Thenkoodu Buns / Khaliat Nahal (Honeycomb Buns or Bee’s Hive Buns)

Bread baking is fun and sometimes tedious with the wait time for the proofing.. When Aparna announced this month challenge for We Knead to Bake, it so looking so tempting and wanted to try it immediately, but then kept postponing.. And when I was deciding on recipes for the A-Z, it so happened that recipe for T had to be either International or baked.. So I chose this thenkoodu designed bread for T - Baked. Thenkoodu meaning beehive or honeycomb is the design this bread resembles and thus the name for this delicious sweet stuffing bun. Khaliat Nahal translates as Bee’s Hive in Arabic. This is because the buns are baked close to each other in a round pan where they form a honeycomb like pattern. They’re traditionally made sweet and glazed with honey flavored syrup, though savory versions are also made. I chose the sweet one which has cream cheese as the filling. I chose to use hung curd instead of cream cheese and also added some dry fruits and nuts to it..

 

Ingredients
All Purpose Flour - 2 1/2 - 3 cups
Warm Milk - 1 cup + 1 table spoon
Instant Yeast - 1 packet (2 1/4 tea spoon)
Milk Powder - 5 table spoons
Salt - 1/4 tea spoon
Baking Powder - 1 table spoon
Sugar - 2 table spoons
Honey - 1 tea spoon
Butter (melted) - 1 table spoon
Oil - 2 table spoons

Sesame Seeds – to sprinkle
For filling
Hung Curd - 1 cup
Honey - 1 tea spoon
Cashew - 5 - 8 pieces
Tutty Frutty - 1/4 cup
For Syrup

Water - 1/2 cup
Sugar - 3/4 cup
Honey - 1/4 cup (adjust to taste - original recipe had only one table spoon)

Method
To the warm milk, add the sugar, honey and the yeast and set aside covered for 5 - 10 minutes until it is bubbly
To the mixing bowl, add flour, milk powder, baking powder and salt and mix these well
To the yeast solution, add oil and butter and mix well
Add the yeast solution to the dry ingredients and run the mixer for 5 to 6 minutes until it forms a smooth and elastic ball
Grease a bowl and place the dough ball into and also oil coat the dough to make sure that it does not dry
Cover it with a cling film and allow it to proof for an hour or until it is double in volume

 

Prepare the syrup
Mix together all the ingredients and heat them
Once the sugar is melted, bring the heat to medium and allow it to simmer for 5 - 6 minutes and switch it off
Set aside to cool
Prepare the filling
Mix together honey, hung curd, tutty frutty and broken cashew and set aside
Grease a 9 inch cake pan and set aside

 

After the dough has risen, take the dough on to the counter and divide them into 2 pieces
Cover one of the dough and work with the next one
Make it to a rope of 9 inches and cut into 1 inch pieces each. Now you have 9 pieces.
Do the same for the other ball and now you should have 18 pieces
Keep the pieces covered and work with one at a time
Take one piece and make a small disc and keep 1/2 tea spoon of filling inside and pull the edges and cover it and keep the dough ball into the greased pan with the sealed side down and you have a smooth top

 

Now do the same for the other 17 pieces and arrange them all in to the greased pan. Now you will get the beehive shape
Keep it covered and allow it to rise for another hour or until doubled
Brush with milk and sprinkle some sesame seeds (optional)
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C
Bake it in the preheated oven for 25 - 30 minutes
After the end of 10 minutes, remove the bread from the oven and cover it with aluminum foil to reduce the speed of browning on top. Remove the aluminum foil at 20 minutes time mark.

 

After it is done baking, remove it from the oven and place it on a cooling rack
Pour the cooled syrup over the hot buns and cover them with aluminum foil and allow it to cool completely
Enjoy the delicious and soft buns!!

 

Points to note -
1. Syrup takes a few hours to fully absorb
2. Do not put too much filling inside, then it will be hard to close
3. Filling can be sweet or savory..
4. Make sure to fit all the balls inside the pan
5. I used the spring form pan which is taller than my other cake pans. That was easy as I could cover it properly without having to worry.
6. Putting the foil helps in the browning little slower.. Else it will brown very fast due to the sweetness in them..

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 32

 

Sending this to Aparna's We Knead to Bake # 9,  Yeastspotting