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Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Khaliat Nahal - Honeycomb buns

Khaliat Nahal, which in Arabic means bees' hive, derives its name from the typical honey comb like pattern in which this bread is baked. It can be made either sweet or savory. I have made the sweet version with its traditional cream cheese filling, and coated it with sugar syrup after baking.
This recipe makes 17/18 smallish buns. The buns are baked close together in a round pan, giving it its characteristic honey comb shape. The recipe is one I'd bookmarked when I was part of the We Knead to Bake group and thanks to Blogging Marathon #64 where I'll be posting three different shaped yeasted breads this week, it is finally moving out of my bookmarks folder and seeing the light of day.

Khaliat Nahal - Honeycomb buns
What you need:
All purpose flour - 2.5 cups
Sugar - 3 tbsp.
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Instant yeast - 1.5 tsp
Melted butter - 3 tbsp.
Lukewarm milk - 1 cup
Cream cheese - for filling
Some milk for brushing on top of the buns

For the sugar syrup:
Sugar - 3/4 cup
Water - 1/2 cup
Lemon juice - 1 tsp

Mix the melted butter, flour, sugar, salt and yeast using your finger tips. Add the milk, a little at a time and knead until your dough is smooth, pliable and elastic. You may not have to add all the milk.
Coat with a little oil on all sides, cover and leave aside in a warm place to rise. It should double in size in about an hour.
While the dough is rising, you can make your sugar syrup. To do this, bring the sugar and water to a boil and then let the mixture simmer on low heat for a few minutes until it starts to thicken. Remove from heat and add the lemon juice. Keep aside to cool until needed.
Once the dough rises, divide it into two parts. Roll each part into a rope that is roughly 9 inches long. Cut each rope into nine parts, so that you have eighteen parts in all. Flatten each part of dough a little, place a little of the cream cheese inside and close the seams and smoothen the dough into a round ball. Place the balls of dough in a well greased 9 inch round pan, arranging them in concentric circles, filling the base of the pan. Cover with a wet paper towel and let it rise for about an hour. Brush the tops with milk.
Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 25 minutes or until the tops are well browned.
Remove from the oven and while the buns are still hot, pour the sugar syrup on top of them. If you want your bun to be only mildly sweet and not sticky, you could just brush the sugar syrup on top of the buns. Let this sit for a bit so that the sugar syrup sets a little.
Serve warm.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this BM

15 comments:

Srivalli said...

This is been on my to do list for so long!..yours seem to have come out well!

coconut chutney said...

Perfectly baked !

vaishali sabnani said...

Whenever I see home made breads i feel like baking right away..the bread looks wonderful, perfectly made.

MySpicyKitchen said...

Honeycomb buns have come out perfect.

Sarita said...

Bread looks too yummy.. Nicely done.

Gayathri Kumar said...

These honey comb bread has turned out perfect..

Varada's Kitchen said...

Homemade bread tastes so awesome. Nice.

Priya Suresh said...

My favourite bread since i tried them for We knead to bake event, love it to the core.

cookingwithsapana said...

Those buns looks delicious and perfectly baked.

www.annapurnaz.in said...

Wow! Superb Honeycomb buns!!

Sowmya :) said...

That's a perfect honeycomb...looks lovely

Sandhya Ramakrishnan said...

I make them very often and it is one of my favorite :)

Harini R said...

Wow! I have been postponing this for a while now. Looks perfectly baked.

Pavani said...

Wow, those buns look so soft and fluffy :-)

Pavani said...

OMG what an amazing pull apart bread. It looks sooooo soft and delicious.