We are in the last week of my A to Z International Flatbread series. For the alphabet T, we go to the Persian cuisine to explore the Taftan Bread. This bread is very similar to the Indian Naan made with lightly enriched dough. The texture of the Taftoon is very similar to the Naan and can be served with soup or stew or as I did with some spicy side dishes. Last night I was casually mentioning to my son about not having enough bread stories to write as I am blogging every day about bread. He asked me to correlate the bread with our travel and write about it. Talking about travel and food greatly enhanced my travel curiosity and I really hope that soon I will be able to travel to all the different countries and experience their cuisine firsthand. We do travel quite a bit and have exposed our children to many different cuisines. We are yet to do many international travels as we are always short on vacation time. Since our family lives in India, we do make the trip to India at least every other year and that pretty much takes away the time and budget. Locally though, it is another story. We have pretty much traveled all around the US and quite a bit of Canada and totally enjoy the places of wilderness and nature. Preparation time - 10 minutes Plus 2 hours of resting timeBaking time - 15 MinutesDifficulty level - EasyRecipe adapted from - Here B for Boulanee Katchalu C for Chickpea Flatbread / Socca D for Dhal Puri E for Emirati Khameer F for Fruit Focaccia G for Gozleme H for Himbasha I for Indian Fry Bread J for Janta Roti K for Ka’ak L for Lepinja M for Mahjouba N for Norwegian Crisp Bread O for Onion and Poppy Seed Pletzel P for Pol Roti Q for Qutab R for Roomali Roti S for Samoon
Ingredients to make Taftan Bread - Makes 8
All-purpose flour - 3 cups Active dry yeast - 2 tsp Yogurt - 2 TBSP Butter - 2 tablespoon (melted) Sugar - 1 TBSP Salt - 1 ½ tsp Warm Milk - 1 cup plus 2 TBSP Saffron thread - few Nigella seeds - 2 teaspoon (for sprinkling on top)
Procedure to make Taftoon
To make the dough -
Measure 1 cup of milk and warm it until lukewarm. Add the sugar and the active dry yeast to the warm milk and mix well. Cover the mixture and let it proof for 10 minutes to activate the yeast. The yeast mixture would appear bubbly and frothy.
Meanwhile, in a large bowl or the bowl of the mixer, add the flour, salt, melted butter, and yogurt.
Add the proven yeast mixture to the flour and start kneading the dough. The dough will be quite sticky.
Keep kneading until the dough is very soft and smooth.
Place the dough in a greased bowl and let it rise until double in volume. It will take an hour to 1 ½ hours.
To shape and bake Taftan Bread | Taftoon -
Preheat the oven to 400 F. Layer two baking trays with parchment and keep it ready.
Once the dough has risen, punch it down gently and divide it into 8 equal pieces.
Roll each piece into a ball and then roll it out to about a 5-inch circle, keeping the edges thicker than the center.
Place the prepared discs on the baking sheet.
Dissolve the saffron in 2 tablespoon milk. Brush this mixture evenly over the rolled dough.
Make deep indentations in the center of the rolled dough using your fingers, keeping the edges intact.
Now sprinkle it evenly with the nigella seeds.
Cover the baking tray and let it rest for about 20 minutes.
Bake the Taftan for about 12 to 15 minutes or until golden brown.
Place it on a cooling tray and then serve with some spicy side dish or as is with soup or stew. I served mine with Restaurant-style Vegetable Kurma.
Sides that can pair well with this dish
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