Hrökkbrauð Hrjúfa

Crispbread Hrjúfa

I also got the recipe for this crispbread from Edda. By the way, she recommends that if you want more salt, you can sprinkle extra coarse sea salt on top after you have "flattened" the bread before baking it.

I found that my crispbread was already pleasantly salty - and it really tasted wonderfully intense, completely different to standard store-bought crispbread!


Ingredients

100 g sunflower seeds
100 g pumpkin seeds
100 g flax seeds
100 g sesame seeds
100 g wholesome oat flakes
200 g wheat flour
150 g rye flour
125 ml oil
200 ml water
2 tsp salt


Preparation

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

Place all ingredients in a large bowl...

...and mix until you have a nice, smooth dough.

Divide the dough into three portions.

Line a baking tray with baking paper, place the first portion of dough on it,...

...flatten slightly, cover with baking paper and then flatten with a second tray. (Make sure that it is really thin, mine was still a bit thick...)

Do the same with the other two portions of dough.

Bake the crispbread for about 10 - 15 minutes at 400 °F (200 °C) upper and lower heat until the bread is nice and crispy.

Store the finished, cold bread in an airtight container to prevent it from becoming sticky.

We had the cheese bread with egg salad - enjoy your meal!

[Translated from here.]

Döðlubrauðsís

Date bread ice cream

I love the Icelandic rye bread ice cream - and when I had some of Edda's delicious date bread left over, I thought that it was crying out for an ice cream version. It screamed so loudly that I converted and adapted the recipe - and I'm in love with the result.

Even my middle son was very surprised to find that it was "directly edible" - an enthusiastic praise given his standards!


Ingredients

500 ml milk
500 ml whipping cream
130 g brown sugar
1 tsp grated lemon peel
250 g date bread
30 g dates


Preparation

In a large pot, bring the milk with the cream, sugar and lemon peel to the boil, stirring constantly, then reduce the heat so that it just simmers gently.

Carefully cut off any hard crust from the date bread and then cut the bread into small cubes.

Chop the dates...

...and add it to the rest of the ingredients in the pot together with the ground bread and let it simmer until the bread is nicely softened.

Then remove the pot from the heat and use a masher or something similar to process it into a nice, uniform “porridge”.

Allow the ice cream mixture to cool slightly and pour it into an ice cream maker. Allow to freeze for at least 1.5 hours according to the device's instructions. (You can freeze the ice cream in a suitable form in the freezer, but it won't be quite as creamy and will have to be frozen for longer.)

Then serve the finished ice cream, depending on your taste, for example with whipped cream or (like I did here) with a little coffee spice.

Oh yes - delicious!!!

[Translated from here.]

Döðlubrauð

Date bread

Edda, our landlady in Reykjavík, had packed this bread for us for breakfast on the last morning - we then unpacked it at Gunnuhver and enjoyed our picnic.

Edda had given us the recipe for the date bread, so I could try to bake it at home.


Ingredients

250 g dates
100 g butter
195 g brown sugar
3 eggs
120 ml buttermilk
300 g flour
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda


Preparation

In a small saucepan, simmer the dates with the butter and sugar until the dates are nice and soft.

Then pour the mixture into a large bowl.

Add the eggs and buttermilk.

Add the flour, salt and baking powder...

...and work everything into a smooth dough.

Then pour the dough into two buttered or lined king cake molds (approx. 20 - 25 cm long).

Then bake the bread in a preheated oven at 350 °F (175 °C) upper and lower heat for about 45 minutes.

The date bread tastes perfect with a little butter and a nice cup of tea or coffee.

Bon appetit!

[Translated from here.]

Vort daglegt brauð

Our daily bread

I got this recipe from Edda, who runs the guesthouse in Reykjavík with her husband where we rented a room for a weekend in June 2019. Edda serves the bread there for her guests for breakfast - a great treat!

(By the way, Edda recommends adding a little grated Parmesan to the bread before baking if you didn't use cheese in the dough.)

Ingredients for 2 loaves of bread

570 g wheat flour
100 g wholemeal flour
3 tsp salt
1 sachet of yeast
3 Tbsp cumin, parmesan or other spice
525 ml cold water

1 egg or water
2 Tbsp sesame or pumpkin seeds /
1 Tbsp coarse sea salt or similar to taste


Preparation

Put all the ingredients for the dough (flour, wholemeal flour, salt, yeast, caraway or similar and cold water) in a large bowl and stir until everything is well mixed.

Then cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it rise in the refrigerator for at least 7 hours.

Then take the dough out and let it stand at room temperature for 2 hours.

Then form two loaves from the dough.

Place each loaf on a baking tray lined with baking paper.

