whenever my hands began to feel tired, I merely thought of my little KitchenAid and the rest that she was getting.

I should note that the dough was super sticky at this point, and required a lot of extra dough in order to be handled.

I then let the dough rise until it was doubled in bulk, about two hours.

Next I divided the dough into eight equal pieces and rolled each into a ball, flattened the balls, and rolled them into 5-inch circles, each about 1/4 inch thick. I sprinkled each ball with water and poked them throughout with the tines of a fork.

(I loved that at this point, the recipe called for pricking the dough "with determination." As if I would pierce the dough with anything else!)

What differentiated the oasis naan from the Persian naan was the addition of coarse salt, scallions and either cumin or caraway seeds. As a lover of rye bread, I opted for the caraway seeds.

I then scraped up the dough and attempted to stretch it back into place slid the dough onto my preheated pizza stone and backed each round of dough for 6-8 minutes. Best served warm, I paired the dough with slow cooker chicken tikka masala and brown rice, and enjoyed one of the most comforting (and tasty!) meals I've had in a long time.

For the recipe, please see the blogs of this week's hosts - Always Add More Butter and Think Love Sleep Dine.