Saturday, May 25, 2024

Furstakaka

Prince cake


"Furstakaka" (= "prince's cake") is an old name for a cake that is very popular all over Iceland under the name "Hjónabandssæla" (= "married happiness").

The cake is quick and easy to bake, tastes good and stays fresh for a long time.

This version was very well received by the whole family, even child 4, who doesn't really like eating cake...


Ingredients

250 g flour
125 g sugar
180 g margarine
1 tsp baking powder
1 pinch of ground vanilla
1 egg

120 g jam for spreading


Preparation

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

Place all the ingredients for the dough in a large bowl and slowly knead by hand until a uniform dough is formed.


Separate about 1/3 of the dough and set aside.

Place the remaining dough in a springform pan (approx. 24 cm) lined with baking paper and press it flat, pulling up the edge a little.


Spread the base with jam.


Roll out the remaining dough, cut it into strips with a dough wheel or similar and place the strips over the cake.


Finally, place a strip of dough around the cake.


Then bake the cake in the oven at 400 °F (200 °C) upper and lower heat for about 25 minutes.


Let the cake cool slightly and then serve with whipped cream.




[Translated from here.]

Saturday, May 18, 2024

Skyrdrykkur Pina Colada

Skyr drink á la Pina Colada


Sorry, there's not much going on here on the blog at the moment - we're currently renovating, it feels like we're using it in every free moment, and I also have a lot to do at work. So there isn't much time left for cooking and baking - so this week there's just a quick recipe for a Skyr drink.

With vanilla skyr, honey, canned pineapple and canned coconut milk - quick, easy and uncomplicated. But really tasty!

Now another shot of rum, my husband sighs...


Ingredients for 2 large glasses

350 ml vanilla skyr
400 g pineapple pieces with canned juice
120 ml coconut milk
1 Tbsp honey

Preparation

Place all ingredients in a blender, puree thoroughly...


...and enjoy it nice and cold.


Add ice cubes to the glasses to taste, if available!




[Translated from here.]

Sunday, May 12, 2024

Bananaís

Banana ice cream


Icelanders love to eat ice cream all year round. The ice cream shops in Iceland are open permanently, and the Icelanders do their ísbíltúr , whatever the weather, and drive to eat ice cream.

You can also find many ice cream recipes in Iceland - such as this one with milk, sour cream and whipping cream and pureed bananas.

In the original recipe, 150 ml of cognac is added to the ice cream mixture and in my old cookbook from the second-hand shop there is a handwritten note "children love summer". Much to my husband's dismay, I skipped the cognac, even though the alcohol is probably good for the creaminess of the ice cream.

I had the ice cream without cognac - I recommend not letting it freeze for longer than 3 hours or else serving it slightly thawed.


Ingredients

1 liter of milk
6 egg yolks
250 g brown sugar
250 g sour cream
6 ripe bananas
150 ml whipping cream


Preparation

In a large pot over low heat, bring the milk to the boil.


In a bowl, mix the egg yolks with the sugar until foamy.


Pour the egg-sugar mixture into the boiling milk, let it simmer briefly and then remove the pot from the heat.


Stir in the sour cream and then let the mixture cool.

Puree the ripe bananas with the whipping cream...



... and mix everything together.

Season to taste with ground vanilla, coffee spice or similar.


Pour the mixture into a suitable mold and let it solidify in the freezer for about 3 hours.


Before serving, decorate the banana ice cream with chocolate sauce, cream, colorful sprinkles or similar as desired.


Bon appetit!




[Translated from here.]

Sunday, May 5, 2024

Who are we actually?

We, the people behind "Yummy Iceland" - that's me (Ursula) and my husband Markus.

We have been married for over 20 years, live in the greater Frankfurt / Main area and have four children and now also a grandchild.

We are both passionate Iceland fans.

I love baking and cooking, and Icelandic cuisine has become another passion of mine. So, I cook and bake, take photos, and write, while my husband works behind the scenes, ensuring design, layout, functioning technology, and smooth operations.

Since July 2014, I have been blogging about Iceland and Icelandic cuisine on Island-Fan-Kochbuch in German and here on Yummy Iceland in English.

