Who are we actually?

We, the people behind "Yummy Iceland" - that's me (Ursula) and my husband Markus.

We have been married for over 20 years, live in the greater Frankfurt / Main area and have four children and now also a grandchild.

We are both passionate Iceland fans.

I love baking and cooking, and Icelandic cuisine has become another passion of mine. So, I cook and bake, take photos, and write, while my husband works behind the scenes, ensuring design, layout, functioning technology, and smooth operations.

Since July 2014, I have been blogging about Iceland and Icelandic cuisine on Island-Fan-Kochbuch in German and here on Yummy Iceland in English.

Our cookbook, "Leckeres Island - Das große Koch- und Backbuch", (only in German) also emerged from the blog in 2015. In November 2021, our Christmas book, "Yummy Iceland at Christmas Time" (with recipes and Christmas traditions from the island), was published at first in German, and is meanwhile also available in English. I have also been writing recipes for the German Iceland magazine "Zauber des Nordens" ("Magic of the North") for several years, and in March 2023, the special edition of "Zauber des Nordens" was published, focusing on "Icelandic Cuisine".

Why Iceland?

We're often asked why we came to Iceland of all places. Around 1990, Markus saw a slide show from someone who traveled across Iceland by bike.

Even back then, the landscape absolutely fascinated him.

And just 14 years later, we traveled to Iceland together for the first time. In the summer of 2004 , we cycled around the island for 8 days (luckily, I was spared the cycling crossing!).

(2004)

We were incredibly lucky with the weather on our first trip and had the best first impression we could have wished for. We had a wonderfully individually planned road trip and stayed in very different accommodations every night, from a rather functional hotel in the city to one of Iceland's oldest wooden houses dating back to 1884, where Marlene Dietrich stayed in the 1940s, to a country hotel and farm accommodation, often with stunning views of the Icelandic landscape. And we ate some truly delicious Icelandic food!

(2004)

We fell hopelessly in love with this island in 2004... After the 2008 crisis, a trip to Iceland became more affordable again, so we visited Iceland for the second time in the summer of 2009.

(2009)

We visited Iceland for the third time in the summer of 2010, then for the first time in the winter on New Year's Eve 2011. We never let it go. In the summer of 2012, we visited Iceland for the first time with our children, and in the summer of 2015, we visited with all four children.

(2012)

At first we went to Iceland once a year, then more and more often... and in 2020 we fulfilled our dream and bought our own house in Iceland .

(2020)

Since then, we've spent an average of around 14 weeks a year in Iceland, and even though life here is often quite exciting, we haven't regretted buying the house one bit!

"Við erum að læra islensku"

Originally, I wanted to learn "a bit" of Icelandic so I could translate the recipes. I can't recommend using Google Translate when coffin nails suddenly appear as ingredients in the automatically translated recipes, or it took me ages to figure out that you have to use dates, not dates.

At first, we tried to learn at least a little of the language on our own, but quickly reached our limits. For 6.5 years now, the two of us have been learning once a week in private lessons via Skype ( isländisch-lernen.de ), and even though there's still plenty of room for improvement, we're noticing progress. It's more than enough for small talk with the neighbors or for attending the owners' meeting for our summer house...

My great passion: Icelandic cuisine

On our first trip to Iceland in 2004, we were able to enjoy some truly excellent Icelandic cuisine, and at some point I came up with the idea of ​​surprising my husband in Germany with some Icelandic specialties and delicacies. However, I quickly realized that at the time, there was only one cookbook on Icelandic cuisine in German, and it had an online delivery time of over 3,000 days... So I started collecting, translating, and trying out Icelandic recipes myself online.

From this recipe collection, this food blog about Icelandic cuisine was created in 2014 , which has grown considerably over the last 10 years and now has over 1,500 articles and more than 900

Includes recipes .

Our books "Delicious Iceland" and "Delicious Iceland at Christmas" and the special edition of "Magic of the North" about Icelandic cuisine can be purchased in bookstores or ordered online , for example, via our website or from the publisher "Magic of the North".

My second hobby: Icelandic knitting

Over the past four years, I've discovered a second hobby: I enthusiastically knit "Icelandic sweaters" ( lopapeysa ). More or less classic models, but all made from Icelandic wool. Mostly from "medium-thick wool" ( léttlopi ), but now also from the thinner wool plötulopi , and I've even knitted with the thicker wool álafosslopi .

And sometimes I combine both hobbies and bake delicious Icelandic sweaters from gingerbread dough or knit self-designed Icelandic sweaters with meat soup motifs!

