Gamaldags Skyr

Skyr with stale Christmas cookies

Here's a dessert to use up leftovers if you still have too many cookies left after Christmas!


Ingredients

150 g Christmas cookies
650 g pure Skyr
2 oranges
50 g brown sugar
1 tsp ground vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon


Preparation

Place the Christmas cookies in a small plastic bag and crush them into cookie crumbs with a rolling pin. Then place the crumbs in a large bowl.

Halve the oranges and squeeze them. Then pour the juice into the cookie crumbs.

Also put the skyr in the bowl, add the sugar, vanilla and cinnamon and mix everything until smooth.

Chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours before serving.

[Translated from here.]

Jólaskyr eftirréttur

Christmas skyr dessert

Ingredients for 6 people

200 g cinnamon stars
250 g whipping cream
500 g vanilla skyr
2 Tbsp powdered sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ginger

 
Preparation

Crush the cinnamon stars in a blender or something similar. Then pour 2 tablespoons of the mixture into each dessert glass and press it firmly (reserve a small amount of the crumbs).

Whip the cream until stiff. Add the vanilla skyr, powdered sugar and spices and mix until smooth.

Pour the Skyr cream mixture into the dessert glasses, sprinkle with the remaining cookie crumbs and chill in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours until the dessert is served.

[Translated from here.]

Jólahúsið

I don't think anybody feels like yet another Christmas recipe now Christmas Eve is here, let alone has time to spare to go shopping for some specific ingredient any more -- so here's just some Icelandic Christmas feeling.

And with this, we wish all of you a Merry Christmas:

Gleðileg jól!

The Christmas House

This jólahús can be found a bit outside Akureyri, a little off the National Road no. 1, on road 821, somewhat after the Akureyri airport. If you drive out of town towards and beyond the airport, there's a signpost pointing to the jólahús -- and there you find the place where there is Christmas all year long.

Well, to be quite honest, the Jólahusið is actually a permanent sales mart for Christmas decorations, but a very, very pretty one!

The house isn't even very large, but there are two storeys, filled to the last corner with Christmas decorations from all over the world: - many of them from Icelandic artisans and companies.
  

Typically Icelandic Christmas: Laufabrauð and Jólakötturinn

In this corner we found baubles shaped like pastry -- gingerbread and gingerbread men, donuts, macarons and very cute detailed pieces of cake!

Here are the "2015 Christmas Signs" -- I especially liked the captioned baubles: Gleðileg jól, elsku amma! -- Merry Christmas, dear Granny!

In one corner of the Christmas house you could find German incense sticks and Ore Mountain folk art from the former East Germany; in another corner, there were American Christmas decorations, and so on.
 

In one corner of the Christmas house you could find German incense sticks and Ore Mountain folk art from the former East Germany; in another corner, there were American Christmas decorations, and so on.

There was so much to see in this Christmas house -- and of course the 13 Icelandic yule lads, their parents and their cat held a special place of honor.

I must admit I especially liked the toilet at the jólahus -- decorated lovingly in Christmas colors! 

And with this, we wish you a very Merry Christmas!!!

[Translated from here.]

Þorláksmessa

December 23rd - Þorláksmessa

Traditionally, December 23rd is known as Þorláksmessa, commemorating the anniversary of the death of Saint Thorlak.

Þorlákur (1133 - 1193) was the bishop of Skálholt and died on December 23, 1193. At the next Althing in 1194, the day of his death was decreed a holiday. Soon afterwards, the bishop inofficially became the patron saint of Iceland. Subsequently, Þorláksmessa became a holiday in Norway, on the Faroe Islands and (since the 18th century) in Sweden, as "little Christmas" or "pre-Christmas". The Catholic Church never officially recognised Bishop Þorlákur as a saint before 1984 when Pope John Paul II.canonized him and officially declared him the patron saint of Iceland.

Traditionally, on Þorláksmessa Icelanders eat "kæst skata", rotten skate.

The Icelandic species of skate does not excrete urea though its kidneys, but accumulates it in the body. Thus, the fish is generally not suitable for human consumption. To deal with the problem of potential uraemia caused by this delicacy, the skate is buried and fermented. It takes at least four weeks until the urea has decayed and the fish becomes edible.

The fermented skate is then placed in boiling salt water and simmered until the meat separates from the bones. It is served with boiled potatoes, homemade "rúgbrauð" (rye bread), melted "hneðmjör" (mutton tallow fermented in the sea air and then kneaded) and fresh butter.

 

Still frozen: Kæst skata and hnoðmör

[Translated from here.]

Smákökur með lakkrís

Liquorice cookies

Ingredients

500 g brown sugar
250 g soft margarine
2 eggs  
500 g flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp grated ginger  
1 tsp ground cloves
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp licorice powder

150 g margarine
250 g powdered sugar
1 tsp licorice powder


Preparation  

Preheat the oven to 350 °F (180 °C) upper/lower heat.

Stir the sugar and margarine and together until foamy.

Add the eggs and mix too.

Then add the flour, baking powder, ginger, cloves and cinnamon as well as licorice powder and mix everything into a smooth dough.

