Pepperóní ostasalat

Salami and cheese salad

Today, for a change, I have another hearty recipe for you.

For this recipe for a salad or spicy appetizer, I used a pepper and spiced cheese (= píparostur) and a salami and spiced cheese (= pepperóníostur) from the Icelandic company MS (Mjólkursamsalan ehf.  , both of which I find very tasty and which I enjoy using in the kitchen. I recently served the salad to our guests as a starter, with salty crackers on the side.

Ingredients

200 g mayonnaise

150 g sour cream

150 g pepper and spice cheese

150 g salami spiced cheese

100 g ham

50 g salami

1 bunch of spring onions

50 g pickled cucumbers

salt and pepper

Preparation

Mix the mayonnaise and sour cream.

The two cheeses, ...

...cut the ham and salami into small pieces.

Finely chop the spring onions.

Cut the pickled cucumbers into fine strips.

In a large bowl, mix all ingredients together., ..

... season to taste and let the salad marinate in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours.

Then serve the cheese salad with crackers or fresh bread.

Bon appetit!

[Translated from here.]

June 17th - þjóðhátíðardagurinn

The Icelandic National Day

Unfortunately, we cannot be in Iceland on June 17th this year.

But at least a friend who was at our house a few days ago sent us some nice photos of the lupins at our driveway!

I'd love to be there this week - and on Tuesday, the national holiday, I'd go back to Reykjavík. Then I'd watch the official ceremony with the Prime Minister, President, and all the invited state guests at Austurvöllur, then the parades in the city, take a look at the vintage car exhibition at Tjörnin, and listen to popular music on the various stages at Hljómskálagarður.

And afterwards we would perhaps go to Hafnarfjörður to see the Viking Festival.

It's not like we haven't done it a few times in the past few years, but I like it and I'm sorry we won't be there this year...

June 17th - Iceland's Independence Day

On June 17th, Iceland celebrates its independence - on June 17th, 1944, the Republic of Iceland was proclaimed in a solemn state ceremony in Þingvellir, after 98% of voters had voted in favor of establishing an independent republic in a referendum.

www.reykjavik.is

Program for June 17, 2025

Every year on 17 June, a solemn state ceremony takes place in Reykjavík on Austurvöllur, the square in front of the parliament.

The festive service for invited guests begins at 10:15 a.m. in the cathedral.

Photo from 2018 -
Arrival of the then Prime Minister

The program at Austurvöllur begins at 11.10 am:

After the service, the invited state guests will proceed from the cathedral to Austurvöllur, the square in front of Parliament. The official state ceremony will then begin as scheduled at 11:10 a.m.

First, a choir sings, then the Prime Minister solemnly lays a wreath from the Icelandic people at the monument to Jón Sigurðsson. The choir sings the national anthem.

Photo of the wreath at the memorial (2018)

Then a speech follows. Normally, this speech is delivered by the Prime Minister, but this year Prime Minister Kristrún Frostadóttir gave Icelandic President Halla Tómasdóttir the opportunity to deliver the keynote speech at Austurvöllur.

After the celebratory speech, "Fjallkonan", the "Mountain Woman" (= the female national personification of Iceland), recites a poem in traditional costume. As far as I know, the costume is on loan from the local history museum in Árbær.

Entry of the mountain woman (photo from 2018)

The official state ceremony at the Austurvöllur ends with a musical finale.

The parade will then start as planned at 11:50 a.m. from Austurvöllur to the Hólavellir Cemetery on Suðurgata, led by the Reykjavík Brass Band. A wreath is laid at the grave of Jón Sigurðsson and his wife, while the Boy Scouts keep guard of honor.

Start of the parade (2022)

At 1 p.m., the parade starts from Hallgrímskirkja, led by the Boy Scouts. The procession leads from the church to the festival grounds at Hljómskálagarður.

Here in the park at Tjörnin there is an entertainment program for the whole family from 1:45 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., with music events, circus performances, bouncy castles, food trucks and much more. At 5 p.m. VÆB, this year's Icelandic participants in the Eurovison Song Contest, will be performing here.

