Preparation time: 2 hrs. | Serves more the 3 dozen bread
Honeycomb Bread is a cheese-filled bread that is topped with saffron sugar syrup. The bread has a resemblance to small buns and originated from Arabian cuisine. You can stuff your favorite cheese spread in this bread, in this recipe I use Kiri cheese triangles for stuffing.
Ingredients:
For Bread:
16oz all-purpose flour
2 tbsp dry milk powder
½ tsp salt
2 oz oil
2 oz melted butter
1 egg (beaten)
1½ tsp instant yeast
3 tbsp sugar
8 oz milk
Water as required
2 dozen kiri cheese or any cheese spread
1 egg white (lightly beaten)
1 tsp roasted sesame seeds (black or white)
For Glaze:
1 cup sugar
¾ cup water
1 tbsp honey
Pinch of saffron
Procedure:
1. To knead the dough, combine flour, salt, and dry milk together and set aside.
2. In a cup take ¼ cup of lukewarm milk, add in yeast and sugar, stir, and set aside for 3-5 mins. The mixture gets frothy in a few mins. It indicates your yeast is active.
3. In a large mixing bowl, combine flour mixture with butter and oil and mix well using your hands to make a texture like soft crumbs.
4. After that add egg, yeast solution, and milk to the crumbs. Mix them well so that the mixture starts to come into the dough texture.
5. If necessary start adding water slowly and knead the dough until it gets smooth and fine. Make sure that all the softness of the bread depends upon how gently you knead the dough; i.e. the more you knead the dough will be getting softer and smoother.
6. After that, transfer the dough ball into the deep bowl cover it with some oil and leave it for at least an hour until it rises to double.
7. Meanwhile prepare the syrup, for that, you need to cook sugar, water, and saffron together for around 15 mins. so that little thick syrup would form.
8. When the syrup is done, turn off the heat and add honey to the syrup. Let it stand in the open air to cool to room temperature.
9. Now look at the dough, it would be double in size, punch it down to escape the air from it and make small balls of lemon size. It would yield around 40 balls.
10. Take a ball, make it a little flat using your hands, put a small piece of kiri in it, and seal it by bringing the edges too close together and again form a smooth ball. Similarly, prepare the rest of the balls and place them onto the greased baking tray. Make sure that all these balls are placed close to each other. Cover and leave for 30 mins. more.
11. In the end brush the top of these balls with beaten egg white and sprinkle some sesame seeds on top. Now you can place the baking dish into the preheated oven @ 350 degrees F for 20-30 mins. until the top becomes golden brown.
12. When the honeycomb bread is done, take them out of the oven and immediately drizzle the prepared syrup on top. Then take the pieces out from the dish and cool them on a rack before serving.
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