Sheermal

A mildly sweet saffron bread in which warm sweetened milk replaces the water of a naan dough.

Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains dairy (ghee), dairy (milk), dairy (whole milk).

Ingredients

• 500 g maida, which is plain white flour
• 300 ml whole milk, warm
• 7 g dried yeast
• 60 g sugar
• a large pinch of saffron threads
• 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 80 g ghee, melted
• 2 tablespoons milk, for brushing

Method

1. WARM SWEETENED MILK REPLACES THE WATER OF A NAAN DOUGH, and that single substitution is the whole dish. Its article says it directly: sheermal is a mildly sweet naan made of maida, leavened with yeast and baked in a tandoor, and THE WARM WATER IN THE RECIPE FOR NAAN ROTI WAS REPLACED WITH WARM MILK SWEETENED WITH SUGAR AND FLAVORED WITH SAFFRON AND CARDAMOM. Everything else about it is a naan, as on its own page.
2. THE NAME SAYS THE SAME THING. The article takes it apart: sheer means milk and malidan means TO RUB OR TO KNEAD, so sheermal is MILK-RUBBED. A bread whose name is the liquid it is kneaded with is telling you what to change.
3. BLOOM THE SAFFRON IN A LITTLE OF THE HOT MILK FIRST. Threads dropped dry into a dough give you yellow specks and no scent. Two tablespoons of milk just off the boil, the saffron crushed into it, ten minutes.
4. SUGAR AND YEAST INTO THE REST OF THE WARM MILK. Sixty grams in three hundred millilitres is sweet enough to taste and not enough to make it a cake -- the article's word is MILDLY SWEET, twice.
5. KNEAD IT WITH THE MELTED GHEE UNTIL IT IS SLACK AND SHINY. Eighty grams into five hundred of flour. It will seem too soft; that is correct, and it is what keeps the bread tender for a day.
6. PROVE IT, KNOCK IT BACK, AND SHAPE SIX OVALS. An hour the first time, half an hour after shaping. Press them out to a centimetre with your palm rather than a pin.
7. BAKE THEM AS HOT AS THE OVEN GOES, ON A PREHEATED TRAY. Its article gives a tandoor or an oven. Six or seven minutes: the top should be blotched brown, not even.
8. BRUSH THEM WITH MILK AS THEY COME OUT, AND SERVE THEM WITH SOMETHING SERIOUS. The article has them eaten with kababs, tikkia, or alongside nihari, and the sweetness is there to sit against that.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under India · All recipes