Khaliat Nahal/Cheese Beehive Buns/Savoury Honeycomb Buns

Nothing can beat the aroma of freshly baked breads at home and obviously homemade breads are the best without any preservatives. Home made breads are very much tastier than the store bought one and they are damn cheaper and doesnt take much time to prepare at home. If you ask me to bake a bread everyday, i dont hesitate a second at all. Coz bread making are definitely a stress burster, if you want to get rid of  your stress just bake a bread at home.Homemade breads are more nutritious when compared to store bought ones,needless to say that we can mix and match the ingredients according to our wish. And you might have noticed that am running a month of baking marathon which is known as Bake-a-thon, obviously i will be posting on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays during this whole month of december. Stay tuned to have a look on my baked goodies for this years’s Bake-a-thon.

Khaliat Nahal is a fabulous bread which is also very well known as Beehive buns.This bread is baked easily with simple shaping method, yes this bread dough is rolled a small rounded balls. You can call this bread even as Honeycomb bread. However Khaliat Nahal means Bee Hive in Arabic as this bread is baked close to each and other in a round pan to form a honeycomb like pattern. These bread are stuffed usually with cream cheese which is later glazed with honey syrup. However you can make this same bread with sweet stuffings like jam, chocolate chips etc.Since i have already posted a Sweet version of this bread, today am sharing an another savory version of this popular Khaliat Nahal.

For Dough: 
1cup Lukewarm milk
1+1/2tsp Instant yeast
1tsp Sugar (for yeast)
3tbsp Sugar
2+1/2cup All purpose flour
1/4tsp Salt
40grms Butter (melted)
2tbsp Milk for brushing

Filling:
1cup Soft cream cheese

For Sugar Syrup:
1/4cup Water
A pinch Saffron
1tbsp Honey
1/2tsp Lemon juice

Take the flour,salt,sugar and melted butter in a bowl, mix it for few minutes.

Combine the milk,yeast,sugar in a small bowl and keep for 5minutes.

Add this yeast mixture to the flour mixture and knead until you get a smooth,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.

Turn the dough to a work surface. Cut the dough into 2 halves and roll it as a rope, cut each rope into 1inch piece.

Take a piece and flatten it out a little, place enough cream cheese for filling in the centre.

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 cake tin. Repeat the same process with the remaining pieces.

Arrange the filled balls of dough in a concentric cricles. Cover it with a paper towel and let it rise for about an hour.

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Brush the top with milk and bake the buns for about 20-25minutes until the crust turns golden brown.

Meanwhile take the sugar,water and saffron in a 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.

If you want your honeycomb buns to be less sweet, just brush the syrup over the top.

Let it sit for a while, serve warm.

 Check out the other bloggers doing this Bake-a-thon