Toblerone ísdrykkur

Toblerone ice cream drink

Even though this summer hasn't been that hot so far and we currently have temperatures below -4 °F (-20 °C) here in Iceland, an iced drink is always a good idea, don't you think?

Ingredients for 2 servings

400 ml vanilla ice cream

130 ml milk

50 g Toblerone

3 Tbsp strawberry ice cream sauce

3 Tbsp chocolate ice cream sauce

Preparation

Chop the Toblerone chocolate in a blender.

Mix the ice cream and milk together in portions.

Then add the two sauces and the chopped Toblerone and mix thoroughly.

Then pour the mixture into glasses, garnish with whipped cream and some chopped Toblerone, chocolate or a little coffee spice and serve immediately.

[Translated from here.]

Tryggvaskáli 2.0

Dinner in Selfoss

After we ate at Tryggvaskáli in Selfoss on a recommendation in the fall of 2017 and were really thrilled and impressed by the food at the time, I was saddened to discover last year in October 2020 that Tryggvaskáli was also affected by the overall situation - temporarily due to Covid 19 closed, it was said at the time.

The restaurant in Selfoss on the bridge over the Ölfusá has been open again since the end of May 2021, but with new owners and a slightly different concept.

So, before the children came here last week, we had another cozy meal together - in the "new" Tryggvaskáli.

Tryggvaskali 2.0

To be honest, we were a bit disappointed. The furnishings were essentially the same, but some things had changed; much of the previous decoration of old vases, jugs, plates, pots, books, figures, etc. had been removed and there were now quite a few artificial flowers around. (I can definitely understand that plastic flowers are practical, but still...)

There were no more appetizers (the fresh bread with the soft, salty garlic butter used to be so delicious!), and there was no longer a menu, but you had to choose what you wanted to eat separately from the menu (starters , toasts, main courses and desserts).

Fully occupied - advance order required

It was very good that we had reserved a table online beforehand - the restaurant was well attended (within the existing Corona regulations) and guests without a reservation had to be sent on again and again. However, we noticed that there were only other tourists sitting around us. The selection of dishes also seemed to me to be aimed more at tourists - for example, there was whale tataki, i.e. marinated, briefly fried whale, and horse meat or fries and (on request) chicken pieces for the less daring tourists.

Tuna tartare starter

As a starter we shared a tuna tartare with wafer-thin, fried dough. Really very tasty, the fresh, raw tuna, together with some coriander, had a slightly Asian touch and we definitely liked it very much. However, the cost of this starter was just under €19.

Horse fillet with potato salad

For the main course I had a small portion of horse fillet with crispy potato salad and mushroom sauce. The fillet tasted really good and had a wonderful consistency, and the side dishes were also good. (However, I had the feeling that the potato salad might have had a bit of coriander in it, which wasn't really necessary for me. It wasn't on the menu, but somehow the taste still came through.) For half the portion " hrossalund "we paid a good €24.

Salmon with pearl barley and pesto

For the main courses, my husband chose the salmon with barley, pesto, broccoli and chili nuts (for the equivalent of a good €26) - even though he doesn't actually like eating broccoli. But he liked it here - even if coriander had gotten into the food again, at least it tasted like it. Interesting in itself, but somehow it slowly became a little more than absolutely necessary for us...

Desserts

However, we were really impressed with the desserts!

I had Dísukaka , a dessert with banana ice cream, rye bread, sour apple pieces and some kind of chocolate or caramel cream with a few salt crystals in it. It was warm and cold, sweet and salty, melt-in-your-mouth and crunchy all at the same time. Really really tasty!

For my husband, this was his absolute highlight of the evening - Lakkrískaka . Liquorice cake with raspberry sorbet, a kind of licorice-chocolate sauce and fresh raspberries. Really a great taste experience and definitely recommended for liquorice fans!

We really enthusiastically scraped out all of our dessert bowls and were full and satisfied afterwards. Both desserts cost just under €13 each.

