BM# 75: A-Z Bake Around the World: Day 14
Bake of the Day: N for Naan-e-Barbari
Country: Persia
We start the third week of non-stop blogging today. Can’t believe we have crossed the half way point and will be done in couple of weeks. I have had a fun time baking all these delicious sweet and savory dishes.
This baking marathon does come with a huge challenge. Who is going to eat all this food?? When I cook I scale down the recipe to feed 1~2 people, even though when I write the recipe, I write it to serve 4~6. With my husband traveling most of the time and the kids being kids — I can’t always bake the entire recipe if it’s just for us.
Baking is a science which requires precise measurement and following instructions. I gets very tricky halving or quartering a recipe. Luckily some recipes are easy to scale down, like these cornbread muffins — I made only half the recipe and made 6 muffins that my son and I ate for about 2~3 days. My policy is to finish one before I make another dish. So you can imagine how much planning went into the whole mega marathon baking.
Today’s recipe for Naan-e-Barbari is from Hot Bread Kitchen cookbook. It is a dramatic looking bread with a defining characteristic oblong shape. Apart from that, its surface is spread with roomal, a flour and water paste, before baking, which puts a layer of moisture right on the surface of the bread.
The dough for the Naan-e-barbari bread is great to make pizzas too. So I baked this when one of my friend’s daughter came home for a play date. Since all the kids love pizza, I planned to make it for them that day. I made the full recipe and then made 1 Naan-e-barbari bread and the other into pizza. 
The kids were more than happy to have pizza and then also some delicious bread to dunk in pizza sauce. Typically Naan-e-Barbari bread is served with feta cheese, cucumbers and olives. It makes a great addition to any cheese plate.
Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 75.
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Naan-e-Barbari
Ingredients
For the Dough:
- 3 cups bread flour
- 1 cup Wholewheat flour
- 2¼ tsp Instant Yeast
- 2 tsp kosher salt
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1½~1¾ cups Lukewarm Water
For the Topping:
- 2 tsp all purpose flour
- ½ tsp sugar
- 1/3 cup Cool Water
- 1 tsp Nigella seeds
- 1 tsp Sesame seeds
Instructions
- Combine all the ingredients for the dough in a large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer. Mix and knead until a smooth dough forms, about 6~8 minutes on the machine and 10~12 minutes by hand.
- Transfer the dough to a lightly greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap and set aside for about 1 hour or until doubled in volume.
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Divide the dough in half. Gently form each piece into a rectangle and form into a log. Loosely cover the logs with plastic wrap and let rest at room temperature for 30 minutes.
- In the mean time, combine the all purpose, sugar and ½tsp canola oil and water in a small saucepan. Cook the flour paste over medium heat, whisking, until bubbles start to form around the edges and the mixture becomes thick and opaque, about 2 minutes. Set aside to cool.
- Put a pizza stone on the lowest rack of the oven and preheat the oven to 450°F. Let the stone heat for at least 30 minutes.
- Place one of the dough log on a parchment and stretch/ roll it out into 14"x5" rectangle. Using the fingers, press 5 deep lengthwise ridges into the dough, making sure not to break the dough.
- Rub half of the flour paste over the surface and sprinkle with half of the nigella and sesame seeds.
- Slide the dough with the parchment onto the pizza stone and bake until the bread has puffed up and is golden brown, about 18 minutes. Transfer the loaf to a wire rack. Repeat with the remaining dough. Serve warm. Store any leftovers in an airtight ziploc bag at room temperature for up to 2 days.
Notes
- You can make the same recipe without wholewheat flour. Simply use 4cups of bread flour in the recipe.
- To make Nan-e-Barbari Pizza -- After the 2 rising times, stretch the dough into a 14" diameter thin round. Place it on a parchment paper and evenly spread 1cup of tomato sauce over the dough and spinkle with mozzarella cheese on top. Top that with your favorite pizza toppings.
- Slide the parchment and dough onto preheated pizza stone and bake until the crust is golden and crisp, cheese has melted, about 10~15 minutes.
Vaishali
I am loving this naan , ok what if I don’t have bread flour ? What do I use ?
Would love to bake this bread , its shape , texture and toppings all are attracting me .
Yes we do have to scale down the recipes else land up with a lot of food !
Priya Suresh
Seriously that pizza idea sounds awesome Pavani. Naan E barbari looks just prefect to slice and have with some tangy sauce. Well thats a real task for every food blogger to scale a recipe of 2 na, very soon am going to face this problem as my two elder ones are going far away from home for higher studies.
Harini
I can’t agree with you more e when you say scaling down the recipe is tough sometimes and we cannot always go in search of ‘scape goats’ to eat the stuff we bake. Fortunately for me my neighbors help me out in that aspect but nevertheless I also scale it down wherever feasible.
This flatbread looks tempting.
Sharvari (Mumbai 2 Melbourne)
Baking definitely is an art and you are an artist . Love the recipe and it looks fab. That is true sometimes even I have to scale up the actual recipe when I write it cause it’s just my husband and I .
Loved the recipe
Sowmya
I have left out recipes because scaling them down didn’t work out. The planning is totally driving me crazy more than the actual baking.
I was almost expecting you to bake this one since you previously mentioned you had the HBK cookbook. It is too tempting to miss out. Love the grooves in the bread and the pizza idea is cool. Yum yum
Srivalli
Well, I started baking very late and imagine baking 3 different versions of cookies, then a cake and then something!. The problem comes when the bake is not something my kids eat, so I will have to search for a group who will enjoy them. It surely is a tough situation…your naan e barkari looks and sounds fantastic..will surely plan for it later..
Srividhya
Same pinch. I posted a persian recipe too. This looks awesome and the broccoli filling is very inviting.
Sapna
Nan e barbari looks awesome Pavani. They would make a wonderful base for pizza as well.
ruchi indu
Very true. Scaling down the recipes sometimes it is very difficult. I have missed quite a few recipes because of this. Somehow this time I managed to bake my items such that it can be eaten by 2 people in one day. Nice naan-like recipe. Will definitely try this.
Sharmila - The Happie Friends potpourri Corner
Beautifully bakes… The stuffing is what makes it more delicious for me!!
Sandhya Ramakrishnan
This is so gorgeous Pavani and a great pick for the alphabet!I love the sesame and the nigella topping and would eat this as is.