Naan made with Artisan Dough

 Have you checked out the price of naan in the grocery store? Naan or flatbread is the perfect base for quick pizza.The price in NC is close to $4 for three large naan. That is over a $1 each! No wonder I’m making my own using the artisan dough method from the cookbook, Artisan Bread In Five Minutes a day. There is a wonderful tutorial along with great photos and explanation on the authors’ website, Artisanbreadinfive

I love hot bread fresh from the oven, who doesn’t? When it comes to frugality, turning on my oven for one loaf of bread is costly and hot now that spring is here, so I do batch or bulk cooking. Instead of making one or two naan at a time, I make a double batch of dough and make all the naan at once. I allow the naan to cool on cooling racks and package them in freezer bags for the two recipes we use most.

Naan or flatbread is the perfect base for quick pizza. I thaw a package of five and top them with pizza sauce, convenience chicken, feta and mozzarella and black olives for a delicious greek pizza in 15 minutes.

I was able to make 13 naan by DOUBLING the following recipe:

Olive Oil Dough

2 3/4 cups lukewarm water

 1 1/2 tablespoons granulated yeast

1 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt

1 tablespoon sugar

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil (or other neutral tasting oil)

6 1/2 cups unbleached flour (I use 3 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour and 3 cups King Arthur or Eagle Mills brand white whole wheat flour)

Mix all ingredients in a plastic 5 quart shoebox with lid and allow to rest at room temperature for 2 hours. I highly recommend viewing the detailed instructions for cooking at Artisan Bread In Five. I did not use quite as much butter, nor did I use clarified butter. However, they still come out wonderfully soft due to the olive oil. Experiment with one batch of dough and tell me what you think.

I used one cast iron skillet and it took a little while. Next time I think I’m going to use two skillets at one time to speed up the process. During the spring and summer I could do this on my outside grill burner so it’s not quite so hot in the house (just a thought).