Yogurt Naan Recipe (Yeast Free)

Yeast Free Yogurt Naan Recipe

        

Naan bread is always wonderful additive any meal. I mean how one can have a complete and well-rounded meal without bread but isn’t always something that people should or want to eat with every meal. It can cause weight gain because of its rich and fatty ingredients. Sugar, yeast, butter, and flour are the fat causing culprits. By taking out some of these ingredients we can make the bread a little less fatty. For example instead of yeast we can use yogurt when yogurt is mixed with milk and bake or cooked it acts as a yeast and helps to raise the bread and make it fluffy. Milk, flour, yogurt, and butter are naturally sweet so the sugar is also not needed. You can make the same tasty naan that we all know and love without the fuss of extra fats.

Yogurt Naan recipe

4 cups plain flour

1 teaspoon salt

7 tablespoons butter softened

1 cup milk

½ yogurt

Step 1:

Mix all of the wet ingredients together, I suggest leaving the milk, yogurt and butter sitting out for a few minutes before you start to make the bread you don’t have to but it helps in the activation process if you want to cook the bread right after mixing.

Step 2:

Second mix the dry ingredients together and then pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. If you pour the wet ingredients into the dry then you could end up with dry ingredients being left at the bottom of the bowl.

Step 3:

You want to knee the bread and add flour until the bread becomes stretchy, not sticky. You can still get great bread from a sticky mix but it’s not easy to work with.

Step 4:

Let the dough rest for 30 minutes before you start to make the naan, You could also let it sit in the refrigerator overnight before cooking, again you don’t have to do this but it makes it taste really good and makes it easier to work with if you want to make a sticky dough.

Step 5:

Pinch off a piece of the dough about a palm full and roll into a ball, next roll the dough out into a circular shape as thin as you can get it without tearing the dough.

Now there are three ways you can cook this bread.

Cooking method 1

Whether you make a sticky or stretchy dough you can use this method (it’s my favorite way). Heat a thin pan or iron skillet to medium heat brush a thin layer of olive oil on the pan place the rolled dough inside the pan and place the lid on the pan. Heat the dough until the top starts to look dry and flip the bread over, cook the other side until the dough starts to rise wait until the bottom has little brown dots on it and flip it over until bottom side match with little brown spots on each side. Repeat all steps making sure not to oil the pan too much you don’t want grease chewy bread.

What the dough looks like wet

What the dough looks like dry and ready to flip

Cooking method 2

Heat a thin pan to medium heat. Roll the dough the same has before but this time brush the dough with olive oil on one side. Place the dough with the olive oil side touching the pan and brush the other side with olive oil, and place a lid on the on the pan. Cook the same way as method two with brown spots on both sides.

Dough after being flipped and with brown spots

Cooking method 3

Heat a thin pan to medium heat and place rolled dough inside, place the lid on top wait for the top of the bread to look dry, flip and repeat steps from before until both sides have little brown spots on them.  

Notes:

Sometimes the dough doesn't start to rise but it will still come out soft and tasty. Having a rolling pin helps I made the Naan in the photos without a rolling pin and that wasn't so easy :). In order to make the garlic Naan I write about in the post, this is linked with just add a teaspoon of garlic powered to the mix, for a stronger garlic flavor you can also add a little garlic powered to the oil before brushing on the bread or the pan.