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!
i sooo love ur page:):)
Aslam o alaikum,dear Fauzia,
I want to ask tht I can use margrine instead of butter,really lik ur
recipies,plz let me know,
W/Salaam, yes you can.
Salaams Fauzia
Salaams Fauzia
Can I use Ferrero Rocher chocolates in this recipe,or would they be too big? Please let me know. Thanks.
Sounds like a great idea
Sounds like a great idea actually. They may be a bit big but that would mean you will need to make the dough balls slightly bigger.
Jazakallah khair for the
Jazakallah khair for the awesome recipe..
I TRIED THIS FOR DINNER, by making it plain, with an egg wash and sprinkling sesame seeds on top…
served it with saucy baked chicken… though i couldnt bake the chicken, so at the end i cooked it…
but still they were yummmmmy!!!
aslm i have made this recipes
aslm i have made this recipes and it was so perfect specially the bread i did nor pour the syrup only glaze it at home everyone like the buns ao i would like to know whether i can put any chicken filling in it and bake and i would like to have the flour measurement in grams. Thank you
W/Salaam, yes you can use
W/Salaam, yes you can use chicken filling in it. 1 cup of flour is 120gm.
Do i have to activate the
Do i have to activate the yeast first then add to da flour ?
If you are using INSTANT
If you are using INSTANT yeast as mentioned in the recipe then no.
Assalam sis, my sister try
Assalam sis, my sister try this recipes yesterday, wow it was superb.
thanks for sharing that much with us. May Allah bless!!!!
Assalamualaikum wrwb sister,
Assalamualaikum wrwb sister,
I will be trying this tomorrow in shaa Allah, so wanted to ask you two things:
1) Can the recipe be cut into half in order to make only one 8″ bread?
2) Is the baking pan to be kept in the top shelf, centre shelf or the bottom shelf for baking?
JazakAllah Khair!=)
W/Salaam. yes that is fine.
W/Salaam. yes that is fine. Middle shelf.
In his recipe u didn’t
In his recipe u didn’t mention about milk n water , it should be luke warm, hot or at room temperature ? Love u fawzia
It should be warm. 🙂
It should be warm. 🙂
love your website as for the
love your website as for the oven 180C my oven is electrical do I put 180C above and below baking tray or just below. thank you
I do not understand. Do you
I do not understand. Do you have separate temperatures?
Asak. How much yeast and egg
Asak. How much yeast and egg should I add if I want to make half the quantity?
W/Salaam, half an egg and
W/Salaam, half an egg and three-quarter tsp yeast.
Thanks. So it means literally
Thanks. So it means literally halving the quantity? Does this apply for every recipe which calls for eggs and yeast? Also can advice how can I exactly measure half an egg? I read in kne of yiur comments that the thumb rule is 1 tablespoon slightly beaten egg for every cup of flour. Does this also apply for every recipe? Thank you so much.
Break the egg, beat it and
Break the egg, beat it and then measure out half of it. Normally that is about 2 tbsp.
i made this yesterday, was my
i made this yesterday, was my first time ever doin it!
really happy with the end result for the softness and so on
only problem was, i could smell the yeast, and i used the same measurement u recommended! could it be because i used active dried yeast? i should probably use less next time??
and i also did one tray cheese and the other chocolate, and i drizzled the syrup on top, it was abit extra sweet!
if i dont add the syrup, would the bread still stay nice and soft for the chocolate filling??
overall, this recipe made me look like a star to my partners colleagues! lol
Thanks for the awesome
Thanks for the awesome feedback. Could be the brand of yeast used. Normally when using active yeast instead of instant, you actually need to use MORE yeast than the recipe indicates (about a quarter tsp over each tsp of instant yeast). Did you activate the yeast though by mixing it in warm water before adding it to the dough? If possible, try a different brand of yeast and see if that helps. Do not let the dough over-ferment during the rising period. Work with it as soon as it is ready to avoid the yeast smell. Another tip is you can add a pinch or two of baking powder. This tends to counter-act the yeast smell without affecting the bread at all. And yes you can omit the syrup and the bread will still be awesome. 🙂
Asak. Made this today and it
Asak. Made this today and it turned out really good.
I had difficulties when I was preparing the dough. I had even decided to let go and prepare naans from the dough but then made up my mind to at least try.
In the recipe you have specified to add all the milk which is what I did and ended up with a very wet, sticky unmanageable dough. I added about 3 tablespoons of flour and a pinch of yeast and kept kneading. What really happened do you think? I use the same measurements as yours.
W/Salaam, thanks! Sorry about
W/Salaam, thanks! Sorry about the dough though, did you add water too? Or was the milk too much without having added any water?
No I did not add any water,
No I did not add any water, first the dry ingredients, then the oil, butter and egg followed by all the milk. I instantly got the feeling that this doesn’t seam right.
Hmm that is very strange! As
Hmm that is very strange! As you can see it is a tried and tested recipe. Did you by any chance halve the recipe and forgot to halve some of the ingredients? Just checking so as to figure out what could have gone wrong. How much is your cup of milk in ml? And how much per cup of flour in grams please?
Turned out soft and moist!
Turned out soft and moist! Sweet and lil salty from the cheese was just perfect for us , God bless !
aoa ….i wana know is it ok
aoa ….i wana know is it ok to add yeast directly ?..cux u didnt mentioned it here that it should be prepared before hand so i just put it dry …..
I use INSTANT yeast which is
I use INSTANT yeast which is supposed to be added directly. If you are using Active yeast then you will need to activate it first.
Hi i want to know can i make
Hi i want to know can i make this without chees
Hi, yes you can.
Hi, yes you can.
Hi want make half amount of
Hi want make half amount of recipie it willbe allright? plz reply dear
Yes that is fine.
Yes that is fine.
Salam sister fauzia, i tryed
Salam sister fauzia, i tryed this recipe in it was awesome my whole family liked this thank you for posting this recipe