Appelsínukaka

Orange cake

I baked this orange cake for us on Easter Sunday for a cozy Easter coffee hour. Such a nice, quick recipe for a fruity sponge cake that also brings a bit of color into the still light brown Icelandic spring, which I was able to quickly prepare in the morning...

My youngest in particular, who isn't really much of a cake fan, was really excited and even wanted seconds!

Ingredients

100 g soft margarine

100 g sugar

1 egg

1/2 organic orange

125 g flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 pinch of salt

200 g powdered sugar

40 g soft margarine

1/2 organic orange

thin orange slices for decoration

Preparation

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

In a large bowl, whisk margarine, sugar and egg until fluffy.

Wash the orange and cut it in half. Cut 8 slices as thin as possible for later decoration. Grate some of the peel from one half of the orange and squeeze out this half and add the orange juice and the grated orange peel to the bowl.

Add more flour, baking powder and salt and mix everything into a smooth dough.

Line a springform pan with baking paper, pour the dough into it...

... and let it bake in a preheated oven at 350 °F (180 °C) upper and lower heat for about 30 minutes (test with a toothpick!).

Take the cake out of the oven and let it cool thoroughly.

For the cream, put the powdered sugar with the soft margarine in a smaller bowl, squeeze the second half of an orange and grate some of the peel and then mix everything together...

... and spread the mixture over the cooled cake.

Decorate with the orange slices/carves, cut as thinly as possible.

Let the cake set and set in the fridge for at least 2 hours - and then serve!

We were even lucky enough to be able to have our Easter coffee hour on the terrace in the wonderful sunshine in the afternoon! However, despite the sun, it was still a bit cool, so we went back into the house after we had finished eating! But it was nice to sit outside like that!

[Translated from here.]

Súkkulaðimús

Chocolate cream

Here I have a wonderfully simple recipe for a chocolate cream with very few ingredients as a delicious dessert for you.

The recipe is also ideal if you have already eaten a lot of the giant chocolate egg over Easter and then want to use the leftovers for something else.

Ingredients

100 g chocolate

2 egg yolks

250 ml whipping cream

Whipped cream and chocolate shavings

for decoration

Preparation

Melt the chocolate in a water bath.

Cool slightly and then stir in the two egg yolks one after the other.

Whip the cream...

... and then spoon in the chocolate mixture.

Pour the cream into dessert glasses or similar and let it solidify in the refrigerator.

Sprinkle with whipped cream and grated chocolate and serve immediately.

Bon appetit!

[Translated from here.]

Vegan kryddbrauð

Vegan spice bread

When it's wet and cold and disgusting outside - what could be better than making yourself comfortable at home with a nice piece of freshly baked spiced bread, still warm and spread with butter or margarine..?!?

Many Icelandic families bake their spiced bread according to a special family recipe. This recipe is a vegan version - and the Kryddbrauð really tastes as good as it smells!

Ingredients

180 g flour

100 g oat flakes

4 tsp baking cocoa

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp ground cloves

1 tsp cinnamon

2 tsp baking soda

175 g brown sugar

300 g oat milk

1 tsp oat flakes for sprinkling

Preparation

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

Place all ingredients in a large bowl...

...and mix thoroughly into a nice dough.

Grease a loaf tin or line it with baking paper.

Pour the dough into the mold, sprinkle with 1 teaspoon of oat flakes...

...and bake in the preheated oven in the lower third at 350 °F (180 °C) upper/lower heat for about 50 minutes (test with a toothpick!).

Allow the spiced bread to cool slightly, then carefully remove it from the mold.

Cut the bread into slices and spread with margarine if you like.

Bon appetit!

[Translated from here.]

Vegan kleinur

Vegan Kleinur

When I present a vegan version of a typical Icelandic dish, a pastry is of course an absolute must - Kleinur .

A Kleina is a small particle fried in fat that probably originally comes from Denmark, but has been very common and popular in Iceland for a long time. In English, the Kleinur here are often referred to as " Icelandic twisted donuts ". (It's said that back in the day people even occasionally fried their Kleinur in fish oil, but that didn't catch on in Iceland either - for good reasons if you ask me!)

Traditionally Kleinur are prepared with milk, Skyr or sour milk, often with an egg - this vegan version replaces the egg with ground linseed and apple cider vinegar, instead of milk / Skyr / sour milk I used almond milk.

I admit, this vegan version tastes a little bit different than “traditional” Kleinur, but it comes close to the feeling of the classic Kleinur - and the vegan Kleinur are really extremely tasty!

Ingredients

1 Tbsp ground flaxseed

50ml water

500 g kg flour

180 g brown sugar

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baker's ammonia

1 tsp cinnamon

1 pinch of ginger

1 pinch of cloves

1/4 tsp cardamom

1 pinch of ground vanilla

50 g vegan margarine

250 ml plant milk

1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar

1 kg frying fat

2 Tbsp brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

Preparation

Mix the linseed with the water and let stand briefly.

In a large bowl, mix the flour with the sugar, baking powder, staghorn salt, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, cardamom and ground vanilla.

Add the margarine in small flakes to the dry ingredients and knead.

Then add the lei seed mixture, the almond milk and the apple cider vinegar to the bowl...

...and knead thoroughly until you have a nice, uniform dough. If necessary, add a little more flour if the dough is still sticky.

Heat the fat in a large pot.

While the fat is getting hot, roll out the dough in portions on a floured work surface to a thickness of approx. 1 cm and cut into diamonds.

Make a cut in the middle of each diamond and pull one end through the hole to "twist" the dough.

When the oil is hot enough (small bubbles will form if you hold a wooden stick in it), carefully add about 5 - 6 Kleinur at a time to the hot fat with a spoon and fry for about 2 minutes on each side until the Kleinur are pleasantly browned on the outside.

Then lift the Kleinur out of the fat and let it drain briefly on kitchen paper.

Mix approx. 2 tablespoons of brown sugar and a teaspoon of cinnamon in a soup bowl or similar and roll the freshly baked Kleinur in the sugar-cinnamon mixture immediately after draining.

For me, the perfect staple when traveling in Iceland!

[Translated from here.]

Flatbrauð

Icelandic flatbread

And - haven't I reached deep into the Viking cliché box here...?!? I also didn't miss little Þór with his hammer Mjölnir.

But basically it's true - the people of Iceland have probably been eating a flatbread made only from flour, water and sea salt since the time of the conquest. So it's also a recipe from the "always vegan" category. I just added a bit of baking powder to the flour.

The bread is traditionally still baked directly on the hot stove, of course completely without fat. But before I slapped the dough directly onto my ceramic hob, I preferred to use my good cast iron pan.

Ingredients for approx. 10 pieces

200 g wheat flour

200 g whole wheat flour

200 g rye flour

4 Tbsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

500 ml boiling water

Preparation

In a large bowl, mix the different types of flour with the baking powder and salt.

Pour in the boiling water and knead everything into a smooth dough.

Knead the dough well and divide into 10 roughly equal portions.

Form each portion into a small ball, if necessary on a floured work surface...

...and then roll it out into a circle about 0.5 cm thick.

Then bake the dough flatbreads one after the other without fat in a cast iron pan.

Then enjoy the finished Flatbrauð straight away or store it in an airtight container. It will keep for a few days.

Bon appetit!

[Translated from here.]