Honeycomb Buns or Bee’s Hive Buns - Khaliat Nahal

From the desert summer to the rains back home, a  2 month get away has made me home sick like never before. Back to base and nose deep into routines,I kept myself away from baking. And,here I rise up to the
We knead to bake Challenge no.9 -  Honey comb buns.
 A Middle eastern delicacy,usually sweet and can be made savory too. Khaliat Nahal literally translates to Bee hive in Arabic.The name takes after the way the buns are baked so close to each other forming a honey comb pattern.

To make the dough:

• Take 1cup of lukewarm milk, add a teaspoon of sugar & stir in 1.5 tsps of instant yeast and set aside.wait till it foams up.
• In a bowl take 2.5 cups of all purpose flour, 1 tsp salt, 40 gms unsalted butter melted and mix well with a dough hook on medium speed.
• Add the milk yeast mixture slowly and once its all incorporated increase the speed to the next level.
• keep going till the dough comes together as a soft ball clinging onto the hook. Ensure the dough is elastic but not sticky to touch.
• Make a ball of the dough, smear some oil, cover the bowl and let it rise for an hour.

To make the filling:

In a bowl mix together 100 gms of Feta cheese, sundried tomato paste, dry basil, one garlic pod crushed to bits, and fresh coriander leaves finely chopped.

After an hour the dough doubles up in size, punch down and divide into equal sized balls. Grease a 9'' cake tin and set aside.

Flatten each ball to about 2 inches and place the filling in the centre. Fold the sides together to form a ball and seal the ends too. Roll in your palm and place the sealed ends downwards in the tin. Similarly space the placement of the balls, they will rise again while proofing  and will seal together forming the honeycomb pattern.

Brush the balls lightly with milk and set aside for proofing for about 40 minutes. Meanwhile, pre heat the oven at 180 degrees.

After proofing for about 40 minutes, brush milk again and sprinkle white sesame seeds all over.

Bake for about 20 - 25 minutes till the top appears golden brown. Let it cool on a wire rack and that makes a lovely tea time snack.
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Thank you Aparna Balasubramanian - for this lovely challenge!