Sunday, March 20, 2022

Gulrótarkaka (vegan)

Vegan carrot cake

In fact, carrot cake with cream cheese cream is one of my personal favorite cakes in Iceland. It doesn't matter whether in Reykjavík at Kaffi Loki on Hallgrímskirkja or in the cafeteria in the national park - so far the gulrótarkaka has been really tasty everywhere!

That's why it was a personal need for me to have a "veganized version" of this cake on the blog - as delicious as this cake is!

Ingredients

360 g wheat flour

150 g brown sugar

3 tsp baking powder

2 tsp baking soda

1 Tbsp cinnamon

1 pinch of ground vanilla

400 g almond milk

120 g oil

1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar

4 medium carrots

150 g vegan cream cheese

250 g vegan butter

250 g powdered sugar

1 organic lemon

Preparation

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

In a large bowl, mix the wheat flour with the brown sugar, baking powder and baking soda as well as the cinnamon and ground vanilla.

Then stir in the almond milk, then the oil and vinegar one after the other until you have a nice, uniform dough.

Peel the carrots, grate them finely and then fold them into the dough.

Pour the dough into two round shapes (approx. 18 cm)...

... and bake for about 25 to 30 minutes in a preheated oven at 350 °F (180 °C) upper and lower heat (test with a toothpick!).

Then let the two cake layers cool thoroughly.

Then prepare the cream:

Stir the vegan butter in a suitable container until fluffy.

Then mix the vegan cream cheese with the butter, then the powdered sugar, the grated organic lemon peel and the squeezed lemon juice.

Place the first base on a cake plate or similar and spread with the first half of the cream.

For purely visual reasons, I first filled some cream into the garnish syringe and sprayed the cream around the edge before I spread the remaining portion of the first aid in the middle between the sprayed "heaps".

Then place the second base on top and spread with the second half of the cream...

...and decorate as you wish.

In my case, chopped hazelnut kernels went onto the top layer of cream, and I had previously filled a syringe full of the cream and sprayed the cream all around so that the edge looked a little more decorative.

Then serve the cake well chilled.

Bon appetit!

[Translated from here.]

Monday, March 14, 2022

Vegan skúffukaka

Vegan chocolate cake

Skúffukaka is a typical Icelandic sheet cake - and that's exactly what the word skúffukaka means (" sheet cake ").

Skúffukaka is a classic chocolate cake with chocolate cream, often garnished with coconut flakes or sometimes with a little licorice in the dough or cream. Traditionally, recipes use thick milk or buttermilk, melted butter and eggs - so not for vegans.

This recipe for a vegan skúffukaka does not contain milk, butter or eggs, but instead uses almond milk and soft coconut oil. The oil makes the coconut flavor in the cake a little more noticeable than usual, but it goes very well with the coconut flakes on the cream!

Ingredients

250 g almond milk

135 g brown sugar

20 g soft coconut oil

150 g spelled flour

2 Tbsp baking cocoa

1 tsp baking powder

1 pinch of salt

1 Tbsp baking cocoa

100 g maple syrup

50 g coconut oil

1 pinch of ground vanilla

2 Tbsp desiccated coconut

Preparation

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

Mix the almond milk, sugar and coconut oil in a bowl with a mixer.

Then add the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt...

....and mix everything briefly until you have a nice, uniform dough.

Then put the dough into a square baking pan (approx. 20 x 30 cm)...

...and bake at 350 °F (180 °C) upper and lower heat for about 20 minutes (test with a toothpick!).

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

Then, for the cream, mix the baking cocoa with the maple syrup, the coconut oil and the ground vanilla, then spread the mixture on the cake....

...and sprinkle directly with the coconut flakes.

Then let it solidify a little in the fridge, cut the cake into cubes and serve fresh from the fridge.

Bon appetit!

[Translated from here.]

Sunday, March 13, 2022

Fjólublár þeytingur

Purple smoothie

Whisked dairy products with fruit, called “þeytingur” in Icelandic, are often found in Icelandic cuisine. And blueberries are an integral part of everyday cuisine here anyway.

By the way, important vocabulary in this context is “ísmoli” or “klaki”: that means “ice cubes”.

Ingredients for two small portions

150ml water

120 ml almond vanilla milk

1 banana

50 g frozen blueberries

3 - 4 ice cubes

Preparation

Put all ingredients in the blender, puree thoroughly and then serve immediately.

If you like, you can also add a few ice cubes (" ísmolar ") to the finished drink.

[Translated from here.]

