Fljótgerðir kanilsnúðar

Quick cinnamon rolls

Here's a quick recipe for cinnamon rolls that I baked for the weekend - without yeast, which takes a long time to rise, but with baking powder and thick milk/sour milk.

By the way, for an additional flavor note, I used Súrmjólk with a nut and caramel flavor, which I love here in Iceland - but of course it also works with normal sour milk and tastes nice and fresh!


Ingredients

550 g flour
3 tsp baking powder
100 g sugar
80 g melted butter
380 g concentrated milk

50 g sugar
1 tsp cinnamon


Preparation

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

To make the dough, mix the flour, baking powder, sugar, melted butter and concentrated milk in a large bowl...

...and knead into a dough that is as smooth as possible.

Roll up the dough on a floured surface or surface lined with baking paper into a rectangle about 1 cm thick.

Mix the sugar with the cinnamon and spread over the dough.

Then carefully roll out the dough over the long side.

Cut the dough into slices about 1.5 cm thick.

Place on a baking tray covered with baking paper...

...and bake in the preheated oven at 350 °F (180 °C) upper and lower heat for about 15 - 20 minutes until the cinnamon rolls have turned nice and golden brown.

Then enjoy your meal everyone!
Verði ykkur að góðu!

[Translated from here.]

Ananas- og kókoskaka

Pineapple and coconut cake

This is a very moist dessert cake with pineapple, coconut flakes and almond flour that does not require any additional flour - but with a lot of sugar and eggs. But it also tastes extremely delicious and is wonderfully fluffy and light! However, I think this dessert cake tastes best when fresh and still a little warm...


Ingredients

1 can of pineapple (drained weight approx. 340 g)
250 g sugar
250 g butter
6 eggs
200 g almond flour
150 g coconut flakes
1 tsp baking powder


Preparation

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

Either grease a baking pan (approx. 25 x 30 cm) well or line it with baking paper.

Remove the pineapple from the can, drain and puree with the blender.

Then roast the pineapple puree in a pan with 2 tablespoons of sugar until it is lightly browned - then let it cool again.

Mix the remaining sugar with the butter until fluffy.

Add two of the six eggs.

Separate the remaining eggs.

Add the egg yolks, almond flour, coconut flakes and baking powder to the butter-sugar mixture and mix thoroughly.

Add the pineapple puree and mix.

Beat the egg white until stiff...

...and fold in carefully.

Then pour the dough into the mold...

...smooth out...

...and bake at 400 °F (200 °C) upper and lower heat for 10 minutes.

Then reduce the heat to 325 °F (160 °C) upper and lower heat and let it bake for another 30 minutes.

Then take the cake out of the oven, let it cool thoroughly and then serve - ideally with fresh pineapple and whipped cream.

[Translated from here.]

Bjúgaldin-salat

Banana salad

Bananas are very common in Iceland; I've actually never been to a supermarket here where there wasn't a large stand somewhere in the entrance area with bananas that were grown in greenhouses here in the country. Bananas are also an integral part of Icelandic cuisine.

In Icelandic today, banana is actually called "banani", but the previous Icelandic word for it is "bjúgaldin", meaning "sausage fear". Yes, visually quite understandable!


Ingredients for 4 servings

4 large bananas
6 hard-boiled egg yolks
4 Tbsp rapeseed oil
2 Tbsp vinegar
1/2 tsp coarse sea salt
1 pinch of fresh pepper
1 Tbsp sugar


Preparation

Halve the eggs.

In a large bowl, chop the egg yolks and mix thoroughly with the rapeseed oil, vinegar, salt, pepper and sugar.

Crush the egg whites...

...and add to the egg yolk mixture.

Peel the bananas and cut them into slices with a knife.

Add the banana slices to the bowl and mix everything thoroughly.

Then serve the banana salad with fresh bread and butter.

[Translated from here.]

Byggottó með ýsu

Pearl barley risotto with haddock

This was actually supposed to be a recipe for pearl barley risotto with cod, but because there was no cod in the supermarket, only haddock, I changed my mind. In Iceland it's good to be as flexible as possible if things turn out differently than planned!


Ingredients for 4 persons

200 g barley pearls
600 ml water
1 tsp salt

1 Tbsp butter
1 onion
1 - 2 carrots
1 zucchini
100 g mushrooms
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1 Tbsp chopped parsley
1/2 tsp coarse sea salt
1 pinch of ground pepper
4 Tbsp cream
2 Tbsp parmesan

500 g fish fillets
1 pinch of coarse sea salt
1 Tbsp rapeseed oil


Preparation

Cook the barley in the salted water for about 40 minutes until the barley has absorbed all the water.

Peel the onion, carrots and zucchini and cut into small pieces.

Wash, clean and chop the mushrooms.

Then heat the butter in a pan and fry the vegetables.

Add the cooked pearl barley and let stand briefly.

