Hopelessness On Libby: Afghani Bread

After my mom posted a blog about foot bread, I decided to do the same recipe. I also not having the nigella seeds, no onion seeds and no coriander seeds, used caraway seeds.
Here is Jasna Varcakovic's recipe: She states she doesn't want anyone to post a picture or a recipe from her blog onto theirs without permission, so I will only give you the link to the recipe on her blog to give her credit. http://jasnaskitchencreations.blogspot.com.au/2010/12/afghani-bread.html She has so many fantastic recipes on there!

I kneaded mine about 10 times. I let it rise 1 hour. I used olive oil and had tons of fun poking it. I baked it immediately after I poked it.

My raw dough:

Fresh from the oven:

The temperature converted into Fahrenheit is 428, but I cooked it at 350 like the lady's video below. I found it wouldn't brown. I also figured if the true Afghans cook theirs in a fire oven, why not turn up the heat? So after I noticed it wasn't browning after 8 minutes at 350, I turned it up to 500. After 5 minutes of no browning, I turned it up to 550 (the hottest my oven goes!). It started browning! I let it be for about 5 minutes, and pulled it out fearing if I left it too long it would dry out. It probably cooked about 25-30 minutes total. I learned you need hot hot heat to cook this bread to not only brown it but to cook it quickly so it won't dry out.

Fluffy soft bread:

Me and my husband thought it a little bland, but after adding butter to mine it was better. I also noticed as I ate a piece after it cooled it has much more character in the flavor as it sits. Maybe I needed to add more seeds for flavor? Maybe that's why you need nigella seeds?

This lady Nooria Ali calls it Afghan naan even though she uses the same ingredients as in the Afghani bread recipe. It has no oil or dairy like most naan recipes have, so I think she tried to translate it and got the wrong name. I used her techniques with the dough without adding the extra water, but didn't turn my bread over 1/2 way during cooking. She cooks hers at 350. Hers also looks more dry (probably with the longer cooking time?). I'm curious on the flavor the onion seeds give it. I've never heard of eating onion seeds!

This man Haji Niayz Mohammad credits maintaining the right temperature in his oven to keep the bread soft. He also names and describes the different types of bread around the time 1:40 in the video. Saada is the name of the bread I think I just made.