Is there anything else you'd like to know about us? Then ask!

[Translated from here.]

Fiskur með skyrþaki

Skyr-roofed fish

We recently had this fish dish here, fillets of cod or haddock in a bed of fried onions and with a "roof" made of a nice thick skyr-mayonnaise-curry mixture, the whole thing then baked in the oven.

By the way, this dish was really well received by my family, only child 4 preferred fish fingers.

Ingredients

800 g fish fillet (cod or haddock)

2 onions

3 Tbsp butter

200 ml pure Skyr

100 ml mayonnaise

2 tsp curry spice

salt and pepper

Preparation

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

Peel the onion, chop it finely and fry it in a pan with the butter until lightly browned.

Then put the onions in a fireproof dish.

Place the fish fillet on the onion.

In a bowl, mix the skyr with the mayonnaise and spices...

...and spread the mixture over the fish.

Bake in a preheated oven at 400 °F (200 °C) upper and lower heat for about 15 to 20 minutes (depending on the thickness of the fish fillets).

Then serve the baked fish with potatoes and fresh salad.

Bon appetit!

[Translated from here.]

Mokkakaka með mokkakremi

Mocha cake with mocha cream

We had our 21st wedding anniversary last week.

To celebrate the day, I baked a small cream cake with iced coffee and cappuccino powder in the cream.

And with pecans, both in the dough and on the cake as decoration.

Ingredients

200 g melted butter

175 ml iced coffee

4 eggs

1/2 tsp salt

1 pinch of ground vanilla

350 g sugar

250 g flour

70 g coarsely chopped pecans

100 g coarsely chopped dark chocolate

500 ml whipping cream

3 Tbsp brown sugar

3 tsp cappuccino powder

Preparation

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

In a large bowl, beat eggs and sugar until fluffy.

Mix the melted butter, iced coffee, baking cocoa, salt and vanilla with the egg-sugar mixture.

Add the flour to the dough and stir in.

Crush the pecans...

...and mix the chopped nuts and chocolate with the remaining dough.

Pour the dough into two equal-sized springform pans (approx. 20 cm)...

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

Then let the bases cool thoroughly and carefully remove them from the mold.

Cut each base in half.

Now prepare the mocha cream:

Put the whipping cream, brown sugar and cappuccino powder in a suitable mixing vessel, mix briefly and then beat until the cream has become nice and stiff.

Place the first cake layer on a cake plate or similar, spread it with half of the cream and carefully place the second cake layer on top.

Continue until all four layers are layered on top of each other with the cream in between.

Spread the remaining cream on the top layer and decorate as desired, for example with grated chocolate.

Bon appetit!

[Translated from here.]

Sumarsúpa

Summer soup

Holiday - tomorrow is the first day of summer in Iceland, sumardagurinn fyrsti . This is based on the old Icelandic calendar, which only had two seasons: 6 months of winter and 6 months of summer. The first month of summer, the month of Harpa, traditionally begins on the first Thursday after April 18th. This year the first day of summer falls on April 25, 2024 .

Traditionally, Icelanders celebrate the start of summer with family gatherings and local festivals.

The first day of summer was declared a public holiday in Iceland by law of December 24, 1971.

In keeping with the beginning of summer, I brought you a recipe for a summer soup - with fresh leeks, frozen vegetables (any mixture of peas, carrots, cauliflower, etc.), roux and then poured with milk and nicely seasoned. Even my youngest liked it, although he doesn't really like peas...

Ingredients for 2 - 3 servings

2 stalks of leeks

2 Tbsp butter

2 Tbsp flour

500 ml water

1 - 2 tsp vegetable broth powder

600 g frozen vegetables

240 ml milk

salt and pepper

Paprika spice

2 - 3 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley

Preparation

Wash and clean the leek and cut it into thin strips.

Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat.

Fry the leek briefly in the butter, then add the flour over it and stir.

Pour in the water in portions, stirring constantly.

Add the vegetable broth powder and stir.

Put the frozen vegetables in the pot and let them cook with the lid closed for about 15 minutes.

Pour in the milk and stir, season with salt, pepper and paprika and add the fresh chopped parsley.

Stir thoroughly and let the soup simmer for another 2 to 3 minutes.

Then serve the summer soup with fresh bread.

[Translated from here.]

Rúgbrauðssúpa með malti og appelsíni

Icelandic rye bread soup with malt & appelsín

Icelandic rye bread soup is a typical, traditional dish here in Iceland that seems to be on the menu of every school canteen at least once a month - sweet main dishes are quite popular here. You can also serve the soup in small portions as a dessert - the dish is actually quite filling.

