Can You Freeze Naan Bread?
Quick Answer
Yes, you can freeze naan bread! To ensure the best quality, follow these steps:
- Wrap it tightly in plastic wrap or freezer bags.
- Label with the date and store in the freezer.
- Use within 6 months for optimal flavor and texture.
Read on for more detail
Naan is a deliciously soft, flaky, and buttery flatbread that is an extremely versatile and useful accompaniment to many dishes. But making naan from scratch sure does take a while!
So, can you freeze naan bread if you make a bulk batch? Yes, you can freeze naan. This flatbread freezes very well and can be kept in the freezer for up to 6 months. However, there are very specific rules you will have to follow to ensure you keep it at its best while it’s frozen.
Today, we will look at three ways to effectively freeze naan and discuss some tips for doing so. Then, we’ll also cover exactly how long you can freeze it, how to tell when it has gone bad, and how to properly thaw and reheat this flatbread!
What Is Naan Bread?
Naan bread is one of the most famous types of flatbread in the world.
It is a type of leavened bread, meaning that the dough has been made with some type of leavening agent, usually yeast.
This flatbread is baked inside different kinds of hot ovens. Authentic Indian naan is baked inside a wood-fired tandoori oven. The extremely high temperatures that are used to bake naan leave some areas slightly charred and crispy.
Naan is known to be exceptionally soft, slightly flaky (depending on where you are getting it from), fluffy, and slightly charred. And it has a rich, buttery flavor that is often accompanied by a garlic or herb-butter basting.
This bread is extremely popular in Western and Central Asia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Myanmar.
Can You Freeze Naan?
So, the big question of the day: Can you freeze naan bread? And even more importantly, should you freeze it?
Naan bread is actually a flatbread that freezes surprisingly well! It holds up well against the effects of the freezer for several months. Whether or not you should depends on your own personal preferences.
When any bread product is frozen, it loses its freshly baked aromas and super soft texture — and, in the case of naan, its buttery freshly-baked flavor.
By no means does that mean frozen and thawed naan is bad! You just shouldn’t expect it to be like fresh naan. But that kind of applies to all ingredients and products that have been frozen.
How Does Freezing Affect Naan?
Freezing naan has many benefits, whether it’s store-bought flatbread or homemade. You’ll always have a side or accompaniment on hand, it’s very quick to thaw and reheat, and it can even save you some money long-term.
But naan does change somewhat when it is frozen. Some recipes for naan are less affected by the freezer than others, so you’ll need to test your specific naan yourself.
Some potential changes that may occur include the bread drying out or becoming brittle. There are ways to fix this, but they are extra effort and take a little longer.
Other types of naan may become very soggy or tough when you eventually thaw them. Again, there are some tricks you can use to prevent or fix this, but soggy and tough naan bread is much harder to fix — you may not even be able to.
Then, as we’ve mentioned, the flatbread will lose the freshly baked texture and flavor. It will still be tasty, but not like freshly made naan.
Now, despite all of these “downsides,” you should still consider freezing naan. Most recipes are great and have no problems at all.
If you do see that yours aren’t working, then get a different recipe for making naan for freezing! It will still save you a ton of time and effort.
How To Freeze Naan Bread
There are a couple of ways you can freeze naan bread — the method you end up choosing is entirely up to you!
1. Individually In Freezer Bags
This method is easy, quick, and probably requires the least amount of effort.
- Simply place one naan inside a large freezer bag and seal it tightly. Repeat until they are all safely sealed.
- Place the naan bread in a single layer inside the freezer. At the most, you can stack two on top of each other — if you stack too many, the bottom layer of naan will be squished.
- Once all of the naan has frozen, you can stack them on top of each other in a safe area in your freezer without worrying about them getting squished.
The downside to this method is that you have to buy lots of freezer bags (which can get expensive). Luckily, they are reusable — just wash them with some warm soapy water, rinse them thoroughly, allow them to dry, and store them away.
2. Wrap With Plastic
This method requires a little more labor, but is still very effective — plus a large roll of plastic or saran wrap probably costs as much as a couple of large freezer bags.
