Khaliat Nahal/Honeycomb Bread

Khaliat Nahal /Honeycomb bread (now popularly known as Hanan's Honey Bunny) is quite famous now in our family. Hanan(my sis) introduced this among our cousins and everyone just loved this. They are behind her now for the recipe and no better idea to share this here than sending to each one of them.

Khaliat Nahal, which means Bees' Hive, is a middle-eastern delicacy which get its name due to its appearance similar to the honeycomb. These are bite size stuffed buns which differs according to the filling or syrup used. Some are sweet while others savoury. Here is  sweet version with cheese stuffed and later soaked in sugar syrup. These buns are too soft that kids as well as elders would defenitely love this.

Bun:

Ingredients:
All purpose flour/Maida  3 1/2 cups
Milk 1 cup
Milk powder 2 tbsp
Water 1/4- 1/2 cup
Egg 1
Sugar 3tbsp
Oil 4 tbsp
Butter 4 tbsp,melted
Instant yeast 1 1/2 tsp*
salt 1/2 tsp
Triangle cheese- 6-8 pieces
Egg 1 , slightly beaten for egg wash
Sesame on top 2 tbsp (optional)

Method:
1. Sieve the flour, then add milk powder, sugar, yeast and salt to it. *If the yeast is granule type, then soak in warm water for 15-30minutes until it bubbles up. And if it is pizza yeast, just throw it into the flour.

2. Make a well in the centre and add oil, butter and the egg. Mix together. Now add all the milk. Start kneading together and gradually add the water a little at a time. You might not need it all, so add it sparingly until your dough is nice and soft. Knead for a good 8-10 minutes. The more you knead it the softer the buns will be.

3. Touch a bit of oil with your fingertips and apply all over the ball of dough. Cover in a bowl and set aside for 40mins to an hour for it to double in size. You can pop in the bowl into preheated oven and rest it there which would make the whole process fast. For this, you should preheat your oven to the maximum temperature and then turn it off before keeping the bowl inside.

4. Once it doubles in size, punch it down, and break off tiny bits of dough. You should get about 30-40 tiny pieces out of this. Take each piece of dough, and stretch it out with your fingers, then add a small piece of cheese in its center. Bring the edges together and form a ball so that the cheese is completely enclosed within the dough. Repeat this with all the dough.

5. Grease your pan/pans with butter. Place the balls of dough in a 'honeycomb' pattern. Try to get them close to each other so that there are no or very little spaces in between.

6. Cover the pans and set aside for a second rise, about half an hour. Sprinkle sesame on top (if using)

7. Now apply egg wash on the balls, preheat your oven to 180 C and bake for about 20-25 minutes, or until the bread is nice and golden on top. If your balls are smaller 15 minutes might do.

8. Remove from the oven and pour your syrup all over the hot bread. Remember that the syrup needs to be cool and the bread needs to be steaming hot straight from the oven. Turn it out and place on a rack to cool and for the syrup to glaze slightly.

Sugar Syrup/Glaze:

Ingredients

Sugar 1 cup

Water 3/4 cup

Honey 1 tbsp

Saffron a pinch

Method:

Boil sugar,water and saffron together until all the sugar melts and the syrup is slightly thickened. Remove from heat and add honey. Mix and set aside to cool completely. 

LInking this to  Bread from Scratch Event hosted by he Big Sweet Tooth & Cooks Joy