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.]