Kaldur brauðréttur með rækjum og ananas

Cold bread dish with crabs and pineapple

Bread dishes are very popular among Icelanders these days. The first recorded recipe for a bread dish was published in Morgunblaðið at the beginning of 1974, as a delicious meal for parties after a visit to the cinema or theater that can also be easily prepared. The recipe back then involved cutting open baguettes, hollowing them out, spreading them with butter and mustard and then topping them with salami, onions, tomatoes and olives. The baguettes were then topped with cheese and simply put in the oven before eating.

Since the beginning of the 80s, bread dishes have been very popular in Iceland as party food, either warm or cold, gratinated with cheese or not. Such bread dishes are also included on the cake buffet; many Icelanders love sweet cakes as well as hearty snacks.

Here I have a recipe for a cold bread dish for you, fresh, fruity - and at least with cheese cubes, if not gratinated with cheese!

Ingredients for 4 servings

8 slices of toast bread

200 g sour cream

100 g mayonnaise

350 g crabs

400 g canned pineapple

200 g grapes

2 peppers

100 g camembert

salt and pepper

1 bunch of fresh parsley

Preparation

Cut the edge off the toast and cut the soft bread into cubes.

Then place the bread cubes in a suitable form.

Wash, pick and chop the parsley.

In a bowl, mix the sour cream and mayonnaise with the juice from the can of pineapple, salt, pepper and chopped parsley.

Now chop the canned pineapple, peppers, grapes and Camembert.

Add the chopped pieces to the dressing along with the shrimp and mix thoroughly.

Spread the mixture over the bread cubes, decorate a little to taste and then let the dish sit in the fridge for at least 4 hours.

Serve the bread dish fresh from the refrigerator.

Bon appetit!

[Translated from here.]

Súkkulaðikaka með grilluðu sykurpúðaþaki

Chocolate cake with grilled marshmallow topping

When my daughter was recently leafing through one of my old Icelandic baking books and I translated to her that "með sykurpúðaþaki" means "with a marshmallow roof", which she immediately fell in love with.

Okay, a look at the recipe showed that it doesn't actually use ready-made marshmallows, but basically the same ingredients that you use for marshmallows. Like I tried the recipe.

The result is really a “hardcore chocolate cake” with a top that actually tastes like marshmallows. My daughter was thrilled, and most of us were too - but the cake is very chocolaty, very sweet and very filling. But also very tasty in small portions! So if you like chocolate!

Ingredients

Ingredients for the soil

160 g oatmeal cookies

2 Tbsp baking cocoa

50 g melted butter

Ingredients for the filling

200 g dark chocolate (chopped)

250 ml whipping cream

1 egg

Ingredients for the “roof”

100 g sugar

1/2 tsp cream of tartar

1 egg white

50 ml boiling water

1 pinch of ground vanilla

Preparation

Crush the oatmeal cookies thoroughly using a rolling pin, blender or similar.

Mix with the cocoa and melted butter.

Line a springform pan (22 cm) with baking paper and press the biscuit mixture thoroughly onto the bottom, forming a slight edge at the top.

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

Gently bring the whipping cream to the boil in a saucepan.

Remove the pan from the heat, add the chopped chocolate and let it melt.

Add the egg and beat gently until a nice, uniform mixture is formed.

Then pour the chocolate mixture onto the cookie base...

... and bake in a preheated oven at 350 °F (180 °C) upper and lower heat in the middle of the oven for 20 minutes.

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

For the "marshmallow roof", put all the ingredients in a tall mixing bowl and beat thoroughly for at least 5 minutes.

Then spread the mixture on the cake, if in doubt, use a tablespoon to pull it up a little in some places so that an interesting surface is created and then...

.... place in the oven under the grill function until the surface is lightly browned.

Then let it cool down briefly and then serve.

Bon appetit!

Sykurpúði - marshmallow

Marshmallow is a foamy confectionery made primarily from sugar , whipped egg whites and gelling agents . In the past, the juice from the roots of a plant named "marshmallow" was used as a gelling agent. Hence the name of the sweet. Later, gum arabic was initially used as a gelling agent; today it is usually gelatin, agar-agar or carrageenan. Here in the recipe, cream of tartar is used to stabilize the egg whites ( vínsteinslyftiduft in Icelandic).

By the way, the Icelandic word for " marshmallow" is " sykurpúði" , which literally means " sugar pillow ". Very clear, I think!

[Translated from here.]

Hnallþóra - Súkkulaðikaka með marengs og berjum

Hnallþóra: Chocolate cake with meringue and berries

On celebratory occasions in Iceland you can often find particularly tall, opulent, richly decorated multi-tiered cakes on the cake buffet, with lots of meringue, cream, syrup, fruit...

Such a cake is called "Hnallþóra" in Icelandic, after a character in the novel by Halldór Laxness.

These cakes come in many different versions,

e.g. with bananas, chocolate cream, berries and coconut flakes, chocolate meringue with cream and chocolate icing, or with fluffy dough with lots of cream, rose water and fruit liqueur... Definitely with lots of cream, lots of sugar, if in doubt also with lots of syrup and lots Fruit. More is more!

