Peshwari Naan

A soft, blistered naan hiding a sweet coconut, almond and sultana filling — the one everybody fights over at the curry house. A hot dry frying pan stands in for the tandoor, giving you the charred bubbles and chewy pull without any special kit. Ready in under 40 minutes using a yoghurt dough that needs no long prove.

Peshwari naan is the sweet one — coconut, almonds and sultanas sealed inside a soft, bubbled flatbread. Takeaways bake it against the wall of a tandoor at ferocious heat, which is why it puffs and chars in ninety seconds. A heavy frying pan, run hot and dry, gets you remarkably close at home. The filling does the rest.

Ingredients

• 350g strong white bread flour — plus extra for rolling
• 1 tsp fast-action dried yeast
• 1 tsp caster sugar
• 1 tsp fine salt
• 1/2 tsp baking powder — the takeaway shortcut for extra lift
• 150g full-fat natural yoghurt — Greek-style is fine
• 100ml warm milk — hand-hot, not hot
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 60g desiccated coconut
• 60g ground almonds
• 50g sultanas — or raisins, roughly chopped
• 2 tbsp flaked almonds — lightly crushed
• 2 tbsp double cream — binds the filling; milk works at a push
• 1 tbsp honey — or golden syrup
• 1/4 tsp ground cardamom — seeds from 4 green pods, crushed, is better still
• 50g butter — melted, with 1 crushed garlic clove and chopped coriander

Method

1. Whisk the flour, yeast, sugar, salt and baking powder in a large bowl. Make a well and add the yoghurt, warm milk and 1 tbsp of the oil. Bring together into a soft, slightly tacky dough — add a splash more milk if it feels dry.
2. Knead on a lightly oiled surface for 6-8 minutes until smooth and elastic. Return to the bowl, cover and leave somewhere warm for 45 minutes, or 25 minutes if you are pushed; it only needs to look puffy, not doubled.
3. Meanwhile make the filling. Stir the desiccated coconut, ground almonds, sultanas, flaked almonds, cream, honey and cardamom together into a thick, clumping paste. Squeeze a little in your palm — it should hold its shape. If it crumbles, add another teaspoon of cream.
4. Divide the dough into 4 and the filling into 4. Flatten each piece of dough into a disc about 12cm across, keeping the edges slightly thinner than the middle. Pile a portion of filling into the centre.
5. Gather the edges up over the filling like a money bag, pinch firmly to seal and roll the parcel gently between your palms. Set seam-side down and rest for 5 minutes — this relaxes the gluten so the dough stretches rather than tears.
6. Dust well with flour and roll each parcel out slowly, from the centre outwards, into a teardrop roughly 20cm long. Go gently; if a little filling breaks through, patch it with flour and carry on.
7. Put a heavy frying pan or cast-iron pan over a high heat with no oil until a flick of water vanishes on contact — 3-4 minutes. Lay in a naan and cook for 60-90 seconds until big bubbles rise and the underside is blistered and charred in patches.
8. Flip and cook for another 45-60 seconds, pressing the puffed areas down with a folded tea towel or fish slice so they colour. For extra tandoor char, hold the cooked naan briefly over a gas flame with tongs.
9. Brush generously with the garlic-coriander butter and stack the naans in a clean tea towel while you cook the rest — the trapped steam is what keeps them soft. Serve warm, torn at the table.

Serve it with

• Chicken tikka masala or butter chicken
• A rich lamb rogan josh
• Dal makhani for a fully meat-free spread
• Mango chutney and lime pickle
• Cucumber and mint raita to offset the sweetness

Why this works

The tandoor's trick is brutal, dry, direct heat: the outside sets and chars before the inside can dry out, so the naan puffs and stays chewy. A screaming-hot dry pan reproduces that, while yoghurt and baking powder in the dough give you the tenderness and lift that a slow-fermented dough alone would not.

Common swaps

• No ground almonds? Blitz whole blanched almonds, or use ground cashews for a milder, creamier filling.
• Swap sultanas for chopped dried apricots or dates for a deeper, toffee-ish sweetness.
• Green cardamom pods are best, but 1/4 tsp shop-bought ground cardamom from the supermarket spice aisle does the job.
• For a dairy-free version, use coconut yoghurt, oat milk and a vegan block butter for brushing.
• Plain flour works if you have no strong flour — the naan will be a little less chewy but still excellent.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Overfilling. More than a quarter of the filling per naan and the dough will split every time you roll it.
• A pan that is not hot enough. Medium heat dries the naan into a cracker instead of blistering it; you want it just short of smoking.
• Rolling straight after sealing. Without a 5-minute rest the dough fights back, tears and leaks filling into the pan.
• Leaving the cooked naans uncovered on a rack. They stiffen within minutes — stack them in a tea towel.

Storage, freezing & reheating

Storage: Keep cooled naans in an airtight bag or container at room temperature for up to 2 days. Refrigerating makes them go stale and firm faster.

Freezing: Freeze cooked, cooled naans interleaved with baking paper in a freezer bag for up to 3 months. You can also freeze the rolled, uncooked naans on a tray and cook them from frozen, adding 30 seconds a side.

Reheating: Sprinkle with a few drops of water and reheat in a dry hot frying pan for 30-40 seconds a side, or 3-4 minutes in an oven at 200C/180C fan. The water turns to steam and softens the crumb while the pan re-crisps the blistered spots. Avoid the microwave, which makes them leathery.

Allergen notes: contains Gluten, Milk, Nuts. Always check individual product labels.

Estimated nutrition

Per serving, estimated from typical ingredient values — not a substitute for precise dietary calculation.