Our cookbook, "Leckeres Island - Das große Koch- und Backbuch", (only in German) also emerged from the blog in 2015. In November 2021, our Christmas book, "Yummy Iceland at Christmas Time" (with recipes and Christmas traditions from the island), was published at first in German, and is meanwhile also available in English. I have also been writing recipes for the German Iceland magazine "Zauber des Nordens" ("Magic of the North") for several years, and in March 2023, the special edition of "Zauber des Nordens" was published, focusing on "Icelandic Cuisine".



Why Iceland?

We're often asked why we came to Iceland of all places. Around 1990, Markus saw a slide show from someone who traveled across Iceland by bike.

Even back then, the landscape absolutely fascinated him.


And just 14 years later, we traveled to Iceland together for the first time. In the summer of 2004 , we cycled around the island for 8 days (luckily, I was spared the cycling crossing!).
(2004)

We were incredibly lucky with the weather on our first trip and had the best first impression we could have wished for. We had a wonderfully individually planned road trip and stayed in very different accommodations every night, from a rather functional hotel in the city to one of Iceland's oldest wooden houses dating back to 1884, where Marlene Dietrich stayed in the 1940s, to a country hotel and farm accommodation, often with stunning views of the Icelandic landscape. And we ate some truly delicious Icelandic food!

(2004)

We fell hopelessly in love with this island in 2004... After the 2008 crisis, a trip to Iceland became more affordable again, so we visited Iceland for the second time in the summer of 2009.

(2009)

We visited Iceland for the third time in the summer of 2010, then for the first time in the winter on New Year's Eve 2011. We never let it go. In the summer of 2012, we visited Iceland for the first time with our children, and in the summer of 2015, we visited with all four children.

(2012)

At first we went to Iceland once a year, then more and more often... and in 2020 we fulfilled our dream and bought our own house in Iceland .

(2020)

Since then, we've spent an average of around 14 weeks a year in Iceland, and even though life here is often quite exciting, we haven't regretted buying the house one bit!


"Við erum að læra islensku"

Originally, I wanted to learn "a bit" of Icelandic so I could translate the recipes. I can't recommend using Google Translate when coffin nails suddenly appear as ingredients in the automatically translated recipes, or it took me ages to figure out that you have to use dates, not dates.

At first, we tried to learn at least a little of the language on our own, but quickly reached our limits. For 6.5 years now, the two of us have been learning once a week in private lessons via Skype ( isländisch-lernen.de ), and even though there's still plenty of room for improvement, we're noticing progress. It's more than enough for small talk with the neighbors or for attending the owners' meeting for our summer house...

My great passion: Icelandic cuisine

On our first trip to Iceland in 2004, we were able to enjoy some truly excellent Icelandic cuisine, and at some point I came up with the idea of ​​surprising my husband in Germany with some Icelandic specialties and delicacies. However, I quickly realized that at the time, there was only one cookbook on Icelandic cuisine in German, and it had an online delivery time of over 3,000 days... So I started collecting, translating, and trying out Icelandic recipes myself online.



From this recipe collection, this food blog about Icelandic cuisine was created in 2014 , which has grown considerably over the last 10 years and now has over 1,500 articles and more than 900
Includes recipes .


Our books "Delicious Iceland" and "Delicious Iceland at Christmas" and the special edition of "Magic of the North" about Icelandic cuisine can be purchased in bookstores or ordered online , for example, via our website or from the publisher "Magic of the North".



My second hobby: Icelandic knitting

Over the past four years, I've discovered a second hobby: I enthusiastically knit "Icelandic sweaters" ( lopapeysa ). More or less classic models, but all made from Icelandic wool. Mostly from "medium-thick wool" ( léttlopi ), but now also from the thinner wool plötulopi , and I've even knitted with the thicker wool álafosslopi .


And sometimes I combine both hobbies and bake delicious Icelandic sweaters from gingerbread dough or knit self-designed Icelandic sweaters with meat soup motifs!



Is there anything else you'd like to know about us? Then ask!

[Translated from here.]