Brush the two breads with the beaten egg or a little water and sprinkle with seeds, salt and/or cheese.

Then put the bread in the cold oven, turn on the oven and bake at 400 °F (200 °C) upper and lower heat for about 40 to 50 minutes.

PS: My personal tip, after we were able to enjoy the bread at Edda's for breakfast - the bread tastes best fresh out of the oven when it is still lukewarm.

I simply spread butter on the still warm bread and just a bit of salt and pepper - I love it!

[Translated from here.]

Edda - homemade bread for breakfast

On our travels in Iceland we always meet people whose hearts beat at least as enthusiastically about Icelandic cuisine as ours.

During our last stay in Reykjavík we looked for a room in a small guest house in Reykjavík and started talking to Edda, the lady of the house. Edda's passion also lies in good food and exciting recipes.

Edda's particular passion is cooking and baking.

Edda tells us that her mother was a great cook who had to raise Edda and her siblings with little money. For example, there were often black seabirds, a kind of poor man's food back then. Their mother soaked the birds in milk to neutralize the fish taste and then boiled them. Edda raves about her mother's buttery seabird dishes. Today, these dishes are practically unavailable in Iceland.

As a child, Edda couldn't really appreciate her mother's good cooking, she tells us. Her passion for cooking and baking only awoke when she went to the USA for a year as an exchange student. There were so many foods here that she didn't even know about back then in Iceland, and she loved her host mother's recipes.

Edda is not a trained cook, but she has worked several summers as a cook in a fishing cabin in northern Iceland and has written recipes for Icelandic magazines and the radio.

Guesthouse “Eric the Red”

Today she and her husband Rúnar run a guesthouse right in the heart of Reykjavík, diagonally across Hallgrímskirkja.

The house was built in 1934 by a Reykjavik architect. Rúnar bought it in 1996 and converted it into a guest house with 12 guest rooms. From the kitchen window you practically look straight onto Hallgrímskirkja.

Behind the kitchen is the breakfast room. Here, guests are served warm porridge in the morning, cereal, cold cuts and jam. It is comfortable to have breakfast here in a large group, to be able to exchange ideas with other guests from all over the world or to simply look at one of the many books about Iceland, Icelandic birdlife or Icelandic cuisine in peace and quiet.

By the way, the breakfast eggs come from the land-grabbing chickens that Edda and Rúnar keep in the garden. Only chickens, no roosters, Edda tells us, it's no different in the middle of the city.

Breakfast with homemade bread

Edda thinks home-baked bread is the best. And so she still bakes her own breakfast for her guests. Every morning there is fresh, warm bread with caraway seeds; she let the dough rise overnight in the refrigerator. Edda thinks the bread tastes best when it’s still warm.

She also often serves homemade crispbread, with plenty of caraway seeds, of course.

There are always sweet pastries on the breakfast buffet, sometimes a lemon or sand cake, but sometimes also an absolutely delicious date bread.

Crispbread, freshly baked caraway bread for breakfast

and delicious buttered date bread

By the way, Edda told me her recipes for these three breads. I'm looking forward to introducing you to the recipes in the next two weeks!



[Translated from here.]

Hafragrautur í útilegu

Porridge for on the go

I recently gave my husband a little something for his hike on Reykjavegur - for example a packet of oat flakes and a bag of chopped nuts. We bought the fresh blueberries in Reykjavík (wrong time of year and wrong part of Iceland, otherwise we could of course have picked a handful right there). And the water came from nature.


Ingredients

4 Tbsp oat flakes
200 ml water
1 Tbsp chopped nuts
1 handful of fresh blueberries


Preparation

Bring the water to a boil in a small pot.

Add 4 tablespoons of oat flakes to the boiling water and simmer for around 5 minutes, stirring constantly.

Add the chopped nuts and fresh blueberries, stir - and have breakfast!

[Translated from here.]

Tómatsúpa í útilegu

Tomato soup on the go

It's vacation time - and maybe time for the next Iceland vacation.

My husband had been hiking in Iceland for a few days and I had given him a few typical outdoor recipes for his route on Reykjavegur - including this tomato soup. I had packed the can of chopped tomatoes for him and a small bag with the necessary spices and the Flatbrauð he had bought on site and carried with him in his backpack.


Ingredients

Bread from the lecture
1 can chopped tomatoes
1 pinch of coarse sea salt
1 pinch of pepper
1 pinch of dried thyme


Preparation

Cut the dry bread into small pieces.

Put the chopped tomatoes in a pot and heat for about 5 minutes.

Then add the chopped bread to the soup, season with salt, pepper and thyme and stir.

Bon appetit!

[Translated from here.]