Garlic Naan Bread and Orblue Garlic Press Review

When I lived in Scotland, I was finally introduced to Indian food. This might be slightly blasphemous but one of my favorite comfort meals became this frozen chicken tikka masala with a pre-made garlic naan bread that you just had to throw in the oven. It was delicious and the naan bread was to die for! Unfortunately, the main grocery stores here don't sell naan bread (or at least the one I frequent). A few months ago I tried making my own and I had a huge fail. A few weeks ago I went to my first Indian restaurant in DC and thought their garlic naan bread was pretty bad so I knew I had to try again. With the help of the Orblue Garlic Press*, I was ready!
*I received this product free for testing purposes. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Ingredients:
1 packet active dry yeast (about 1/2 tablespoon)

1 tablespoon sugar + 1/2 teaspoon sugar

6 tablespoons warm water

1 cup flour, + extra for rolling

1/2 teaspoon salt, + extra for sprinkling
1/16 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 tablespoons plain yogurt 

1 tablespoon olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced and divided
1/4 cup melted butter

(this recipe makes 3 naan pieces)

Directions:

1. In a large glass, dissolve the dry yeast with 1 tablespoon of sugar in warm water. Let sit for about 10 minutes until frothy.

2. While the yeast mixture is sitting, sift flour, salt, 1/2 teaspoon of sugar, and 1/16 teaspoon baking powder.

3. Once yeast is frothy, add 1 1/2 tablespoons of plain yogurt and 1 tablespoon of olive oil to glass and stir.

4. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients. Add 1 minced garlic clove to the mixture.

Let me just take a moment to say that before I made this, I had never used a garlic press before. When I got the chance to review the stainless steel garlic press from Orblue, I was so excited. I had always wanted to try one because I heard garlic presses are great. I heard right. I will never not use a garlic press again! When I chopped garlic by hand, I would always get huge chunks. I love garlic but not like that. You just put the garlic clove in the press (you don't even have to peel it!), squeeze, and you get perfectly minced garlic! I highly recommend this product.

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

5. Gently mix the ingredients with a fork. When dough is about to come together, use hands to mix.

6. Keep going until it transforms into a soft, slightly sticky, pliable dough. Stop mixing as soon as the dough comes together. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit for 2-4 hours.

Here is mine after 3 hours.

7. Mix two minced cloves of garlic with 1/4 cup melted butter. Let sit so garlic will infuse the butter.

8. Fill a bowl with flour and a bowl with water once ready to cool. Separate the dough into 3 portions and lightly roll each one in flour.

9. Shape into teardrops (or kind of like the shape of India). The dough will be very sticky so flour your rolling surface and rolling pin well.

10. Warm skillet on high until almost smoking. Dampen hands in bowl of water and use your hands to dampen the naan bread. Put in skillet for 1 minute (it is very easy to get ugly naan - trust me - so be careful). Flip. Cover with a lid and cook for about 30 seconds more. Remove and brush with garlic butter and sprinkle with salt.

Place in a towel lined dish and serve immediately.

Chocolate Orange Loaf Cake

 

I wanted to share this recipe I found in a copy of sBetter Homes and Gardens that was lying around the house for a Chocolate Orange Loaf Cake courtesy of Nigella Lawson (if you, like me before last year, haven't heard of her, she's HUGE over in the UK). You'll need these ingredients:

-1 1/4 sticks (or 10 TBS) unsalted butter, softened
-2 TBS golden syrup (such as Lyle's) or dark corn syrup (this is what I used as golden syrup is more of a British thing - Karo sells one*)
-1 cup dark brown sugar, packed
-1 cup all-purpose flour
-1/2 tsp baking soda
-3 TBS unsweetened cocoa powder, shifted
-2 eggs
-zest of 2 small orange (1 TBS which is pretty much equivalent to the zest of one normal orange) and juice of one small orange (3 TBSP - you'll have plenty if you juice a normal orange)

1. Preheat oven to 325 F. Line a 9x5x3-inch loaf pan with parchment paper (I've only met people in the UK who use parchment paper. My flatmates used to use it all the time when making brownies or cakes but I've never used it. I just sprayed my tin with Pam for baking). Grease sides of pan or line with a paper loaf-pan liner (again, I just Pamed it).
2. In a large bowl, with electric mixer, beat the butter, syrup (brush a little oil on your tablespoon measure before measuring the syrup to help remove it from the spoon), and sugar until fairly smooth.
3. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and cocoa powder. Beat 1 tablespoon of the dry ingredients into the syrup mixture, then beat in one egg. Add another couple of spoonfuls of dry ingredients before beating in the remaining egg.
4. Beat in remaining dry ingredients, and then add, while still beating, the orange zest. Gradually add the juice. the batter many look slightly curdled.

 

5. Pour batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 45 minutes (edges should look dry and center of cake may have dipped slightly - it took about 10 extra minutes for my knife to come out clean). Cool in pan on wire rack. Carefully remove from pan and cool completely.

 

Here's the finished product with a little powdered sugar!

*My comments are in italics

To be honest, I thought the cake was pretty good but not amazing. I'm a pretty harsh judge of my baking skills but my dad liked it so much he ate about a quarter of the loaf in one sitting and my mom really liked it too! Maybe I'm just judging myself too hard?

I'm sharing this recipe at...