Monday, March 7, 2022

Vegan sörur

Vegan Sörur

The recipe here was a very special experience for me personally. Sörur are a typical specialty in Iceland, a kind of hardcore cookies with a marzipan base, butter cream and chocolate coating. Sörur are an integral part of Icelandic Christmas baking in particular, but they are also very popular in the country.

For the classic Sörur recipes you mainly need egg whites and butter, so not for vegans. But how do you make Sörur that tastes as close as possible to how Sörur should taste, but is also suitable for vegans?

So I started looking for how to recreate this traditional recipe with other ingredients so that the result still tastes “right” - but without any animal products.

I then found a recipe with chickpea water, which is boiled down and whipped (as a substitute for egg whites), and with vegan butter and coconut cream, which ultimately complements the chickpea taste to such an extent that the result actually tastes exactly the same - despite completely different ingredients like the classic original.

I then presented the vegan Sörur to my daughter, who loves Sörur, with the announcement "another recipe" without explaining what the other recipe was about. She was thrilled and found the Sörur very tasty, but said that the base was a little crunchier than usual and tasted a little less like marzipan. She was surprised that they were vegan Sörur. And afterwards I was happy to take a bag of Sörur with me. But they won't be available until tomorrow!

Ingredients

150 ml juice from a can of chickpeas

250 g powdered sugar

1 tsp cream of tartar powder

200 g ground almonds

300 g vegan butter

150 g coconut cream

200 g powdered sugar

3 tsp instant coffee powder

1 Tbsp baking cocoa

1 pinch of salt

200 g dark chocolate

Preparation

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

Drain and collect the juice from the chickpeas and reduce it to about 2/3 in a small pot, then let it cool down again.

Slowly stir the boiled water in a mixing bowl for 3 minutes.

Add the cream of tartar and continue to beat until the mixture is soft and fairly stiff.

Then, in a large bowl, add the icing sugar a spoonful at a time while continuing to beat the mixture.

Then carefully fold the ground almonds into the stiff mixture.

Then place the dough with two teaspoons in small heaps with plenty of space between them on two baking trays lined with baking paper and bake/dry in the oven at 200 °F (100 °C) upper and lower heat for about 2 hours. Then turn off the oven and let the dough piles cool in the oven.

For the cream, beat the coconut cream and the cold butter with the powdered sugar, the instant coffee powder, the baking cocoa and a pinch of salt in a suitable mixing vessel until you have a nice, uniform cream.

Then spread the cream onto the bases with a teaspoon to create a kind of hemisphere.

Then let the bases with the cream set in the freezer for at least 1 hour.

Melt the dark chocolate in a water bath, then let it cool down a little.

Then brush the creamy top of the sorur with the dark chocolate and then let it solidify again in the freezer or refrigerator (please always keep it in the freezer or refrigerator!).

Then serve the vegan Sörur well chilled.

Bon appetit!

[Translated from here.]

Blaðlauks- og kartöflumauksúpa

Thick leek and potato soup

Here I have another recipe from Icelandic cuisine from the “always vegan” category.

I came across this recipe for a thick leek and potato soup in an Icelandic cookbook on the rummaging table in the second-hand shop in Reykjavík - and spontaneously fell in love with it because it is so wonderfully practical and down-to-earth.

Ingredients for 4 servings

4 - 5 stalks of leek

400 g new potatoes

1 - 2 onions

1 Tbsp vegetable margarine

1 tsp ground thyme

4 bay leaves

1 l vegetable broth

salt and pepper

Preparation

First wash and clean 2/3 of the leek and cut it into coarse pieces.

Wash the new, small potatoes thoroughly and quarter them.

Peel and roughly chop the onions.

Melt the margarine in a large soup pot and fry the roughly chopped vegetables and potatoes in the margarine.

Then add the thyme and bay leaves and pour the vegetable stock over everything.

Let the whole thing cook for about 20 minutes.

Then puree the soup thoroughly with the blender.

Add the remaining leek into very thin strips and simmer in the soup over low heat for about 10 minutes.

Season the soup with salt and pepper to taste and serve with fresh bread and margarine.

The preparation of the soup looks really colorful, with the potatoes, red onions and green leeks!

[Translated from here.]

Saturday, March 5, 2022

Lummur (vegan)

Vegan Lummur

Lummur are small, thick pancakes that are often found in everyday Icelandic cuisine - but you can also find them, appropriately prepared and with interesting side dishes, in sophisticated gastronomy.

Here I have a solid version of vegan Lummur as "morgunverðarpönnukökur", i.e. as "breakfast pancakes". With that in mind, I wish you a nice, delicious Sunday breakfast!