Servings : 2 small or 1 large
This is one of the most delicious Arabic breads ever! Khaliat al Nahal (known by many as Khaliat Nahal) simply means Bee's Hive. This is due to the bread's resemblance to a honeycomb and for the sweet, honey-flavoured topping it's glazed with.
It's a 'softer_than_cotton' type of bread, with some cheese filling in every bun, and a sweet glaze on top. I did a lot of experimenting with various different recipes to finally come up with my own master, no-fail recipe!
Ingredients for glaze/syrup
- 1 cup sugar
- 3/4 cup water
- 1 tbsp. honey
- pinch of saffron
Ingredients for dough
- 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup milk
- 2 tbsp. milk powder
- 1/2 cup water (might use less)
- 1 egg
- 3 tbsp. sugar
- 4 tbsp. oil
- 4 tbsp. melted butter
- 1 1/2 tsp. instant yeast
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 6-8 portions/triangles of cheese spread (I used The Laughing Cow, but you can use any available to you, like Kiri or Al-Marai, etc.)
- 1 egg (for egg wash before baking)
Instructions
For the glaze/syrup:
Boil the sugar, water and saffron together for a few minutes until it is slightly thickened. Remove from the heat and add the honey. Mix and set aside to cool completely.
For the dough:
Sieve the flour, then add milk powder, sugar, yeast and salt. Then add the oil and butter and the egg, and 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.
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.
If you click HERE, you will able to see step by step instructions.
Punch it down, and break off tiny bits of dough. You should get about 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.
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.
Cover the pans and set aside for a second rise, about half an hour.
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.
The egg wash I prefer to use for a lovely glossy finish is made this way. Take 1 egg, beat it with 1 tsp. of milk. Brush on the bread/rolls/buns and bake as directed! 🙂
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.
If you want to cut down on the sweetness, use less syrup or instead of pouring it onto the bread, just apply it using a brush on the tops of the bread. 🙂
If you do not like cheese, you can use chocolate instead in the center. Just cut any good quality chocolate bar into cubes and use them instead. Even nutella works but might be a little bit messy during closing it into the dough, unless you solidify it a bit first. 😉
Serve and enjoy!
Asalam aleykum. Thanks a lot. I tried it with raisins inside and it turned out great. Mashaallah jazakillah khairan.
Yes.
hi,i wanna try it today,but i havent got saffron,so what else can be used insted of it????????if not can it change the taste without it………..thanks dear
Hi, you can omit the saffron and flavour your syrup with either vanilla or any other flavouring of your choice, or even leave it as it is.
hi,can i double the measure for sugar instead to make the dough more sweeter and ommit the sugar syrup????
Hi, yes you can.
asw,i have become a big fan of ur recepies and have successfully tried many of urs.i recently tried this one and after i added milk to the flour i had great difficulty in kneading it.it had become very very soft.and after one hour when i checked it for making the balls it had become all oily.yet,i managed to make the bread and it turned out to be very good.is it normal for the dough to become very soft and leave oil??or have i made some mistake??i have taken in using the exact mentioned proportions.hoping for a reply from u soon.thanks for the recepie!
W/Salaam, no have never heard of a dough releasing oil before, very strange. Am glad the results turned out fine but do give it a second try and see if the same thing happened. Add the water/milk gradually whilst kneading so the dough doesn’t go too soft, you may not need to use all the liquid.
asw,i had added all the milk together and then tried kneading it.i guess that was my mistake.vl try it again now by adding it little at a time.nyways,thanks u..!!
hi,i tried this recipe for for the first time and was just great,buuuuuuut the second time it wasnt??actually i wanted the bread to taste more sweeter so that i can ommit the sugar syrup,so i doubled the sugar to 6tbsp and the rest of the ingredients same,buttttttttt the dough did not rise at all??was the sugar toooooooooooooo much,if so what is the plan B,or what can i do with the dough?????????
Hi, no I don’t think the extra sugar would have harmed the recipe, did you use water/milk that is too hot? Coz it can be that the yeast got killed so it didn’t work as it should. You can roll out the dough into chapatis and cook them, serve them as wraps. 🙂
can you make it without the milk powder??? and wot wud u use instead?
Yes you can leave out the milk powder. No need to substitute.
salams sister Fauziya,
Trying your recips one by one. Chicken chowmein, french toast& chicken65 were yummy. Love ur recipes. Thanks alot.
dear fouzia..writing u for the first time.all ur recipies sound really good n wana try them ,, but my problem is that i dont have an electrical oven..instead i have a gas oven,,i mean which has fire from both ends like one from top n another at the bottom..so can it be used for baking breads ..ur response will be highly appreciated..thankzz
Yes it can be used, turn on the bottom heat first and then halfway turn on the top heat so the cooking/baking is evenly done.
Pls may i know what would be a suitable accompaniment for this bread?
It normally is served on it’s own as a sweet bread.
Salam fauzia
I wanted to ask if I can make this in a microwave oven instead of oven.
W/Salaam, I personally never use the microwave for baking.
Can I use a convection oven
Yes that is fine.
The recipe says the syrup mus be cool n the buns hot when poured but the buns do not absorb the syrup completely, it stays sweet on the top bt not in between.
The syrup is supposed to coat the bread not get absorbed into it. 🙂
tried it turned out to be realy good, ur recipes r tooo gud
Sallam sister Fauzia,pls I will like to ask what honey comb is.Thanks 4 educating us,you are indeed a mentor.may ALLAH reward you.Ameen
W/Salaam, the home for bees. Thanks!
Salams Fauzia…
This looks great so I want to make it today but I dont have honey so can I ommit honey in the sugar syrup?
W/Salaam, yes you can omit the honey.
Can I omit egg in this recipe?Will the results be same or do I need a substitute ?
JazakAllahu khairan
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Yes you can omit the egg, add 2 tbsp yoghurt to give a similar softness as the egg would.
A.a fauzia hope evrhthng z gud,jst wanted to ask do u have any dish inbua website dat u used barley as 1 of ua ingredients if so which dish z dat?plz help,shukran
W/Salaam, sorry I do not have any recipes at the moment that use barley.