The alphabet X is always the toughest in any A-Z series. I was looking for any bread, but came with zero results. Then I searched for the breads in Chinese cuisine and I got lucky. Xinjiang is China’s far west region and the cuisine is Uyghur. As it is located in the Central Asia, it is so near to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. It is the home for Turkic-speaking Islamic Uyghur people and the cuisine is wonderful. This is one of the oasis towns on the ancient silk road. I saw so many videos on the street food available in Xinjiang and this bread is one of the popular ones. The nang bing or the naan bread is a leavened flat bread baked in tandoor ovens. They vary in size. You get small bagel like bread to breads which resemble huge platters. The decorative patterns are made with a special tool made with nails and once baked they are so beautiful. They come in varieties too. Some are made plain whereas some are topped with sesame seeds. Some have onions as the topping. There are also sweet version of the bread but I couldn’t find a recipe for that. So I made the simpler sesame studded bread.
Replicating a tandoor oven in a home oven is tough. The bread takes a long time to bake in oven as the temperature is low when compared to tandoor. Also the top is golden whereas the ones baked in tandoor have a deep brown which is actually so lovely. The making of the dough is so much like the other yeast based dough recipes, so it is quite easy. I watched so many videos on shaping the bread to understand their technique. They use a special tool, but as I couldn’t get that I used my cookie decorating tool to make the impressions. Though I am not 100% satisfied, my daughter loved it. This was the last bread I made for this month and now I am happy.
Makes 1 Bread
Ingredients:
All Purpose Flour / Maida – 1 1/2 cups
Salt – 3/4 tsp
Sugar – 2 tbs
Instant Yeast – 1 tsp
Butter – 1 tbs
Yogurt / Curd – 2 tbs
Water – 1/4 cup
Milk Wash
Sesame Seeds For Topping
Procedure:
In a bowl mix together flour, sugar, salt and instant yeast.
Add in butter and yogurt and mix well.
Add water to make a soft dough. If needed add a tsp to tablespoon of water extra.
Cover and let the dough rest for 10 minutes.
Knead the dough for a minute or two and cover and set aside until double in volume.
Preheat oven to 250°C.
Punch the dough down, shape it into a ball.
Now press it with your fingers to make a large disc which is thicker on the edges and thinner in the middle.
Using a cookie press or bottom of the cup, make designs in the centre of the dic. You can also use a fork to do that.
Apply milk wash and sprinkle sesame seeds on top.
Gently slide the shaped bread into the hot tray in the oven.
Bake for 10 – 15 minutes or until golden.
Serve it hot out of oven or at room temperature.
Xinjiang Nang Bread Recipe
Ingredients
- All Purpose Flour / Maida - 1 1/2 cups
- Salt - 3/4 tsp
- Sugar-2 tbs
- Instant Yeast-1 tsp
- Butter - 1 tbs
- Yogurt / Curd - 2 tbs
- Water - 1/4 cup
- Milk Wash
- Sesame Seeds for topping
Instructions
- In a bowl mix together flour, sugar, salt and instant yeast.
- Add in butter and yogurt and mix well.
- Add water to make a soft dough. If needed add a tsp to tablespoon of water extra.
- Cover and let the dough rest for 10 minutes.
- Knead the dough for a minute or two and cover and set aside until double in volume.
- Preheat oven to 250°C.
- Punch the dough down, shape it into a ball.
- Now press it with your fingers to make a large disc which is thicker on the edges and thinner in the middle.
- Using a cookie press or bottom of the cup, make designs in the centre of the dic. You can also use a fork to do that.
- Apply milk wash and sprinkle sesame seeds on top.
- Gently slide the shaped bread into the hot tray in the oven.
- Bake for 10 - 15 minutes or until golden.
- Serve it hot out of oven or at room temperature.
Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 92
[inlinkz_linkup id=783062 mode=1]
Yes most of the International flatbreads have their own decorating tool na, however thats brilliant to use your cookie tool for decorating this beautiful Chinese bread. Pretty looking bread. Xinjiang nang Bang looks too good and beautiful.
That is such a different way to make the bread. Love the cookie press idea. Good find , Gayathri.
It is only in Chinese cuisine that we can find our recipes with the alphabet X ! Else we need to use our innovative ideas . You got a perfect bread with the alphabet which looks fantastic ,, and sesame studded sounds so exotic .
Love this name… fom chinese cuisine.. you can easily get X and Y WORDS.. love your creativity and amazing crispy bread.
Wow that’s a great bread from china. I know we all end up in china for X and no doubt this bread is special! you have done it really so well…great job!
An amazing find for letter X Gayathri. love how the bing looks. Looks soft in the inside and crusty outside. Great recipe.
This is such a perfect pick and a great find for the letter Gayathri. Bread looks so so yum and love your trick to make the pattern on the bread.
The mention of Xinjiang takes me back to our times in China.Our town had a large population of these people and each street will have a couple of bakers making fresh breads in the tandoor on the pavement. The aroma would be so enticing that we will be drawn towards them! So many patterns and sizes. Your post has made me so nostalgic Gayathri.Nice bake btw 🙂
another yummy bread baked by you. Looking great with such crunchy crust and sesame seeds all over it. You too have made nice breads in this BM> loved you collection.
Same pinch on the xinjiang bread. I made the same and we really liked it. I love your pattern on the bread.