Eplabúðingur

Apple casserole

Here's another nice, wintery, Christmas apple dessert. With a nice pinch of cinnamon!


Ingredients

2 Tbsp butter
500 g apples
2 Tbsp brown sugar
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp cinnamon

4 eggs
250 ml milk
160 g flour
1 pinch of ground vanilla
1 Tbsp brown sugar
1 pinch of salt


Preparation

Peel the apples and cut them into medium-sized pieces.

Melt the butter in a large pan.

Sauté the apple pieces in the pan until they are nice and soft.

Add the sugar, lemon juice and cinnamon, mix well and then remove from the heat.

Pour the apple mixture into an ovenproof dish.

In a bowl, whisk the eggs with the milk, flour, vanilla, sugar and salt and pour over the apple mixture.

Bake in a preheated oven at 350 °F (180 °C) upper and lower heat for approx. 30 - 40 minutes.

Then serve the dessert warm with whipped cream or ice cream. (We had homemade vanilla ice cream with it.)

[Translated from here.]

Lax í gratin

Salmon gratin

Here's a very simple, quick fish dish that also tastes very good! My mother in particular was absolutely thrilled with it. That makes the cook happy.


Ingredients

1 kg salmon fillets
1 pinch of black pepper
1/2 tsp coarse sea salt
1 red onion
1 white onion
3 Tbsp mayonnaise
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp hot mustard
250 g mozzarella balls
200 g cheddar cheese


Preparation

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

If necessary, cut the salmon fillet into pieces and place in a fireproof dish, season with salt and pepper.

Peel the onions, halve them and cut them into thin slices, then spread the onions over the salmon.

Cut the mozzarella balls into slices and spread over the onions.

Mix the mayonnaise with the lemon juice and mustard, season with salt and pepper.

Then spread the mixture over the salmon.

Grate the cheddar cheese...

...spread over the salmon...

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

Sprinkle with fresh parsley and serve immediately.

[Translated from here.]

Skyrkökur

Skyr cookies

Here's a very simple recipe for Skyr cookies, it's so quick, you can throw it in every now and then when you don't really have time to bake - like I do at the moment.


Ingredients

1 egg
380 g flour
140 g brown sugar
150 g pure Skyr
250 g soft butter
1 pinch of ground vanilla

1 Tbsp brown sugar for sprinkling


Preparation

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

Separate the egg; Set aside the egg yolk to brush on the cookies later.

Put the egg whites in a large bowl with the flour, sugar, skyr, butter and ground vanilla...

...and knead into a nice, uniform dough.

Then roll out the dough in portions fairly thinly (max. 0.5 cm) and cut it into small squares (approx. 2 x 2 cm) with a cutting wheel or knife.

Then place the cookies on a baking tray lined with baking paper, brush with the egg yolk and sprinkle with a little brown sugar.

Bake in a preheated oven at 350 °F (180 °C) upper and lower heat for about 15 minutes,...

...until the cookies have turned nice and golden.

Allow to cool thoroughly, carefully remove from the baking paper - and then enjoy your meal!

Somehow most of the cookies here were already eaten before they could end up in the cookie jars for Christmas. I have to go again...

[Translated from here.]

Jólabrauð

Christmas bread

This recipe for Christmas bread comes from a 160-year-old Icelandic cookbook, and I experimented a bit to make it work as smoothly and deliciously as possible in an electric oven even under today's conditions.

The dough is not a classic bread, but rather has the consistency of a yeast plait. And it had risen really well and turned into quite a bit of Christmas bread!


Ingredients

240 ml milk
240 g butter
240 g white sugar
4 eggs
3 Tbsp dry yeast
600 g flour

2 Tbsp raisins
2 Tbsp chopped almonds
2 tsp lemon peel
1 tsp grated orange peel
1 tsp cardamom

1 egg yolk


Preparation

Slowly warm the milk in a large saucepan, add the butter and sugar...

...and let it melt over low heat, stirring regularly.

Remove the pot from the oven.

First the eggs...

...then add the dry yeast and flour...

...and mix everything into a smooth dough.

Cover and let stand for an hour.

After rising, check the consistency of the dough. If necessary, add a little more flour if the dough is still too sticky.

Then add the raisins, chopped almonds, lemon peel, grated orange peel and cardamom to the dough and knead in.

The dough can then be shaped as desired, for example divided into three parts in the classic way, formed into ropes and formed into a plait. Place the braid on a baking tray lined with baking paper.

Whisk the egg yolk and brush it over the braided braid.

Bake in a preheated oven at 350 °F (180 °C) upper and lower heat for about 30 minutes.

Allow to cool and then enjoy - you can also spread it with butter or butter and jam if you want to be really indulgent!

[Translated from here.]

Eldheitt súkkulaði

Fiery hot chocolate

"Heilagur Nikulás", i.e. Saint Nicholas or St. Nicholas Day, does not play a role in the Icelandic Christmas season, but for me personally St. Nicholas Day is a special day - it was my father's birthday...

This time I prepared a cup of hot chocolate for St. Nicholas Day - really hot and spicy, because this chocolate is both hot in terms of temperature and really spicy (due to the cayenne pepper).


Ingredients for 2 servings

100 g dark chocolate (70%)
100 ml water
1 Tbsp cappuccino powder
300 ml milk
1 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp cinnamon
1 pinch of cayenne pepper
2 Tbsp whipping cream
1 pinch of ground vanilla

60 ml whipping cream
1 tsp powdered sugar
1 pinch of ground vanilla
1 pinch of cayenne pepper


Preparation

Bring the water to a boil.

Crush the chocolate, pour boiling water over it, add the cappuccino powder...

...and let the whole thing steep, stirring constantly, until the chocolate has melted.

Meanwhile, bring the milk, cloves, cinnamon and cayenne pepper to the boil in a saucepan.

Stir in the chocolate mixture...

...and let the whole thing simmer for another 5 minutes.

Add the whipping cream and ground vanilla and stir in.

Separately, whip the 60 ml whipping cream with the powdered sugar, ground vanilla and cayenne pepper until stiff.

Now pour the hot chocolate into glasses, add the whipped pepper cream on top, dust with a little cayenne pepper if desired and serve straight away.

[Translated from here.]

Heslihnetukökur

Hazelnut cookies

The dough was enough for me to make almost 50 cookies.

Ingredients

280 g flour
100 g ground hazelnuts
100 g sugar
250 g butter

50 g chocolate icing
1 tsp Christmas spice or similar
to taste


Preparation

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

Place all the ingredients for the dough in a large bowl...

...and mix thoroughly until you have a nice, uniform dough.

Form small, walnut-sized balls out of the dough.

Line a baking tray with baking paper, place the balls on the baking tray...

...and press lightly.

Then bake the cookies in a preheated oven at 350 °F (180 °C) upper and lower heat for about 15 - 20 minutes.

Attention - make sure that the oven is well preheated when you put the baking tray in the oven! I wasn't paying attention on the first tray and then I completely lost the biscuits, that's nothing!

Be sure to preheat the oven well so that something like this doesn't happen!

After baking, take the cookies out of the oven and let them cool slightly.

For the glaze, melt the chocolate, mix with spice(s) to taste and place a dollop of glaze on each cookie.

Then let the icing dry thoroughly and store the cookies safely until Christmas if you like. But it tastes good even beforehand!

Gleðileg jól!

[Translated from here.]