Vanillukaka

Vanilla cake

One day I sent my husband hiking with the children and then baked this vanilla cake at home in peace and quiet with what I had in the house - including 1 liter of AB-Mjólk with vanilla flavor (outside Iceland then with vanilla). Replace yogurt).

The cake was really well received - the guest child was very surprised and asked if I had really baked the cake myself because it was "absolutely delicious". “It's really cool” was his comment when I confirmed to him - yes, the cake was actually homemade!

Ingredients

300 g flour

200 g sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 pinch of salt

3 eggs

140 g oil

230 g AB-Mjólk vanilla flavor

Preparation

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

In a bowl, mix the flour with the sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Then add the eggs, oil and AB-Mjólk and mix everything into a smooth dough.

Then put the dough into a springform pan lined with baking paper and smooth it out...

... and bake at 400 °F (200 °C) upper and lower heat for about 35 to 40 minutes until the cake has turned nice and golden brown (test with a toothpick!).

Take the cake out of the oven, let it cool down and carefully remove it from the tin.

Dust with powdered sugar before serving.

The vanilla cake tastes particularly good when it is still lukewarm from the oven!

Bon appetit!

[Translated from here.]

Snjókarlasmákökur

Snowman cookies

We're in Germany, and on Friday it was still 86 °F (30 °C), even though it was already mid-October. So it still feels like summer, warm and humid...

However, a look at our terrace in Iceland quickly brings me to the realization that the summer of 2023 is already over - winter is approaching, and fast.

There have been quite a few snowstorms in Iceland this week. The ring road over the Hellisheiði was temporarily closed and even after it opened there was a solid blanket of snow on the road and a lot of wind and gusts of wind. Our house is actually somewhat sheltered, so we haven't had a lot of snow yet, but it was stormy and windy too. The wind even opened a closed door. Our neighbors were there and everything seems to be fine again. Winter has only just begun...

We're going back to Iceland next week - and to get in the mood for the winter conditions, I baked a batch of snowman cookies. Chocolate cookies in the shape of a snowman - smákökur , or " small cakes ", as they say in Icelandic.

I think the cookies are delicious - and child 3 in particular is very enthusiastic about them. It's nice to hear such praise!

Ingredients for 12 snowmen

100 g soft butter

80 g brown raw sugar

100 g white sugar

1 egg

1 pinch of ground vanilla

250 g flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 pinch of salt

100 g chopped chocolate

200 g white chocolate

80 g dark chocolate

small colorful chocolate lentils

Preparation

In a large bowl, beat the softened butter with the brown and white sugar until fluffy.

Add the egg and ground vanilla and stir until frothy.

Add more flour, baking soda and salt to the mixture and mix to form a smooth dough.

Finally, stir in the chopped chocolate with a spoon.

Then put the dough in the fridge for a good 30 minutes.

Then preheat the oven to 350 °F (170 °C) upper/lower heat.

Form an equal number of balls in two sizes from the dough (I "measured" the amount of dough with a teaspoon, always using a little more and sometimes a little less dough).

Place one large and one small ball directly next to each other on a baking tray lined with baking paper so that they can run together.

Bake in a preheated oven at 350 °F (170 °C) upper and lower heat for about 10 minutes.

Allow the cookies to cool on the tray and then carefully remove them from the baking paper.

Slowly melt the white chocolate in a water bath.

Then dip the tops of the snowmen into the melted white chocolate or carefully brush them with the melted chocolate. Press an orange chocolate lentil onto the face as a nose and three different colored chocolate lentils onto the snowman's stomach as buttons.

Let the chocolate coating harden.

Then melt the dark chocolate in a water bath and use it to decorate the snowmen (hat, face and scarf).

Then let the snowman cookies dry and then simply enjoy the finished cookies!

Happy winter everyone!

71 days until Christmas...

[Translated from here.]

Kartöflulummur

Potato Lummur

Lummur are small, thick pancakes that are often found in everyday Icelandic cuisine. By the way, a small, thick pancake is a “lumma”.

This is a traditional Icelandic recipe from the “Use Leftovers” category.

So if you still have boiled potatoes left over, I can only recommend this Lummur recipe for a cozy Sunday breakfast - and thanks to the concentrated milk, these pancakes are wonderfully light, airy and taste just a little bit sour - really delicious!

Ingredients

250 g boiled potatoes

350 ml concentrated milk

125 g flour

1 egg

1 tsp baking powder

1 pinch of salt

1 tsp brown sugar

Margarine or oil for the pan

Preparation

Mash the cooked potatoes into a thick paste.

Add the curdled milk and stir in carefully.

Then add flour, egg, baking powder, salt and sugar and mix everything until you have a nice, smooth dough.

Heat some margarine or oil in a pan.

Pour the dough into the hot pan in portions using a tablespoon and fry on both sides. Add new fat to the pan every now and then so that nothing sticks.

We ate the Lummur with homemade berry jam for breakfast.

The berry jam is also a bit sour, which tastes wonderful with the slightly sour and not so sweet Lummur!

[Translated from here.]