Adapted from My Kitchen Addiction and Genius Kitchen
Garlicky buttery little puffs of dough that are perfect for dipping, alongside a cozy bowl of soup or for soaking up the sauces from a juicy meal.
My daughter originally requested these, after she fell in love with the little mini naan that she saw at Costco and I got tired of paying $5 for what, to her, was a light snack. I knew I could make them for FAR less. Flour is cheap. Why pay so much for little rounds of bread? I knew I could make them at home for about 50 cents.
But ironically, it was my son that requested them today. He has been eating my sourdough crescent rolls with his own special version of tuna salad for the past several months and he’s getting burned out on that meal. Now he’s learned to pan-sear chicken and he wants something to accompany his chicken escapades. And he decided Garlic Naan was just the thing. I had fed our starter recently so we would have enough, so I was prepared.
There’s a funny story of when I went out to photograph this … we’ve recently decided that (most of) our cats are no longer allowed outdoors. My littlest cat, the calico, has just recently perfected her skills for hunting birds and got up to the point where she was bringing home 3 birds in a day. If you know anything about cats, they only bring home a small percentage of their prey, so who knows how many birds she actually caught! I thought of all the birds we have living in our forest and figured this one little killing machine could pretty much wipe out a good percentage of them. Not a good thing. After my daughter shared a story of how a single house cat killed off an entire endangered species of birds, I was thinking something needs to change here.
And then there was my daughter’s little huntress cat. She used to be quite the huntress, bringing home rabbits, mice, voles, an occasional snake, lizard or bat, and yes, once in a while, a bird. I honestly loved her ability to quell the pests in the yard, but she also had a tendency of staying out all night. We instituted a rule of no cats out at night after one of our cats got hit by a car in the middle of the night. He was a black cat and I’m sure they couldn’t see him at all … we found him on the side of the road. It was a horribly sad day we do not want to repeat.
That did it: amongst the two of them, they’d convinced us that the right decision was to keep them inside. (We do have plans for an enclosed outdoor cat run, but that will happen later this summer.) It’s been quite painful to listen to them whine and kind of tricky to walk out the back door without accidentally facilitating a cat escape.
So, for this recipe, I managed to sneak out the back door (with the naan!) to photograph the naan. I had my camera and the fresh naan in a pretty wooden tray, but I’d forgotten to bring out the wine and garlic, so I quickly snuck back in (without releasing any cats), but then the cats were on to me. They were hanging out right by the back door and I knew how good they were at lightning cat speed sneaking out the slightest crack of the door. I fooled them by walking out the front door (which is a double door, so I can easily close the inner door while I open the outer door). Ha! I was free!
I made my way around to the back, took my photos, and then walked back around the house (with the naan) to the front door. My son greeted me at the door, complaining that he was hungry. So I handed him the naan. He was quite surprised, but quite happy. He shared one with my daughter so she could taste them, but gobbled the rest down himself.
Both my son and my daughter have given a big thumbs up to this recipe.
Thanks to Young and Richard’s for this lovely dish.
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Sourdough Mini Garlic Naan
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 45 minutes
- Yield: 18 mini naan 1x
Ingredients
For the dough:
- 1/2 cup low fat milk
- 1/4 cup plain yogurt
- 1 cup unfed/discard sourdough starter
- 1 teaspoon active dry yeast (optional)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon non-iodized sea salt
- 2 cloves garlic, peeled & chopped fine
- 2 – 2 1/4 cups bread flour
- 1/2 Tablespoon melted grass fed butter or ghee
- For oiling the dough: 1 teaspoon olive oil
To finish:
- About 3 Tablespoons grass fed butter or ghee, melted
- 2 cloves garlic, peeled & chopped fine
- About 1 – 1 1/2 teaspoons dried parsley, crumbled … or more, if using fresh
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to the lowest setting your oven will allow for proofing (for me this is 170F). Turn the oven light on.
- Put milk, yogurt, sourdough starter, yeast, baking powder, salt, garlic and 2 cups of bread flour in the bowl of your stand mixer (or a large mixing bowl). Stir to mix into a shaggy dough.
- Put the bowl into your stand mixer with the dough hook attachment and knead at speed 2 for about 5 minutes, slowly adding the melted butter alternately with additional flour as needed to make a smooth dough that’s not sticking to the side of the bowl. (If no stand mixer, mix the butter in with the first stir, then turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead by hand for 5 – 10 minutes, adding a bit more flour as needed, until you have a nice smooth, soft dough.)
- Put the olive oil on your hands and rub all over to coat the ball of dough. Set the dough back in the bowl, cover and set in the warm oven. TURN THE OVEN OFF but leave the oven light on. Let rise for about an hour (or 2 – 4 hours, if not using yeast), until doubled.
- Cut the dough into three equal parts. At this point, you can wrap each ball of dough and refrigerate for up to three days and cook fresh as desired, or if you are ready to cook them now:
- Preheat oven to 375 F. Line a baking sheet with silicone baking mat or spray with cooking spray. Cut each third of dough into 6 equal pieces. Using your hands, shape each piece into a 2 1/2 – 3 inch disc, pressing down with your palm on the dough to flatten each circle on a lightly floured surface.
- To finish: Melt the butter and stir in the garlic and parsley. Brush the melted butter over both sides of the discs of dough. Set on the prepared baking sheet. Bake at 375 F. for 10 – 15 minutes or until golden. If desired, brush the mini naan again with the garlic butter. Serve warm and enjoy!
Notes
Is it sourdough if you add yeast? I would contend that it IS sourdough because it contains sourdough starter, but if you’re concerned about adding yeast, then leave it out. Rise times will be longer without the yeast and your naan will taste more “sour”.
RECIPE SOURCE: http://www.sumptuousspoonfuls.com/
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