Bakkelsi

Icelandic pastries

Since our first trip to Iceland in 2004, I've been passionate about Icelandic cuisine - but sometimes I think, in a little corner of my heart, what I love most is classic Icelandic pastries, like carrot cake, Vínarbrauð - and of course the traditional small pastries like Kleinur, Ástarpungar ("love balls") and cinnamon rolls.

I already have a number of cinnamon roll recipes on the blog, including my absolute favorite cinnamon roll recipe .

I also baked the Ástarpungar using a tried and tested recipe that I have had on the blog since 2015.

For the Kleinur I always like to vary things up, this time it was this recipe with vanilla skyr and finely ground wheat flour:

Ingredients for approx. 30 Kleinur

100 g sugar

1 egg

160 g vanilla skyr

80 ml milk

1 tsp cardamom

440 g wheat flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 kg coconut oil for deep frying

Preparation

In a large bowl, first whisk the sugar, eggs, vanilla skyr, milk and cardamom until frothy.

Then add the wheat flour and baking powder and knead everything into a smooth dough.

Roll out the dough into a rectangle about 0.5 cm thick on a floured work surface or a piece of baking paper.

Cut the dough into approx. 5 cm wide strands and then cut at a 45° angle so that diamonds are formed from the dough. Cut a slit in the middle of each diamond using a sharp knife or something similar.

Then pull one end of the diamond-shaped piece of dough through so that the whole thing is “twisted”. Alternatively, you can roll the two sides inwards and then press the sides together a little so that the pastry retains its shape when baking.

Slowly melt the coconut oil in a large pot.

The liquid fat has reached the right temperature when you hold a thin, long wooden stick into the fat and small, bubbling bubbles form on the wooden stick.

Using a ladle, place the small pieces one at a time in the hot fat and fry for about 2 to 3 minutes on each side, making sure to turn the pieces so that they are baked on all sides. Be careful not to bake the Kleinur in the fat for too long - they will darken in the air afterwards!

Then lift the Kleinur out of the fat with the ladle and drain on kitchen paper and allow to cool.

Bon appetit!

[Translated from here.]