As every year, the Krúserklúbb is holding a car exhibition from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Skothúsvegur, the road over Tjörnin.

Vintage car (photo from 2017)

But there's much more to enjoy on National Day. You can find details of the individual events on the website of the city of Reykjavík.

Viking Festival in Hafnarjörður (June 13th to 18th, 2025)

For me personally, it is still a special way to end the national holiday when, after the parade in Reykjavík, we go to the Viking Festival in Hafnarfjörður.

Photo from June 17, 2022

Since 1995, Hafnarfjörður has hosted what is probably Iceland's largest Viking festival, traditionally held over several days on the second weekend in June. Since 1918, the festival has been held in Víðistaðatún Park, and the Viking Market is held on the large meadow. Here, you can buy all kinds of Viking goods, from silver jewelry, leather goods, and furs to household items, swords, and bone horns. There are numerous food stalls, hands-on activities, music, mock battles, and more.

It is open daily from 11am to 6pm and admission is free.

Skyrís með jarðarberjum

Skyr ice cream with strawberries

You don't need an ice cream maker for this ice cream - the fresh egg yolk, mixed with plenty of sugar, gives the skyr ice cream a lovely soft, creamy consistency without the formation of hard ice crystals.

Of course, you always have to be careful when using raw eggs, so I bought really fresh eggs and we quickly ate the ice cream - made it on Friday and it was all gone by Sunday!

Given the heat here in Germany yesterday, the ice cream was perfect. My grandchild was initially apprehensive – I made the ice cream in a loaf pan, lined with baking paper, and then cut it into slices for serving. My grandchild thought that was really strange at first – a slice of ice cream…?!? But then she tried it anyway and decided it was her new favorite ice cream! Well, I'm so glad to hear that!

Ingredients

4 egg yolks

200 g brown sugar

1 organic lemon

400 g pure skyr

1/2 tsp vanilla paste

3 tbsp strawberry jam

200 ml whipping cream

fresh strawberries for decoration

Preparation

Whip the cream in a tall container until stiff.

Wash and dry the lemon and mix the peel with the sugar in a large bowl.

Then beat the egg yolks with the sugar until frothy.

Add the skyr, vanilla paste and strawberry jam and mix well.

Carefully fold the stiffly whipped cream into the skyr mixture.

Then pour the ice cream mixture into a loaf pan lined with baking paper, smooth it out and place it in the freezer for at least 4 hours until the ice cream is frozen.

Then cut the ice cream into slices and serve with fresh strawberries.

Bon appetit!

[Translated from here.]

Íslenskar rúgbrauðstertur

Icelandic rye bread cakes

I love rúgbrauð, that heavy, sweet, moist Icelandic rye bread.

In Iceland, this bread is often baked in hot earth, usually in a tin can that is buried in the ground for 10 to 24 hours (depending on the local temperature). This bread is known, for example, from Heimaey after the 1973 volcanic eruption, from the Mývatn region, or from the geothermal bakery near the "Fontana" swimming pool in Laugarvatn.

In some places there are also communal "ovens" where the inhabitants can bake their rye bread in special devices using the hot steam from geothermal energy.

Since I don't have hot earth or a nice village community oven at my disposal, I usually bake my rúgbrauð in clean, washed milk cartons for about 11 hours at 90°C fan-assisted oven.

The rye bread tastes so delicious - and you can also use the bread for other purposes. For example, old, dry rye bread can be used up wonderfully in classic, sweet rye bread cakes.

If you would like to try a typical Icelandic rye bread cake, you can find various recipes here on the blog:

Gömul rúgbrauðskaka - Old rye bread cake

This recipe comes from an old Icelandic cookbook from 1858. The cake is made with bread, lots of eggs, a generous amount of sugar, grated almonds, and—most luxuriously—juiced fresh oranges. You can also substitute orange juice. My husband thought the cake had a bit of a Christmassy feel.

