Homemade Naan, testing Yumsome's recipe

So, I love naan. I love it in any of the many ways I’ve had it cooked (but to give credit where credit’s due the best I’ve ever had was cooked in a tandoori). I’ve been thinking about making my own for years but was too intimidated. 
 
Despite my friends telling me they weren’t that hard (even without a tandoori), I still didn’t have the gumption. I’ve made other kinds of flat bread including tortillas but naan intimidated me. 
 
Well, I decided to give naan a try and this blog is the perfect time to try it. I found a recipe online that looked straightforward and gave it a shot. Of course, as my current journey involves switching to a plant-based diet, it’s a vegan recipe. Turns out not that hard to find vegan yogurt. (on a totally unrelated note, I have decided to try making vegan yogurt myself. But that is for another post.)
 

​The recipe I used was from yumsome.com. You can find the recipe here. The ingredient list was simple to follow and I found most of them. I generally like to follow a recipe exactly the way it’s written for these tests, but I couldn’t find nigella seed. That being said, the recipe says this ingredient was optional so I just left it out. 
 
The other ingredient change I made was to substitute olive oil for the coconut oil in the recipe. I generally like to avoid cooking with coconut oil when I can. I’m sure it would be delicious but I’ve read to many conflicting things about it and feel it’s safest just to leave it out of my food.
 
The recipe itself was simple to follow with no convoluted instructions. The more I read the simple directions the more confidence I felt.  I can do this. I can make naan like a champ. No problem.
 
Making the dough was straightforward and fun. I had a good rise and the ball doughs for each naan turned out great.

Turn on the oven. Get the pan heated. I have my first naan rolled out and ready to go. I drop it into the pan, flip it after a minute. Turns out excellent.
 
I’m feeling hyped. Things are great. Nothing is going to stop me from making great tasting naan for my family and friends. I feel like dancing.
 
Why is there smoke rising from my pan?
 
Move to flip the Naan over. It’s stuck and smoking. My apartment smells like the charred remains of a bonfire and my pan is hopelessly charred. (I didn’t take an immediate after image. I was too busy trying to make sure I didn’t burn down my apartment. But here is a pic after I’ve scrubbed the pan a few times. Yuck.)

It was a mess, but there wasn’t actually a fire, just burning flatbread so I didn’t burn anything important (like say my stove and oven, or you know, the whole damn apartment.) 
 
And I did manage to succeed, albeit only once. 
 
The lesson to be taken from this: naan cook very quickly. It’s important to pay attention and avoid distractions. That being said, it was totally worth it. The naan when it came out was chewy and delicious just the way it was supposed to be.
 
The flavor in the spices the author chose was amazing. It was simple and now that I know that dancing around my kitchen as a celebration should wait until all of them are done I’ll have less trouble next time. (I know, I know, I shouldn’t have to have learned the lesson like this but well…all I can say is, Oops.)
 
Please don’t take my mishap as a reason not to make this. It was not hard. I was distracted while making it (never a good idea in a kitchen, but I’m human it happens.) The ingredients are easy to find and simple to use.
 
The Naan tasted better than the stuff you buy in a store and while I can’t say its fast (you need several hours for the dough to rise) it’s a great weekend treat.
 
I don’t know if they freeze well, I wasn’t able to test that and the author of the recipe only suggest storing them in the refrigerator and heating them up in the oven if you plan to make it ahead. I’d follow this advice. It makes sense and it’s similar to how I store homemade tortillas.
 
Maybe you’ve been hankering to try your hands at naan or maybe you’ve never even thought about it. Either way, this is a recipe that’s worth trying. Just don’t burn your pan while you do it.