Then place the finished dough with two teaspoons on a baking tray lined with baking paper, ...

 

...press lightly with the tines of a fork and then bake in a preheated oven at 350 °F (180 °C) upper and lower heat on the middle rack for about 8 minutes.

Allow the cookies to cool thoroughly and then remove them from the baking paper.


For the cream filling, mix the butter with the icing sugar and the licorice powder thoroughly and beat until fluffy, spread the cream on the bottom of one cookie and place a second cookie on top.

Bon appetit!

[Translated from here.]

Jólamús með piparkökum

Christmas cream with gingerbread

Ingredients for 6 people


120 g gingerbread
1/4 tsp freshly grated ginger
200 g cream cheese  
50 ml syrup  
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
100 ml sour cream
400 g whipping cream
2 Tbsp powdered sugar

for decoration  

6 gingerbread and
1 pinch of freshly grated ginger  


Preparation

Crush the gingerbread thoroughly and mix with the first 1/4 teaspoon of freshly grated ginger.

Pour 2 tablespoons of the mixture into each dessert glass, leaving a small remainder aside for decoration.

Place the fresh cheese and the syrup in a high mixing bowl and stir until smooth. Then add cinnamon and nutmeg and stir in.

Add the sour cream and powdered sugar and stir until smooth.

Beat the whipping cream until stiff and carefully fold 2/3 into the cream cheese mixture.

Then pour the mixture into 6 dessert glasses.

Mix the remaining whipped cream with the remaining pinch of freshly grated ginger...

...and pour it onto the cream in the dessert glasses (if possible, with a piping tip to make it look prettier).

Sprinkle with the remaining crumbs of the gingerbread and ginger mixture and place a small gingerbread on top for decoration.

Chill in the refrigerator for approx. 4 hours.

Gleðileg jól!

[Translated from here.]

Steikt gæs

Roasted goose

In Iceland you don't necessarily eat geese at Christmas, but rather in the fall when hunters shoot the animals during the season. Usually only pink-footed geese and greylag geese breed in Iceland, other species of geese are regularly only in transit here in spring and autumn and there are strict regulations as to which animals you can hunt, whether you can hunt them at all and when the closed seasons are.

The most popular type of geese in Iceland are wild geese (greylag geese), as their meat is particularly aromatic.


Ingredients

1 goose
salt and pepper

350 g minced meat
20 g dried wild mushrooms
1 tsp birch smoke salt
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp meat broth extract
2 hot dog buns


Preparation

Soak the dried mushrooms in cold water for about an hour. Then let it drain.

Fry the minced meat with the mushrooms and smoked salt in a large pan.


Cut the hot dog buns into small pieces and add them to the pan with the brown sugar and the meat broth extract and simmer for a few minutes.

Rub the goose with salt and pepper.

Then pour the filling into the goose and press it together as tightly as possible, but make sure that there is still some air left, as the filling will increase in volume a little while roasting.

Then close the opening with metal skewers or toothpicks.

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

Put the stuffed goose in a suitable dish in the oven and roast for 15 minutes at 400 °F (200 °C).

Turn the oven down to 275 °F (140 °C) upper and lower heat and bake for another 90 minutes.

Then sprinkle the goose with a teaspoon of brown sugar to make the skin crispy and then bake for another 10 minutes.

Our Christmas dinner - roast goose with red cabbage

[Translated from here.]

Jólasalat

Christmas salad

Ingredients

1/2 head red cabbage
2 Tbsp blackcurrant jam
4 clementines
1 small apple  
25 g chopped walnuts
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 pinch of salt
1 pinch of pepper


Preparation

Cut the red cabbage into very fine strips, weigh them down in a bowl with a plate or something similar and let them steep under pressure for 3 to 4 hours.

Wash the apple, core it and cut it into thin slices. Peel the clementines, divide them into individual wedges and halve them.

Mix the red cabbage with the jam, ...

...then stir in the clementine pieces, apple pieces and chopped walnuts.

Season with the olive oil, balsamic vinegar and a little salt and pepper...

...mix thoroughly and let it steep for at least 1 hour.

Then serve the finished salad as an appetizer or side dish.

The salad tastes a bit unusual at first and crunches a bit, but the more we ate it, the tastier we found it!
 

[Translated from here.]

Jólakonfekt

Christmas confectionery

Ingredients

100 g raisins
100 ml sea buckthorn juice
250 g marzipan
25 g powdered sugar
1 Tbsp instant cappucino powder
100 g dark chocolate coating
1 Tbsp chopped almonds


Preparation

First, soak the raisins in the sea buckthorn juice overnight so that the dried fruits can absorb as much as possible.

The next day, let the raisins drain briefly...

...and then with the marzipan, the powdered sugar and the cappucino powder...

...knead carefully.

 
Then form small balls out of the mixture.

Melt the dark couverture in a water bath, dip the balls into the melted chocolate,...

...sprinkle the top with a few pieces of chopped pistachios and then drain well and let dry. Then store the finished confectionery in the fridge!

Merry Christmas!!!

[Translated from here.]