- Wrap each naan individually with plastic wrap. Don’t wrap it too tightly, but make sure it’s airtight.
- Place the naan in an individual layer in the freezer, then let them freeze.
- Stack the wrapped frozen naan bread on top of each other.
The downside to this method is that the naan will likely be damaged by some degree of freezer burn. Luckily, you can use our foil trick in the tips section to help minimize this risk!
3. Place In A Freezer-Safe Container
This method is great if you don’t want to use a bunch of plastic or are feeling a little lazy.
- Stack all of the naan pieces in a freezer-safe container. You may need to cut the naan into smaller pieces to fit — do not fold them over.
- If you can, add layers of non-stick paper or plastic wrap between the pieces.
- Place the entire container inside the freezer.
Just keep in mind that if you don’t add baking paper or plastic wrap between the pieces of naan, they will likely freeze together.
So, either use plastic or non-stick paper, or only store specific portions of naan together in an airtight container.
Tips For Freezing Naan
- Whichever method you choose, wrap the naan (or container) in a layer of aluminum foil. This will help prevent excessive freezer burn, which means the naan will have a better flavor and texture when you thaw and reheat it.
- Don’t fold the naan when you freeze it — it will squish the dough at the fold, which will likely become soggy when you defrost it. It’s best to freeze naan in an individual layer, completely flat. Only once frozen can you stack them!
- Label and date everything that does into the freezer for long-term storage. This will help to use the oldest naan first, leaving the newest for last. This will also ensure that you don’t leave any naan to go bad in the bottom of your freezer!
How Long Can You Freeze Naan?
In an ideal world, naan shouldn’t be kept frozen for longer than a month — the texture and flavor after that won’t be nearly as good as they would be within that time frame. This applies to both store-bought and homemade naan.
If you do store naan for longer, it will still be edible and relatively good; however, the longer you keep it frozen, the less tender, soft, fluffy, and buttery it will be once you thaw and reheat it.
Don’t store naan for longer than 6 months. By then, it will likely already be ruined by freezer burn — even within the foil layer.
How To Tell If Frozen Naan Has Gone Bad
If your naan bread shows any signs of freezer burn, it’s been frozen for too long (even if that is under a month).
If it shows excessive freezer burn, it will no longer to appealing to eat. It will be soggy, tough, chewy, and even dry.
If your naan is discolored in any way, it means that it has gone off — bread shouldn’t change color, even in the freezer.
The same goes for visible signs of mold growth. And no, you cannot determine which molds are good or bad just by looking at them. It’s better to be safe than sorry!
How To Thaw And Reheat Naan
There are a few ways you can thaw and reheat naan bread, whether quickly or slowly, or in an oven or microwave.
To quickly thaw your naan bread in the oven:
- Remove the naan pieces from the freezer and place them into a lined baking tray.
- Bake the naan at 420ºF (210ºC) for a couple of minutes. Don’t bake it for too long or it will dry out — it only takes roughly 5 minutes, tops.
The exact time will depend on the size and thickness of the naan. The goal is to quickly thaw it and dry out the excess moisture.
To slowly thaw your naan bread in the oven:
- Place the naan inside the fridge to slowly thaw. Don’t remove the coverings — it will take roughly 1–3 hours to thaw.
- Then, place it on a baking sheet and bake it at 350ºF (180ºC) for 3–4 minutes.
You can also quickly reheat slowly thawed naan inside the microwave:
- Leave the naan inside the fridge to slowly thaw for roughly 1–3 hours; don’t remove it from any coverings or container.
- Use the highest heat of your microwave and microwave it for 10–20 second intervals, checking doneness after each session.
This is a quick method, but it won’t help get the crispy bits crispy again.
Can You Re-Freeze Thawed Naan?
You should never re-freeze any ingredients — naan is no exception.
When you thawed the bread for the first time, you already introduced new bacteria, plus the old bacteria from pre-freezing became active again.
So, if you freeze the bread for a second time, it will have already deteriorated even further. This will just cause the bread to spoil in the freezer, and it would continue to deteriorate the second time you thaw and reheat it.
This is why it’s important to portion the naan before freezing — only thaw and reheat what you need!
