Kulcha Naan

There are several varieties of fillings. My favourite is the cottage cheese, spring onion and coriander Kulcha, but another great version is the pannier and chilli Kulcha, made using leavened wheat dough, filled with a creamy lactic pannier cheese, fresh green chillies and lots of coriander, baked in a tandoor and brushed with a little butter.

Kulcha naan is traditionally eaten with a meal, but I think they work well as a filled wrap, which can be cut open to display the wonderful layering effect.

Ingredients

White bread flour: 1,000g

Salt: 18g

Water: 450g

Fresh yeast: 20g

Sugar: 30g

Fresh natural yoghurt: 250g

Butter: 40g

Filling recipe (makes 10 fills)

Cottage cheese: 400g

Finely chopped spring onion: 50g

Coarsely chopped fresh coriander: 50g

Coarse ground black pepper: sprinkle

For the filling:

Finely chop all of the spring onion and coarsely chop the coriander, including the stalk, and stir into the natural cottage cheese. Add pepper to taste and the filling is ready to use. Easy!

For the dough:

1. Place all the ingredients (except the butter) into a mixing bowl and mix on first speed for 5 minutes and then on second speed for 5 minutes. Add the butter and mix for a further 5 minutes.

2. Allow the dough to rest in a covered bowl for 3 hours and then divide into 145g dough pieces and round. Cover and allow ambient resting for a further 2 hours.

3. Next, fill the dough with 50g of the filling. Hold the dough ball in one hand and place the filling into the centre of the dough ball and seal it off, so the dough has encased the filling. Cover and leave for at least 15 minutes. Then gently pin and hand-stretch to 9-inch rounds.

4. Transfer to a baker's peel, brush with a little ghee or melted butter and slide onto the sole of a deck oven, operating at 300ºC and bake for 3-4 minutes. I used a Tom Chandley oven, top crown setting 10, bottom sole setting

5. Brush with melted butter or ghee when baked.

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