Laufabrauð

Leaf bread

Laufabrauð is an essential part of Christmas in Iceland. In many families it is a nice pre-Christmas tradition to meet on one day in November or early December and all make Laufabrauð together and lovingly and individually decorate the dough flatbreads by hand with patterns before they are fried in hot fat.

There are special "Laufabrauðsjárn", i.e. "leaf bread irons", now often made of brass, with which you can "stamp" the patterns directly into the dough flatbreads using a small wheel. I still dream of having my own "Laufabrauðsjárn" - and until then I'll make do with a nice sharp knife.

This Laufabrauð recipe here comes from an old Icelandic cookbook by Jónina Sigurðardóttir from 1945 that I bought at the flea market in Reykjavík.


Ingredients

500 g flour
35 g butter
15 g sugar
1 tsp baking powder
250 g milk

500 ml vegetable fat


Preparation

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

Add the sugar.

Heat the milk and pour it into the other ingredients...

...knead everything into a smooth dough. Then let the dough cool briefly.

Then divide into 12 - 14 portions. (In the original recipe there are 20 portions, but I can't manage to roll out the dough flatbreads that thin without accidents.)

Roll out each portion very thinly into a circle. (I used a saucer as a “template” and then cut off the excess edges with a knife.)

The rolled out flatbreads can then be stacked well using baking paper or greaseproof paper as an intermediate layer.

Use a sharp knife (or the Laufabrauðsjárn) to score patterns in the dough and carefully fold over the corners.

In a deep skillet or large pot, heat the fat until it is hot enough that bubbles form when you carefully dip a wooden stick into it.

Then fry each loaf of bread individually on both sides in the hot fat until it is nice and golden brown.

Then place the leaf bread on a flat surface, absorb the remaining fat with kitchen paper and, ideally, weigh it down a little so that the breadcrumbs keep their shape.

The leaf bread was then traditionally served in Iceland at Christmas with hangikjöt and pickled sheep meat. But it also tastes wonderful without everything and is now often simply eaten as a snack.

With that in mind - Merry Christmas! Gleðileg jól!

[Translated from here.]