Khaliat Nahal (Honeycomb Buns or Bee’s Hive Buns) – We Knead To Bake

This was the bread I was supposed to bake for the month of September in the We knead to bake group. While I enthusiastically joined Aparna‘s baking group, I was totally disheartened when I could not find yeast here. I searched everywhere and all I could find was the dried yeast which did not work for me.

Finally my search ended and I am ready to bake breads.Yay!!! The first one that I took up was this Honeycomb bread.It is called Khaliat Nahal in Arabic ,the name it gets from the appearance.The filling is usually cream cheese and these buns are really easy to make.

This bread is supposed to be served during the Iftar and the shape is very convenient for the family to pull apart and enjoy.

 I decided to do a sweet filling as the kids would prefer it over the savory version.Since my oven has some problem, I baked this at my SIL’s place and after the ‘photo shoot’ there , we enjoyed these warm buns…

I used:
Source – My Diverse Kitchen

Instant yeast – 1 1/2 teaspoons
Luke warm milk- 1 cup
Sugar – 1 teaspoon

All purpose Flour- 2 1/2 cups
Sugar- 3 teaspoons
Salt- 1/4 teaspoon
Butter- 40 grams,melted and cooled

Oil to coat the dough

Milk – for brushing on top

Tutti frutti for the filling

For the syrup / glaze

Sugar- 3/4 cup
Water- 1/2 cup
Honey- 1 teaspoon

1. Heat the sugar and water in a pan and let it thicken a bit. Add honey and remove from heat. Keep aside to cool. this is important as it has to be poured over the buns while it is still warm.So make ahead and let it cool.

2.In a cup/ bowl, take the milk,sugar[1 teaspoon] and yeast.Let it sit for 5 minutes. In a bowl, take the 2 cups of flour, sugar-3 teaspoons and salt. Mix well and add the melted butter and mix .

3. Now add the yeast mixture and run the food processor till you get a smooth elastic dough. If the dough is sticky add more flour. I used up the remaining 1/2 cup of flour. Shape into a ball and place in an oiled bowl , turning it completely to coat with oil. Cover and let it rise for 1 hour.It will double in size.

4. Turn the dough into the work surface and punch out the air. Divide into equal sized balls and place a portion of the filling in the centre and bring the edges together to seal it in. Shape into balls.

Place the balls in a pan and cover and keep for 1 hour to rise again.[ I got 11 balls of bun. So placed 8 in a circular pan and kept the remaining 3 in a loaf pan and baked them]

After an hour, brush the top of the bun with milk and bake in a preheated oven at 180 degree C for 25 minutes or till the top is golden brown in color.Remove from the oven and let it rest fro 5 minutes. Pour the sugar syrup on top .Let it sit for a while and then it is ready to be served….

Carefully remove the buns from the pan and serve with tea/ coffee or enjoy as such…..

Here are the other bakes that are a part of this Bake- A – Thon group….

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This bun goes to  Kalyani’s Only Baked Treats , an event started by Pari, Nayna’s Let’s Cook Christmas Party Foods