Vanillu smákökur

Vanilla cookies

Someone had a birthday here this weekend, and we celebrated with the whole family. The birthday girl's request was a cheesecake. But just a cheesecake was somehow too boring for me. So I went all out with the "vanilla" theme – I made a vanilla unicorn cake with colorful cream cheese frosting, added a bit of decoration, and I had a pretty sweet themed cake. I love things like that!

And to make sure everyone is fed, I also cut out a batch of plain vanilla cookies for the 7th birthday, baked them, and then decorated them colorfully with vanilla icing and sprinkles.

I'll definitely use the vanilla cookie recipe again for Christmas, but with different cookie cutters!

Ingredients

300 g wheat flour

130 g sugar

1 tsp vanilla sugar or similar

1 tsp baking powder

90 g margarine

70 g light syrup

50 ml milk

Preparation

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

In a large bowl, mix flour, sugar, vanilla and baking powder.

First add the soft margarine and mix, ...

...then add the syrup and milk.

Knead the dough thoroughly, adding more flour if the dough is still sticky.

Knead thoroughly into a smooth dough.

Roll out the dough in portions on a floured surface with a rolling pin and cut out the cookies as desired, ...

...until the last bit of dough is used up.

Place the cookies on a baking sheet lined with baking paper...

... and bake in the preheated oven on the middle shelf at 350 °F (180 °C) (upper and lower heat) for about 8 to 10 minutes, until the cookies are golden brown.

If you like, you can decorate the cookies afterwards with icing, colorful sprinkles, etc.

In this sense:

Bon appetit!

[Translated from here.]

Eplaskyr

Apple Skyr

Apple trees don't actually grow in Iceland. In the past, apples were therefore something very special, expensive, and had to be imported. Apples were perhaps a great luxury at Christmas. Therefore, many older Icelanders still associate the scent of apples with Christmas.

Today, you can basically buy apples in stores all year round, so they have become an integral part of many Icelandic dishes.

Here's my first autumn recipe for you: a quick, easy dessert – vanilla skyr with apple compote and chopped nuts. It's so simple and delicious; my husband and kids were absolutely thrilled to lick the very last bits out of their glasses at dinner.

Ingredients for 4 glasses

350 g apple compote
450 g vanilla skyr

60 g sugar

1 tsp vanilla sugar, ground vanilla, vanilla paste or similar.

whipped cream

chopped nuts

Preparation

In a large bowl, combine the sugar with the vanilla sugar, ground vanilla, vanilla paste, or similar. (I mixed the sugar with some vanilla paste and some ground vanilla.)

Stir in the vanilla skyr.

Finally, add the apple compote and mix with a spoon.

Pour the apple-skyr mixture into dessert glasses or similar.

Before serving, garnish to taste with whipped cream and chopped nuts, brittle, or similar.

Bon appetit!

[Translated from here.]

Brauðterta með ostasalati

Bread cake with cheese salad

What the Swedes have with their "smörgåstårta", the Icelanders have with their "brauðterta".

In Iceland, you can traditionally find such hearty bread cakes with mayonnaise, lots of mayonnaise and even more mayonnaise among sweet pastries on many cake buffets.

Depending on your mood, the bread cakes can be topped with ham, salami, hangikjöt, salmon, crab... whatever you like!

Here's a version with various cheeses and grapes. This recipe is intended as a starter for four people, or as a main course for two.

Ingredients for 4 servings

4 slices of toast

1/2 Camembert (ca. 150 g)

1/2 garlic cheese (ca. 75 g)

1/2 pepper cheese (ca. 75 g)

1 bell pepper

1/2 red onion

approx. 20 grapes

1 handful of fresh parsley

200 ml sour cream (18%)

150 ml mayonnaise

Decorate with tomatoes, parsley, ...

Preparation

Chop the various cheeses, peppers, onions and grapes.

Wash the parsley and chop it finely.

In a small bowl, mix sour cream and mayonnaise, then set aside 1/3 of the mixture for dressing

Put the remaining cream with the cheese, vegetables, grapes and parsley into a large bowl and mix thoroughly

Cut the crust off the toast...

...and layer the salad so that you end up with four slices of bread with three layers of lettuce between them. Wrap the whole thing tightly in aluminum foil or something similar and let it chill in the refrigerator for about 2-3 hours.

Then cover the bread cake with the remaining sour cream and mayonnaise mixture and decorate with parsley, grapes, etc. as desired.

Bon appetit!

[Translated from here.]

Makkarónugrautur

Macaroni groats

I'm in an Icelandic Facebook group (Facebook is a big thing in Iceland anyway) about "gamaldags matur", or old-fashioned Icelandic food. A while back, the topic was makarónugrautur, or macaroni porridge - a kind of milk noodle soup, I'd say.

A special highlight of the dish was that the milk noodle soup was served with sugar and cinnamon - and with chopped liver sausage.

A few years ago, I came across a recipe for rice pudding with liver sausage, which was a bit unusual for me as a Central European, but it tasted much more harmless than it sounded and was actually quite delicious! So I absolutely had to try the recipe for milk noodles with liverwurst... My kids also thought the dish was delicious, but preferred to just add sugar and cinnamon and skip the liverwurst – incomprehensible, right?!?

Ingredients for 4 servings

150 g macaroni pasta

300 ml water

1 l milk

70 g sugar

1 pinch of salt

1 tsp vanilla sugar or similar

sugar cinnamon

liver sausage

Preparation

Bring the water to a boil and cook the noodles in the hot water for about 8 minutes, until they are almost tender.

Then drain the water.

Add milk, sugar, salt, and vanilla to the pasta and simmer, stirring frequently, until the pasta is tender and the dish begins to thicken.

The milk noodles are served hot, sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon if desired - or (!) in the traditional way with liver sausage.

Bon appetit!

[Translated from here.]

Mars-Snúðar

Mars rolls

I love cinnamon rolls, pretty much in every situation. And in many different variations. But of course, there are more than just cinnamon rolls – I recently came across a recipe for rolls with little pieces of Mars chocolate, and I just had to try that!

Memo to myself:

Next time I'll try the recipe with licorice chocolate; I imagine it would be delicious too!

Ingredients for about 20 rolls

150 ml lukewarm milk

1 tsp dry yeast

2 Tbsp sugar

50 g soft butter

1 egg

1 pinch of salt

350 g flour

2 - 3 Tbsp lukewarm water

1 - 3 Tbsp flour

180 g Mars chocolate

30 g butter

Preparation

For the dough, put all ingredients (except the water) into a large bowl...

...and knead thoroughly.

If the dough is too dry, add more water in portions until a good consistency is achieved.

Cover the yeast dough and let it rise.

For the filling, melt the butter and let it cool slightly.

Cut the Mars chocolate into small pieces.

Divide the dough into two parts, knead briefly again, and add a little more flour if the dough is still too sticky.

Then roll out half the dough...

... and brush with half of the melted butter.

Then spread half of the chopped chocolate over the dough...

... and roll it up as tightly as possible.

Cut the dough into slices about 2/3 inch (1.5 cm) thick.

Then place the snails on a baking tray lined with baking paper and let them rise for another 30 minutes.

Repeat the same with the second half of the dough.

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

Bake the snails in the preheated oven for about 15 to 30 minutes until they are golden brown.

Let it cool a bit and then serve.

Bon appetit!

[Translated from here.]