Myntuís

Mint ice cream

Icelanders love mint chocolate, almost as much as licorice chocolate! And there are tons of Icelandic mint and mint chocolate recipes!

The mint chocolate "Pipp súkkulaði með mintufyllingu" from the Icelandic company Síríus is particularly common, but there are others too.


Ingredients for the mint ice cream

4-6 sprigs of fresh mint
3 eggs
3 Tbsp sugar
100 g whipping cream
250 ml vanilla skyr
100 g peppermint chocolate


Preparation

Wash the branches thoroughly in cold water, dry them with kitchen paper, pick off the leaves and chop them carefully.

Separate the eggs.

Beat the egg yolks with the sugar until foamy.

Whip the cream until stiff.

Roughly chop the peppermint chocolate and fold it into the egg yolk and sugar mixture along with the cream, skyr and chopped mint.

Finally, beat the egg white until stiff and fold in carefully.

Then pour the ice cream mixture into a mold or small molds and let it freeze in the freezer for at least 2 hours.

Here we enjoyed the mint ice cream with delicious chocolate-mint cookies !

[Translated from here.]

Súkkulaðibitakökur með myntu

Chocolate mint cookies

Ingredients

3-4 sprigs of fresh mint
1 egg yolk
100 g brown sugar
80 g butter
140 g flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 pinch of coarse sea salt
100 g dark chocolate


Preparation

Wash the fresh mint thoroughly in cold water, then dry it with kitchen paper, pick off the leaves and chop them carefully.

Beat the egg yolks and sugar until fluffy.

Melt the butter and pour it into the egg yolk and sugar mixture.

Then add flour, baking powder and salt as well as the chopped mint.

Roughly chop the chocolate and mix in carefully.

Form a “sausage” / “roll of dough” out of the dough and put it in the fridge for at least 1 hour so that the dough becomes nice and firm.

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

Cut the dough roll into slices...

...place them well apart on a baking tray lined with baking paper and bake each tray in the oven at 350 °F (180 °C) for about 10 minutes.

Allow the cookies to cool thoroughly and then carefully remove them from the tray.

Bon appetit!

[Translated from here.]

Kotasælubollur

Cottage cheese buns

I received a wonderful Christmas package from a very dear internet friend, in which, among so many other things, there was a self-sewn reversible bread basket. So I just had to bake rolls straight away, especially for this bread basket!


Ingredients for 6 rolls

30 g butter
500 ml milk
1 tsp coarse sea salt
1 tsp sugar
3 Tbsp flax seeds
100 g cottage cheese
1 tsp dried thyme
350 g wholemeal flour for the first dough
300 g wholemeal flour for ready kneading

1 small egg for brushing
1 tsp dried thyme for sprinkling


Preparation


Heat milk and butter in a large pot.

Then pour the mixture into a large bowl...

...add salt and sugar, lei seeds, cottage cheese, thyme and half of the wholemeal flour and mix everything thoroughly.

Cover and let rise in a warm place for about 3/4 hour.

Then knead in the remaining flour in portions until a smooth dough is formed.

Then form rolls from the dough, place them on a baking tray lined with baking paper or in roll tins, cover again and let them rise for about 1/4 hour.

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

Then whisk the egg and brush it on the rolls...

...and sprinkle with some dried thyme.

Bake in a preheated oven at 350 °F (180 °C) for about 20 to 30 minutes until the rolls are golden brown.

The rolls were very tasty, but extremely filling!

Maybe next time I'll make the rolls a little smaller so they aren't quite as bulky.

[Translated from here.]

Rabbarbaralengja

Long rhubarb

Here's another nice, quick cake recipe - typically Icelandic with rhubarb jam.

Ingredients

250 g flour
120 g brown sugar
100 g margarine
1 tsp baking powder
100 ml milk
3 Tbsp rhubarb jam
1 egg
1 Tbsp granulated sugar
1 Tbsp chopped almonds


Preparation

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

In a large bowl, mix the flour with the sugar, butter, baking powder and milk...

...and knead into a smooth dough.

Then roll out the dough on a baking tray lined with baking paper (approx. 30 x 30 cm)...

...and spread the rhubarb jam in the middle.

Then fold the dough together and carefully press the edges.

Then carefully beat the egg and brush the top of the pastry with it...

...then sprinkle with the granulated sugar and chopped almonds.

Bake in a preheated oven at 350 °F (180 °C) for about 15 to 20 minutes until the cake has a nice golden yellow color.

Allow to cool thoroughly and then serve in thin strips.

[Translated from here.]

Pönnusteikt hjörtu

Fried hearts

Is it really heartless to eat hearts?

There is now the “nose to tail” movement, ie the conscious effort to eat an animal completely again, from nose to tail. This is intended to express respect for the animal: If you kill and slaughter an animal in order to eat it, you should at least use the whole animal completely. In addition, the traditional dishes that have slowly disappeared from menus also have their taste appeal and sometimes offer a special dimension that we are often no longer used to today. In a country as barren as Iceland, everything that could be used was traditionally used, which is why classic Icelandic cuisine has many corresponding dishes with liver, hearts, heads, feet, testicles, etc.

In Iceland, this dish is usually prepared with lamb hearts. On average, a lamb heart weighs around 150g, for this dish you should expect 300 g of heart per person. For 4 people you need approx. 1 kg of hearts.

I find it quite difficult to get lamb hearts in normal grocery stores or butchers here in Germany, but you can also make do with other hearts.


Ingredients for 4 persons

6-8 lamb hearts (approx. 1 kg)
4 Tbsp flour
salt and pepper
1/2 tsp thyme
3 Tbsp butter
1 onion
150 g mushrooms
1 apple
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp rhubarb jam
250 ml cream
salt and pepper


Preparation

Remove fat and the firmer parts from the hearts and then cut them into small pieces.

On a soup plate, mix the flour with salt, pepper and thyme...

...and briefly turn the chopped hearts into the flour mixture.

In a large pan, slowly heat 2 tablespoons of butter and let it melt.

Then fry the heart pieces coated in flour over medium heat for a total of about 5 minutes on all sides.

Then remove the fried heart pieces from the pan and keep them warm in the oven at 175 °F (80 °C) upper and lower heat.

Melt the other tablespoon of butter in the pan.

Peel the onion, halve it and cut it into thin strips, then fry it in the butter.

Wash the mushrooms, remove the stalk if necessary and halve the mushrooms (or quarter them depending on size) and add them to the pan.

Also wash the apple, then peel it, remove the core and cut the pulp into small pieces. Then add the apple pieces to the pan and fry them briefly.

Now add the rhubarb jam to the pan...

...pour the cream over everything, salt, pepper and thyme and simmer for a few more minutes.

Add the hearts to the sauce, mix...

...and traditionally serve with potatoes or mashed potatoes.

[Translated from here.]