Khaliat Nahal / Honeycomb Buns or Bee's Hive Buns

I love baking breads and it all happened due to Aparna's We Knead To Bake group, special Thanks to Aparna for all her best choices of Bread recipes and definitely i am learning new bread & baking technique every month. And for this Month we are baking Honeycomb Buns/Khaliat Nahal. This is one of the cute and softest bread i ever had. And so delicious and flavorful too. I just loved the aroma of freshly baked bread and these buns are so so good and addictive. Traditionally these buns are made as sweet with plain cream cheese filling, glazed with honey flavored syrup. I too baked the sweet version but with Sweetened Coconut, tutty frutti, & nuts filling. I think now i don't need to explain the taste of these buns, rt? My kids loved it to the core and they enjoyed eating the buns by dipping it in the sugar syrup. These buns makes a perfect tea time snack with some warm milk or hot chai.

Recipe Source : Aparna's My Diverse Kitchen
Ingredients
For Dough

1. All Purpose Flour    2 and 1/2 cups
2. Instant Yeast     1 and 1/2 tsp (highly active yeast)
3. Sugar      3 tbsp
4. Salt      1/2 tsp
5. Butter,melted     6 tbsp
6. Oil    1-2 tsp(to grease bowl)
7. Lukewarm Milk     1 cup + for brushing

For Filling

1. Sweetened Coconut flakes      1/2 cup
2. Tutty Frutti/mixed dry fruits      1/2 cup or less(chopped finely)
3. Walnuts or any desired nuts       3 tbsp(finely chopped)
4. Honey     1-2 tsp

For Sugar Syrup

1. Sugar      1/2 cup
2. Water     1/4 cup or less
3. Cardamom   4 no.s(crushed) or you can use a pinch of saffron 
4. Honey    2-3 tsp
5. Lemon juice     1/2 tsp

Method

• In a large mixing bowl, add 2 cups flour, salt, sugar, yeast and mix well.

• To this add melted butter(melted butter should not be hot, cool for a while n add it) and combine with the flour well and add milk start kneading and use remaining half cup flour now and knead to a soft, non sticky elastic dough.

• The dough be soft and elastic but not sticky,if its sticky add more flour if needed.
• Shape the dough as a ball and place it in a greased bowl, cover and let it rise for an hour.

• Meanwhile prepare the filling by combing all the ingredients in a bowl and keep ready.
• After the dough rised, turn the dough to a work surface. Cut the dough into 2 halves and roll it as a rope, cut each rope into 1"  9 pieces.
• Take a piece and flatten it out a little, place 1 tsp filling in the center and bring the sides together,wrap the dough around the filling, pinching it closed at the top. Smoothen into a round ball.

• Place this in a well greased round 9"cake tin. Repeat the same process with the remaining pieces.
• Arrange the filled balls of dough in a concentric circles. Cover it with a paper towel and let it rise for about an hour.

• Preheat the oven to 350 F.
• Brush the top with milk and bake the buns for about 20-25 minutes until the crust turns golden brown.
• Meanwhile take the sugar,water and cardamom in a sauce pan,bring it to boil,put the flame in simmer and cook until its turns bit thick.
• Put off the stove,add the honey and lime juice.Mix well and let it cool.
• Once the buns comes out of the oven, pour the syrup over the top of the buns.(the sugar syrup should be cool and pour it over the hot honeycomb buns).
• If you want your honeycomb buns to be less sweet, just brush the syrup over the top. I did brushing.
• Let it sit for a while, serve warm with chai or coffee.

This is off to We knead to Bake # 9.