Classic recipes like this recipe here on the blog from 2016 use Icelandic rye bread (rúgbrauð), malt beer and grated lemon peel, and often a little lemon juice too. Here I modified it a bit and used Malt og Appelsín . According to the manufacturer's description, Egil's mixture of malt beer and Appelsín (= very sweet, very colorful orange lemonade) is the "Icelandic national drink since 1955". The mixture is usually available at Christmas as "jólaöl" (= non-alcoholic Christmas beer), but also at Easter as "páskaöl" - and ready in cans all year round as "Malt og Appelsín".

After being offered it by a friend, "Malt og Appelsín" was also the current favorite drink of two of my older children when they visited us in Iceland before Easter.

Outside of Iceland, I recommend replacing the Rúgbrauð with pumpernickels and Malt & Appelsín with 200 ml malt beer and 130 ml orange lemonade.

Ingredients for 2 servings

240 g Icelandic rye bread

330 ml Malt & Appelsín

1/2 tsp vinegar

3 - 4 Tbsp raisins

1 pinch of cinnamon

1 pinch of salt

approx. 100 - 200 ml cold water as needed

whipping cream

Preparation

Cut the rye bread into small pieces, crumble it...

.... put in a large pot...

... and soak in the Malt & Appelsín for about 2 to 3 hours.

Add a little vinegar and bring to the boil for about 10 to 15 minutes.

Stir the cooked mixture thoroughly and crush it if necessary. If necessary, add a little more cold water until the bread soup has the desired consistency.

Then add the raisins and season the soup with cinnamon and salt.

Whip the cream until stiff.

Then serve the warm soup with the whipped cold cream.

Bon appetit!

[Translated from here.]

Rúgbrauðsterta með jarðarberjum

Rye bread cake with strawberries

Sometimes it's not that easy to prepare a certain recipe in Iceland - I actually wanted to just bake a recipe for Rúgbrauðsterta that I've had on the blog since 2015 (and take new photos of it for the blog), but then I fail to buy the ingredients in the supermarket . That happens often here, so you just have to get creative.

The recipe actually called for 250 g of ground hazelnuts - they weren't available in the store. So I improvised and used 150 g ground almonds for consistency and 100 g chopped hazelnuts for flavor. In fact, the chopped nuts in the soft cake base were delicious and interesting to eat!

The cream was actually intended to contain equal parts ricotta cheese and whipping cream. I got whipping cream, but I didn't have ricotta in the supermarket. So I made do with cream cheese, but used more cream cheese than whipping cream so that the consistency was still right.

Blueberries were actually intended for the cake - I also had strawberry jam, so I just used that (also in the cream). It worked too!

This creates different versions of the same recipe every time... and it was extremely delicious!

(Outside of Iceland, I would use 250 g pumpernickel and 6 eggs and 380 g sugar for the recipe because Icelandic rúgbrauð is softer and sweeter than pumpernickel.)

Ingredients

250 g Rúgbrauð

150 g ground almonds

100 g chopped hazelnuts

5 large eggs

350 g sugar

2 tsp baking soda

300 g cream cheese

70 g powdered sugar

100 ml whipping cream

Strawberry jam

3 Tbsp grated dark chocolate

Preparation

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

Crumble the Rúgbrauð.

In a large bowl, mix with the ground almonds and chopped hazelnuts using a hand mixer.

Separate the eggs.

Add the egg yolks with the sugar to the bread-nut mixture in the bowl and mix thoroughly.

Beat the egg white until stiff and carefully fold it into the dough.

Then bake the dough in two portions in a springform pan lined with baking paper (approx. 24 cm) in the lower third of the preheated oven at 400 °F (200 °C) upper and lower heat for approx. 25 minutes each (stick test!).

Allow the two bases to cool slightly, carefully remove them from the mold and allow them to cool thoroughly.

For the cream, mix the cream cheese with the powdered sugar.

Whip the cream until stiff and carefully fold it into the cream.

Place the first layer on a cake plate or something similar, spread it with strawberry jam and then spread almost half of the cream on top.

Place the second layer on top, spread with the remaining cream and sprinkle with the grated chocolate.

Place the cake in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours and then serve.

Tip:

I first filled a cake piping full of the finished cream for decoration and set it aside, then I added some strawberry jam for the color and spread half of the pink cream on both bases.

I then piped small heaps of the white cream onto the edge of the cake for the look.

Bon appetit!

[Translated from here.]