Ma Niche : Stuffed Whole Wheat Naan

I made these whole wheat naan a week back. Had planned to put it on the blog sooner.. but this week everything just went out of sorts. anyway... now that i am here let me quickly tell you what i did. how they were. and how well they compared to their bread flour(BF) counterparts.

Adapting the recipe from Beth Hensperger's Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook, I made the dough for the naan in my bread machine and stuffed it with mashed potatoes and spinach. then buttered them generously and baked them in the oven. even though wheat is considered a healthier choice, in our opinion the BF ones taste much better. however with the stuffing these taste pretty good with a side of dal and yogurt. like their BF counterparts these are quite heavy, so unless you have a big appetite you'll probably not manage beyond one and a third for a meal. at least i find it difficult to have more, though Mr MN chomps down at least three every time i bake them..

The Recipe ....

ingredients

1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1 1/2 tablespoon olive oil
2 cups whole wheat flour(WWF) + more for dusting
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
2 1/2 teaspoons bread machine yeast
1 1/2 teaspoon vinegar
unsalted butter, melted, for brushing
nigella seeds and sesame seeds to sprinkle over the naans

for the stuffing

2 medium sized potatoes, peeled and boiled
2 teaspoons oil
1 small onion finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, grated
1 1/2 cup frozen chopped spinach, thawed
salt to taste

what i did

i began by placing the first 8 ingredients in the bread machine pan and programming it for the dough cycle. while the dough was getting done ( it takes 1 1/2 hours), i made the potato spinach stuffing.
for the stuffing, i heated oil in a medium sized saucepan, added the onions, garlic and salt to it. once the onions became tender, i added the thawed spinach to the pan. stirred and cooked the spinach with the onions and garlic for about 8-10 minutes. then switched off the heat. once the spinach cooled down, i mixed it with the mashed potatoes, checked the salt in the mixtures and kept it aside.
few minutes before the dough cycle was about to be completed, i lined 3 baking sheets with parchment paper and kept them aside. when the dough cycle completed and the machine beeped, i removed to dough from the pan, placed it on a well floured work surface. at this point, in comparison to the bread flour dough, the WWF dough felt softer. so i dusted the dough heavily with flour before proceeding further.
once the dough became a little more stable, i divided it into 6 equal parts, covered them with a clean cloth and left them like that for 5-7 minutes. then took a dough ball, rolled it into a circle about 3 1/ 2 inch in diameter, placed a lemon sized ball of the potato-spinach mixture on the rolled out dough. then sealing the dough by pulling the edges of the rolled dough together i kept it aside and repeated the same with the remaining 5 dough balls. when all of dough balls were stuffed i covered with a cloth and allowed them to settle for 5-7 minutes.
next i rolled the stuffed balls into 6 inch long and 3 inch wide ovals, all the time making sure that the sealed side is on the top. then placing 2 rolled out naans on each parchment paper, i covered them with a kitchen towel and left them that way for another 20 minutes.
in the meantime i preheated the oven to 450 degree F.
once the oven was preheated and the rolled out dough s had rested for 20 minutes, i sprinkled sesame and nigella seeds on them, brushed them with the melted butter, then baked them in the center of the oven, one tray at a time, until the naans looked golden brown, about 16 minutes. i baked the naans without turning. once they were done i wrapped the baked naans is a kitchen towel and put them in a box. this way they stay soft and warm.

after all the naans were baked we enjoyed them with rajma and raita....

note: on an earlier attempted i had stuffed these whole wheat naans with a mix of finely chopped capsicum and home-made ricotta that combination tasted good but was a little more difficult to handle as the ricotta made the final dough ball soft and hence a little difficult to roll with the rolling pin. but if you feel confident. by all means try the capsicum-ricotta mixture. it really tastes good.

Happy baking and have a nice weekend !

Sharing these with

Bon Vivant #13 - Kids Delight @ Sumee's Culinary Bites, Cook Like a Celebrity Chef @ Food Corner

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Meatless Monday: Meatless Monday @Veggie Mama's, Meatless Monday My Sweet and Savory, Just Another Meatless Monday @ Hey What's for Dinner Mom