Honey Comb Buns / Khaliat Nahal (Honeycomb Buns or Bee’s Hive Buns)

When I first saw my dear friends sharing this amazing and fabulous buns in blogosphere I was so excited to try it and tried these beautiful buns at my home. It was so worth trying I will try it again and again bcoz we fell in love with this super moist bread and I made a sweet filling so it was super yummy . Thanks to +Sangeetha M  for making me try  this delicious bread. These honey comb breads can be a  great snack with tea or coffee or can be enjoyed as is . Thanks to Aparna for sharing this amazing recipe .

As Tomorrow is Eid wanted to share this bread which is  most popular in muslim community . They make the sweet version of this bread  for Iftar  – the evening meal after following a day fast . This bread is an arabic method  are generally stuffed with cream cheese and  glazed with saffron flavored sugar syrup But hear I have tried the sweet stuffing as we do for Dilkush or Thengai bun, the sweetened coconut stuffing. 

Recipe source : My Diverse Kitchen

Ingredients

For the dough:

2 1/2 cups Bread flour /All purpose flour
1 cup lukewarm milk
1 1/2 tsp instant yeast
1 tsp sugar ( to add in yeast)
3 tbsp sugar ( to add  for the dough)
1/4 tsp salt 
40gm butter, melted
2 tbsp milk for brushing the dough

For the filling


1/2 cup Grated coconut
4 tbsp  sugar 
2 tbsp Tutti Frutti

Sugar Syrup/ Glaze:

3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
A pinch of saffron
1 tbsp honey
1 tsp lime/ lemon juice

Method

• Cool the butter before using.Put 2 cups of the flour, salt, sugar and melted butter in the bowl  and mix it well with you palms till they become crumbly .
• Combine the milk, sugar and yeast in a small bowl and keep for 5 minutes.
• Mix in the Milk yeast mixture to the flour and knead the dough until you have a smooth and elastic dough which is not sticky. 
• Add the remaining 1/2 cup of flour as you need to get the consistency of bread dough.  Use the 1/2 cup flour as need I used all 2 1/2 cup flour .

•  Shape the dough into a ball and place it in a greased bowl, and also coat the upper part of the dough with oil. Cover and let it rise till double in volume, for about an hour.
• Turn the dough out onto your work surface. You will not be needing much flour as the dough would be pliable.
•   Cut it into 2 halves. With your palms, roll out each half a “rope” about 9” long. Cut each rope into 1” pieces and roll the cut dough into balls and do the same for rest of the dough.
• Take each piece and flatten it out a little with your finger and palms and place half a teaspoon of filling in the centre.
• Now pinch all the ends to the center and close the dough ball without any gaps . Smoothen it into a round ball. Place this in a well-greased round 9” cake tin. Repeat with the same  remaining  dough and the filling. 
• Arrange the filled balls of dough in concentric circles in the cake tin.
• Cover with a kitchen towel and let it rise for about 30 to 40 minutes. 

• Brush the tops with milk and sprinkle the sesame seeds over this.  Bake the buns at 180C (350F) for about 25 minutes or until they’re  a nice golden brown on top.
•  Let them cool in the tin for about 5 minutes and then on a wire rack.
• If you’re making the sweet version, make the sugar syrup/ glaze during the first rise of the dough.

Sugar Glaze/ Sugar Syrup

• Make this when you keep the bread dough for first rise .
• Put the sugar, water and saffron in a small sauce pan and bring to a boil. 
• Let it simmer in low flame for a few minutes until it starts thickening a bit. 
• Turn off the heat and add the honey and the lime/ lemon juice. Mix well and let it cool. Keep aside till needed.

How to proceed 

• When the sweet buns come out of the oven, pour the syrup all over the top of the  the buns.  
• The bread should be too hot and the syrup/ glaze should be cool. 
• You can even brush the sugar syrup if you don’t like too much sweet.
• Let it sit for a while for the syrup/ glaze to set a bit. Serve them warm with tea/ coffee.