Honeycomb Bread (Khaliat al Nahl – خلية نحل)
Khaliat al Nahl (خلية نحل) means Beehive or honeycomb. This Middle Eastern (Arabian) sweet dish is named after its appearance resembling a honeycomb and sweet taste like honey. It is typically filled with cream cheese and then glazed with sweet syrup.
Traditionally, sugar syrup is poured over the bread, but I have used honey syrup, which is super easy to make and tastes just as great.
I am sharing both syrup recipes: honey syrup and sugar syrup. You can use whatever you prefer.
Ingredients
For Dough
- Sugar 1 teaspoon
- Yeast 1 teaspoon
- Salt 1/4 teaspoon
- Melted Butter 3 tablespoons
- Egg 1 (room temperature)
- Milk 3/4 cup (should be lukewarm)
- All-purpose flour 2.5 cups
For Filling
Kiri cream cheese (or any other cream cheese like Philadelphia cheese)
For Topping
- Galaxy Chocolate bars
For Honey Syrup
- Honey 2 tablespoons
- Water as needed
Preparation
- To make the honey syrup just mix honey and water to form a thick syrup.
- Before starting the recipe melt 3 tablespoons of butter and let it cool to room temperature.
- In a cup or bowl, add sugar, salt, active dry yeast, egg and lukewarm milk.
- Mix well, cover and keep aside for 5-7 minutes for proofing. If the climate is too cold then it might take 10 minutes. Once ready you can see the froth on top of the mixture.
- NOTE 1: For yeast to proof, it is important that the temperature of the mixture that you have prepared is lukewarm otherwise yeast will not work properly.
- NOTE 2: If you do not see froth on the mixture after the specified time, it means the yeast is not good enough and if you use it in the recipe the dough will not rise.
- In a bowl, sift the all-purpose flour. Add the proofed yeast mixture and start mixing. Use a spoon and spatula in the beginning.
- When the mixture starts to come together, transfer to the countertop and start kneading using your hand. Knead for 7-8 minutes until the dough is soft and less sticky.
- Shape the dough into a ball, apply some oil all over to avoid crusting, cover and keep at a warm place to rise for half an hour to 45 minutes or until the dough has doubled in size. It might take 1 hour if you live in a very cold climate.
- Meanwhile, cut the kiri cream cheese squares into 4 pieces, I used total 8 kiri squares.
- Take the dough out and punch it down to deflate it. Divide the dough into 4 equal pieces and then further divide each piece into eight small pieces, so in total 32 pieces of dough will be formed.
- Take each piece, flatten it out a little and place a piece of kiri in the centre, pull up the sides and pinch the dough to make balls.
- Grease a 12-inch baking tin using just oil. Arrange the dough balls in the pan, leaving a little gap in between.
- Brush the dough balls with some oil.
- Cover for 20 minutes to allow the dough balls to rise and double in size again.
- In the meantime, preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius using both upper and lower rod.
- Take the baking dish out after 20 minutes and bake at 180 degrees Celsius using only lower rod for 30 -35 minutes.
- Once you can smell the aroma of baked bread, you know its ready. Now turn on the upper rod for a minute to create a nice golden crust.
- Take the bread out of the oven and immediately brush honey syrup (or sugar syrup) all over the Honeycomb bread.
- NOTE: The bread should be hot and syrup should be cool.
- Melt the galaxy chocolate and drizzle all over the Honeycomb Bread.
- Serve warm with tea or coffee, enjoy!
If you want to make the authentic sugar syrup then follow these steps
Ingredients for Sugar Syrup
- Sugar 1 cup
- Water 1/2 cup
- Lemon juice 1 teaspoon
- Honey 1 tablespoon
- Cardamom powder 1/4 teaspoon (optional)
- Saffron 1/4 teaspoon (optional)
Preparation
- To make the authentic sugar syrup recipe that is used for this bread, you need to boil sugar and water, saffron and lemon juice until the mixture becomes a little thick.
- Add honey and cardamom powder. Mix and turn the flame off. Allow to cool completely.
Honeycomb Bread (Khaliat al Nahl - خلية نحل)
Ingredients
For Dough
- Sugar 1 teaspoon
- Yeast 1 teaspoon
- Salt 1/4 teaspoon
- Melted Butter 3 tablespoons
- Egg 1 (room temperature)
- Milk 3/4 cup (should be lukewarm)
- All-purpose flour 2.5 cups
For Filling
- Kiri cream cheese (or any other cream cheese like Philadelphia cheese)
For Topping
- Galaxy Chocolate bars
For Honey Syrup
- Honey 2 tablespoons
- Water as needed
Instructions
- To make the honey syrup just mix honey and water to form a thick syrup.
- Before starting the recipe melt 3 tablespoons of butter and let it cool to room temperature.
- In a cup or bowl, add sugar, salt, active dry yeast, egg and lukewarm milk.
- Mix well, cover and keep aside for 5-7 minutes for proofing. If the climate is too cold then it might take 10 minutes. Once ready you can see the froth on top of the mixture.
- NOTE 1: For yeast to proof, it is important that the temperature of the mixture that you have prepared is lukewarm otherwise yeast will not work properly.
- NOTE 2: If you do not see froth on the mixture after the specified time, it means the yeast is not good enough and if you use it in the recipe the dough will not rise.
- In a bowl, sift the all-purpose flour. Add the proofed yeast mixture and start mixing. Use a spoon and spatula in the beginning.
- When the mixture starts to come together, transfer to the countertop and start kneading using your hand. Knead for 7-8 minutes until the dough is soft and less sticky.
- Shape the dough into a ball, apply some oil all over to avoid crusting, cover and keep at a warm place to rise for half an hour to 45 minutes or until the dough has doubled in size. It might take 1 hour if you live in a very cold climate.
- Meanwhile, cut the kiri cream cheese squares into 4 pieces, I used total 8 kiri squares.
- Take the dough out and punch it down to deflate it. Divide the dough into 4 equal pieces and then further divide each piece into eight small pieces, so in total 32 pieces of dough will be formed.
- Take each piece, flatten it out a little and place a piece of kiri in the centre, pull up the sides and pinch the dough to make balls.
- Grease a 12-inch baking tin using just oil. Arrange the dough balls in the pan, leaving a little gap in between.
- Brush the dough balls with some oil.
- Cover for 20 minutes to allow the dough balls to rise and double in size again.
- In the meantime, preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius using both upper and lower rod.
- Take the baking dish out after 20 minutes and bake at 180 degrees Celsius using only lower rod for 30 -35 minutes.
- Once you can smell the aroma of baked bread, you know its ready. Now turn on the upper rod for a minute to create a nice golden crust.
- Take the bread out of the oven and immediately brush honey syrup (or sugar syrup) all over the Honeycomb bread.
- NOTE: The bread should be hot and syrup should be cool.
- Melt the galaxy chocolate and drizzle all over the Honeycomb Bread.
- Serve warm with tea or coffee, enjoy!
Notes
If you want to make the authentic sugar syrup then follow these steps
Ingredients for Sugar Syrup
- Sugar 1 cup
- Water 1/2 cup
- Lemon juice 1 teaspoon
- Honey 1 tablespoon
- Cardamom powder 1/4 teaspoon (optional)
- Saffron 1/4 teaspoon (optional)
- To make the authentic sugar syrup recipe that is used for this bread, you need to boil sugar and water, saffron and lemon juice until the mixture becomes a little thick.
- Add honey and cardamom powder. Mix and turn the flame off. Allow to cool completely.