For the 80th birthday of the Icelandic Republic on June 17, 2024, I also baked such a "Hnallþóra" in a version as a chocolate cake with meringue, cream and berries.

Ingredients

120 g soft butter

260 g white sugar

4 eggs (to separate)

120 g flour

20 g baking cocoa

1.5 tsp baking powder

1 pinch of ground vanilla

75 ml milk

100 g chopped dark chocolate

Ingredients for the filling:

500 ml whipping cream

30 g powdered sugar

500 g berries

Preparation

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

Separate the eggs.

In a tall mixing bowl (clean and fat-free), beat the egg whites with 160 g of sugar until the mixture is really stiff. Then set the egg whites aside.

In a bowl, mix the 120 g soft butter with 100 g sugar with the mixer until a creamy mixture is formed.

Then add four egg yolks one after the other and mix everything well.

Add the flour, baking powder, cocoa and grated vanilla and mix everything thoroughly.

Finally add the milk and chopped chocolate and stir in.

Then divide the cocoa dough into 2 springform pans (20 cm in diameter) lined with baking paper.

Then put the egg whites on the two cake bases and bake in the preheated oven at 350 °F (180 °C) upper and lower heat for about 30 to 35 minutes.

Remove the baked bases from the oven and let them cool completely.

Beat the cream with the powdered sugar until stiff.

Set aside 200 g of the berries for decoration.

Chop the remaining berries and mix with the whipping cream.

Place the first layer on a cake plate, spread with half of the cream and berry mixture...

.... and carefully place the second floor on top.

Spread the remaining cream and berry mixture on top and decorate with the berries that were initially set aside.

Then decorate to your heart's content and serve well chilled in small pieces.

Happy 80th birthday, Iceland!

[Translated from here.]

Íspinni úr skyri og jarðarberjum

Skyr and strawberry popsicles

In my summer mood, I have a recipe for popsicles for you today, namely a skyr ice cream with fresh strawberries.

In addition to apple juice, some lemon juice is also added to the ice cream mixture.

To emphasize the fresh lemon aroma a little more, I added a few lemon verbena leaves. Of course the plant is not in any way typically Icelandic, I simply met it at the nursery that day and spontaneously fell in love with the smell. It actually hardly smells at all, but if you rub a leaf a little... it really packs a punch! I love the smell! So a little bit of it was allowed into the ice cream. But of course it works without it!

Ingredients

400 ml vanilla skyr

2 Tbsp lemon juice

120 ml apple juice

250 g fresh strawberries

Ice cream molds and wooden sticks

Preparation

Wash and clean the strawberries and cut them into pieces.

Process half of the strawberries with the vanilla Skyr, lemon juice and apple juice using a hand blender to form a uniform mass.

Add the remaining strawberry pieces and stir in carefully by hand.

Then pour the ice cream mixture into the molds and let it freeze in the freezer overnight.

Carefully remove the ice cream from the mold, let a little water run over the outside of the mold if necessary, and then enjoy it slightly thawed.

[Translated from here.]

Skyrkökur með jarðarberjum

Skyr dessert with strawberries

Villijarðarber, or wild strawberries, grow in Iceland. In Iceland, wild strawberries are found throughout the country, but especially in the lowlands. The wild strawberries that grow in the wild are much smaller and much less sweet than the strawberry varieties grown for sale.

Strawberries for sale in Iceland grow in geothermally heated greenhouses .

Strawberries of the “ Sonata ” variety are often grown here - these berries have very evenly shaped, relatively large fruits with a sweet, fruity taste. Thanks to their firmness, the strawberries can be stored well and are wonderful for preserving or for jam or jelly - or, as here, as strawberry puree for dessert.

Personally, I like to decorate strawberry desserts with chopped pistachios - on the one hand because of the color effect, which is reminiscent of fresh strawberries with green on them, and on the other hand because of the feel. I love the difference between the sweet, soft strawberry cream and the crunchy pistachios!

Ingredients

350 g strawberries

3 Tbsp sugar

1 pinch of grated lemon peel

1 pinch of ground vanilla

70 g cookies

2 Tbsp melted butter

1 pinch of grated lemon peel

300 g vanilla skyr

200 ml whipping cream

1 pinch of grated lemon peel

Preparation

Wash, clean and chop the strawberries and put them in a pot together with the sugar, the grated lemon peel and the ground vanilla.

Bring to the boil and then simmer over medium heat for about 10 minutes until the mixture begins to thicken. Mash the strawberries. Remove the pot from the heat and let it cool.

Crumble the cookies...

... mix with the melted butter and some grated lemon peel and let cool.

Whip the whipping cream until stiff and mix with the vanilla skyr.

Then add about 3 tablespoons of cookie crumbs to each glass, ...

... put the Skyr mixture on top...

... and finish with the strawberry sauce.

Decorate to taste with fresh strawberries, chopped pistachios or similar.

The dessert is easy to prepare and then serve straight from the fridge.

[Translated from here.]