Then add the thyme and chopped parsley and season with salt and pepper.

Remove the pan with the vegetables from the heat, add the cream and grated Parmesan and stir everything gently.

Let stand for a few minutes while you prepare the fish:

Halve the fish fillet, dry with kitchen paper and season with a little salt.

Heat the rapeseed oil in a pan and fry the fish for about 5 minutes on each side.

Then arrange the pearl barley risotto on the plate, place the fried fish on top, sprinkle with a little fresh parsley and serve.

[Translated from here.]

Laugarvatn Fontana

Visit to the swimming pool on the weekend

After we had rather modest weather on Friday and Saturday, first rain and then a lot of wind, yesterday on Sunday it was dry again and almost no wind, so we took advantage of the good weather to spend the day comfortably in the swimming pool - in this case in Fontana in Laugarvatn, located directly on Lake Laugarvatn.

Christianization of Iceland - baptism in warm water

When the Christianization of Iceland was decided in the year 1000 (under pressure from the Norwegian King Ólafur Tryggvason) at the Alþing in Þingvellir on the advice of the law speaker Þorgeir Þorkelsson and the country's chiefs had to be baptized, the water in Þingvellir was far too cold for them, so The noblemen rode around 25 km to Laugarvatn to be baptized in the warm Vigðalaug spring on the shore of the lake in more pleasant temperatures.

Lögberg, Thingvellir

Laugarvatn - hot springs on the lake

There are three hot springs next to each other on the shore of Lake Laugarvatn. The coldest spring is Vigðalaug, where the Viking chiefs were baptized, the middle spring is used for the swimming pool in the town of Laugarvatn on the shores of the lake of the same name. The third and hottest spring is used by the municipality of Blaskogabyggd for heating the public and private buildings in the municipality.

Swimming pool in Laugarvatn

The hot springs and steam here at the lake have been used by the residents of Iceland for a long time. Baths were built near Laugarvatn in 1929 and were in operation until 2007.

The current swimming pool was opened in 2011.

There are three different pools and a hot pot (pictured here on the right) with a temperature of around 39° with a beautiful view over the lake and the volcanoes and glaciers behind it.

By the way, the swimming pool is very proud of the fact that the steam baths here can be operated directly with the vapors of the geothermal energy flowing from the depths through grids in the floor. There are three steam baths with different temperatures, as well as a small sauna.

Access to the lake

A special attraction of the swimming pool for me is that there is access to the lake. Two wooden footbridges lead past warm signs into Lake Laugarvatn and you can (at your own risk) swim directly into the lake and here.

As beautiful as it is - despite the hot springs on the shore, I found the lake here to be ice cold!

My husband was braver than me and swam a bit in the lake. If you seriously wanted to swim in the lake, you had to come in a wetsuit!

Sumartilboð - Summer special offer due to Corona

After the Corona-related closure of all swimming pools in Iceland, the Fontana Laugarvatn has now been open again since May 28, 2020. And there is a summer special offer (currently limited until August 31, 2020).

Instead of 3,950 ISK (around €25), entry for an adult this summer only costs 2,000 ISK (around €12.50). Young people aged 13 to 16 currently only pay 1,500 ISK instead of 2,000 ISK. Children under 13 years of age accompanied by an adult are free.

Have a good meal!

After the swimming pool, we and our youngest went to Krambúð in Laugarvatn, right next to the gas station, and treated ourselves to the "family offer" of burgers, fries and a 2-liter bottle of Coke.

[Translated from here.]

Klassísk hjónabandssæla

Classic marital bliss

I think you can never have enough recipes for good marital happiness. So I tried out a very classic recipe for this popular Icelandic crumble cake with oat flakes and rhubarb jam when we had visitors over the weekend.


Ingredients

200 g soft butter
100 g brown cane sugar
2 eggs
150 g flour
200 g oat flakes
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baker's ammonia
1/2 tsp cinnamon
300 g rhubarb jam
2 Tbsp oat flakes


Preparation

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

Line a baking dish (approx. 20 x 30 cm) with greaseproof paper, folding the paper well so that it lies as smoothly as possible. Alternatively, you can of course also use baking paper.

In a large bowl, first beat the butter and sugar until fluffy.

Then add the eggs and mix.

Now add the flour, oat flakes, baking powder, staghorn salt and cinnamon and mix it into a nice dough.

Then put about 3/4 of the dough into the mold and press it carefully so that all corners are filled and the dough is evenly thick.

Now spread the jam over the dough.

Add 2 more tablespoons of oat flakes to the remaining dough, knead roughly and then spread the whole thing over the jam as a sprinkle.

Then bake the cake in the oven at 400 °F (200 °C) upper and lower heat for about 25 minutes until it has turned nice and golden brown.

Then let the marital bliss cool down, carefully remove it from the mold and serve it cut into pieces.

[Translated from here.]