Rugbrauðskaka

This recipe for a rye bread cake with eggs, brown sugar, cocoa and potato flour, as well as plenty of cream filling and grated chocolate, comes from a collection of Icelandic Christmas recipes from the 1960s.

Rúgbrauðsterta með bláberjum - rye bread cake with blueberries

This was the first rye bread cake I tried for the blog, back in 2015—a delicious cake with ground hazelnuts, sugar, lots of eggs, and a rich cream with whipped cream, mascarpone, grated dark chocolate, and blueberries.

Very tasty — and reminded me of the hazelnut cake with cranberries and cream that my mother often baked for birthdays when I was a child — I almost felt nostalgic about this rye bread cake.

Rúgbrauðsterta með jarðarberjum - rye bread cake with strawberries

And sometimes it's not so easy to follow a particular recipe in Iceland. Last year, I wanted to recreate the recipe from 2015, but then I couldn't find the ingredients at the supermarket. So I had to get creative. I replaced the ground hazelnuts with a mixture of ground almonds and chopped hazelnuts; I used cream cheese instead of ricotta, but adjusted the ratio of cheese to cream; and I used strawberries instead of blueberries.

I was absolutely thrilled with the result—and I found the chopped nuts in the soft dough particularly delicious!

Gamla góða rúgbrauðsterta - Traditional rye bread cake

I recently found this recipe for a traditional Icelandic rye bread cake ("the good old rye bread cake") online, in an old article from the magazine Morgunblaðið from December 1967.

For the cake, apart from the Rúgbrauð, you mainly need eggs, sugar, some flour and a bit of potato flour, and the filling consists of cream, bananas, apples and grated chocolate.

Alternative: Pumpernickel

In Germany, I use pumpernickel for these rye bread recipes. It's not the same, but the result is really good; the taste and consistency are ultimately really good.

[Translated from here.]

Gamla góða rúg­brauðstertan

Traditional rye bread cake

I love rúgbrauð, that heavy, sweet, moist Icelandic rye bread. It tastes so delicious - and you can also use it for other things, like a rye bread cake.

Here on the blog, I've already tried and presented various typical Icelandic rye bread cakes - today I have another recipe for you. I found this recipe online, in an old article in the magazine Morgunblaðið from December 1967.

For the cake, apart from the Rúgbrauð, you mainly need eggs, sugar, some flour and a bit of potato flour, and the filling consists of cream, bananas, apples and grated chocolate.

Since I didn't want to bake Icelandic rye bread specifically for the cake in Germany, I used pumpernickel for the recipe and I think the result is really good!

Ingredients

4 eggs

200 g sugar

125 g pumpernickel

1 tbsp potato flour

60 g flour

1.5 tsp baking powder

2 bananas

2 apples

1/2 lemon

50 g grated chocolate

200 ml whipping cream

300 ml whipping cream

chocolate to taste

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 400 °F (resp. 200 °C) upper/lower heat.

Separate the eggs.

Mix the egg yolks with the sugar in a large bowl.

Chop the pumpernickel thoroughly...

...and mix with the flour, potato flour and baking powder into the egg-sugar mixture.

Beat the egg whites until stiff and carefully fold in.

Carefully fold the beaten egg whites into the remaining ingredients.

Pour the dough into two springform pans lined with baking paper (approx. 8 inches resp. 20 cm diameter)...

...and bake at 400 °F (200 °C) for about 10 to 15 minutes. Then let cool thoroughly and carefully remove from the springforms.

For the filling, wash, peel, quarter and finely grate the apples.

Cut the bananas into small pieces.

Whip the 200 ml of cream for the filling until stiff and mix with the grated apples, the banana pieces and the grated chocolate.

Place the first layer on a cake plate or similar and spread the filling evenly over it.

Then place the second layer on top, whip the remaining cream until stiff and decorate the cake as desired.

Serve the Rúgbrauðsterta well chilled.

Bon appetit!

Translated from here.]