Paul Hollywood’s Naan Bread Recipe
This naan bread recipe makes a pretty good restaurant-style flatbread right in your home on baking equipment you probably already own! They are perfect for dipping in curry or scooping up chunks of roasted meat for a quick bite. Elevate your curry night with homemade naan!!
Paul Hollywood’s Naan Bread Recipe
I’ve messed around with grilling flatbreads quite a lot, but I’ve never had success like this. They were flat, cooked through, and crispy in spots, and everyone loved them. I’ll give three great ways to grill them farther down below, and none of them require a tandoor oven, you’re welcome!
Plus I’ve converted Paul Hollywood’s Naan Bread recipe to American measurements so you can skip the scale and get right to grilling bread quicker.
Naan Bread
I don’t know what I was thinking but I’ve been trying to make naan with yeasted dough, and I always ended up with a mega thick size chunk of bread. Which I usually do not complain about but it wasn’t naan-like.
Then came the bread week on the Great British Baking Show (collection 6 on Netflix) and the technical bake was non-yeasted naan. That pretty much sealed the deal I KNEW our bake on the Great British Baking Show Bake-Along for bread week was going to be naan. It had to be right?
American Measurements
One of the things that makes European recipes harder for Americans to follow is that they weigh everything. This is the correct way to make sure you’re getting the right amount of ingredients but if you don’t have a scale it can be impossible to use the recipe.
One hundred grams of sugar is always 100 grams; no measuring cup is going to give you such accuracy. Over here in America, we’re not typically used to using scales, we grew up with measuring cups.
Part of the mission of the Bake-Along is to get people interested and baking without spending a bunch of money. So I try to convert the technical challenges for those that need or want to measure with cups.
Keep in mind that sometimes weights don’t directly transfer to cups so you’ll find funky things like 1 cup of milk with a tablespoon removed or something like that. I’ve measured and tested these converted recipes no less than five times, so I get the best measurements.
How to Make Naan Bread at home when you don’t have a tandoor
These do require a unique cooking style. Paul calls for a grill pan or heavy sheet pan in the oven and you only cook them on one side. I think the other side is supposed to cook from the pan being preheated. I never worked for me, so in every method, I had to flip the naan to cook both sides.
I didn’t have a grill pan, so I’ve tried them three ways:
- Sheet pan in the oven: I preheated the oven on broil and adjusted the rack down to 8 inches from the heat. I laid naan right on the pan, and they cooked up quickly and nicely. I did, however, flip them over because the bottoms were not grilling
- Electric Griddle: I set it on high and place the naan right on it, I could do two at a time but had to watch so I wouldn’t burn them. They cooked up quickly and again I had to flip them to cook the other side
- Cast Iron Double Burner griddle: I set it over two burners on the stove top and made the naan right on it. Again it worked well, but I had to flip them.
I never did figure out HOW to cook them without flipping them. I suppose the grill pan in the oven would have been best, but I didn’t have one. No worries though because they turned out so tasty I’ll keep making them any way I can.
Ghee for Naan
When you’re thinking about making these remember they do need to be brushed with butter after grilling. You CAN use plain salted or unsalted butter for this job. Or you can try making your own ghee.
It’s simple to make, and the pure butter flavor is outstanding for everything, use it wherever you use butter.
Serve Homemade Naan with these fantastic Bombay Potatoes! Or this recipe for Chicken Pakora.
Paul Hollywood’s Naan Bread Recipe with American Measurements
Ingredients
- 3 1/2 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 cup milk 2 Tablespoon removed
- 1/4 cup yogurt
- 1 egg
- pinch Sugar
- 1/4 cup ghee or use melted butter
- 4 cloves garlic minced, optional topping
- 2 TBSP chopped cilantro optional, we liked them with it but not necessary
Instructions
- mix the dry ingredients together and make a well in the center
- mix the milk, yogurt, egg, and sugar together
- pour in the flour mixture and lightly stir until it comes together as a loose dough
- turn it out on a lightly oiled counter and knead 5 minutes
- cover for 30 minutes
- when you're ready to cook them use any of these pans and the method to use them:Baking Sheet in the oven: broil on high, adjust baking sheet about 8 inches downElectric Griddle: set it on highCast Iron Double Burner griddle: set it over two burners on the stovetop, set burners to med/highAny of these methods require you to flip the naan to cook both sides
- divide the dough into 8 pieces
- on a lightly floured surface roll each piece out in a teardrop shape about 8 inches long and 6 inches wide at the widest
- cook 1 or 2 at a time on your preferred pan, flip once one side is bubbling and cooked, 1-2 minutes, flip and cook the other side for about 1 minute
- remove from the pan, brush with ghee or butter, repeat with the remaining dough
- once they're done sprinkle with chopped cilantro, and minced garlic if desired and serve hot
I love that British Bake Shows, have been watching for a time. Thanks for the info on measurements, now I will try to…..Bake!
Go make Naan Bread Carmen!! Cheers!
what can you use instead of yogurt?
I think sour cream would work? Or try milk with a dash of vinegar to make sour and thick.
When do you use the garlic?
Good catch! It’s an optional topping!
I jumped right to his recipe so I could make it. I find metric measurements so much easier and reliable to work with. I’m looking forward to making the recipe. Thanks for posting.