The cost for the evening for two is around €100

All in all we paid a good €100 for food and drinks. It cost significantly less than the 3-course menu that we had eaten in the "old" Tryggvaskáli in 2017 (which cost a good €140 at the time), but that last bit that had thrilled us so much the first time was also missing.

I also think the service lacked the last bit to completely convince us. So we always had to wait a relatively long time (e.g. around an hour from ordering to serving the main course), we only got the card to order the desserts after the second request, and the desserts were given to us with the brief statement "Icecream ", which initially caused some irritation for us, because we didn't order the bowl of ice cream ("Ísskál"), but rather the cake (okay, with ice cream on the side). But that could also be clarified.

All in all, I'm already mourning the "old" Tryggvaskáli, even if the desserts comforted me a bit.

[Translated from here.]

Þrista ostakaka

Cheesecake with licorice chocolate

Isn't this how you imagine a summer vacation? Sitting on the terrace in the sun, eating delicious cake and unwinding - that's perfect! (Okay, half the terrace is full of freshly washed laundry, you can't see that in the picture!)

And this no-bake cheesecake with licorice chocolate and a base made from ground oatmeal cookies is really really delicious, I could have fooled myself! Even though my husband complained while he was working on the oatmeal cookies with the rolling pin - normally the recipe would say how to bake cookies from flour, not how to make flour out of cookies... but he was thrilled with the result!

For the licorice chocolate I used Þristur , my personal favorite licorice chocolate here in Iceland. I always take at least one bag of this with me to Germany because it's difficult to get there - unfortunately!!!

Ingredients for the soil

150 g butter
300 oatmeal cookies
2 Tbsp sugar
3 Tbsp cocoa
1/2 tsp salt

Ingredients for the cheese cream

250 g of Þirstur

100 ml whipping cream

375 ml whipping cream

450 g cream cheese

150 g powdered sugar

1 pinch of ground vanilla

1 pinch of salt

Preparation

Melt the butter.

Crush the biscuits thoroughly (e.g. put them in a breakfast bag, close them tightly and grind them finely with a rolling pin).

Then mix the cookie “flour” with the sugar, cocoa and salt.

Add the melted butter and process everything until it is as uniform as possible.

Then put the biscuit mixture into a springform pan (approx. 24 cm) lined with baking paper, carefully press it onto the bottom and let it solidify in the refrigerator.

Meanwhile, prepare the cheese mixture:

First, slowly warm the 100 ml of cream in a small saucepan over medium heat.

Cut the licorice chocolate into small pieces...

...and let it melt in the cream while stirring constantly.

When everything has melted nicely, remove the pot from the heat and let it cool down a little.

Beat the 375 ml of cream until stiff.

Mix the cream cheese with the powdered sugar, ground vanilla and salt.

Also add the licorice-cream mixture and stir in.

Finally, add the whipped cream in portions.

Then pour the cheese mixture onto the base and carefully smooth it out a little.

Serve the cake with fresh berries, chocolate sauce, chocolate sprinkles or similar, if desired. I chose licorice sprinkles here!

Then let the cake set in the fridge overnight so that you can cut it without it losing its shape (3 to 4 hours are NOT enough for this!), and then serve well chilled.

[Translated from here.]

Ostakökur

Cheese cookies

When I recently posted the recipe for lamb with blue cheese sauce, a follower who lives in the Westfjords recommended that I try Ljótur instead of the normal Gráðostur (blue cheese). "Ljótur að utan, ljúfur að innan" - "ugly on the outside, lovely on the inside" is the motto of this blue cheese, which has been produced for several years by the Icelandic dairy MS in Búðardalur in western Iceland.

So the next time we went shopping we took a look at Ljótur - and definitely found it very tasty. The cheese is less crumbly than the normal Gráðostur and looks impressively ugly from the outside, but tastes wonderful to us! Some of the cheese went straight into this recipe for spicy cheese biscuits. We had visitors in the evening and I wanted to put at least one tasty little something on the table.

(Of course, the recipe also works with other types of blue cheese!)

Ingredients for approx. 25 cookies

125 g blue yeast cheese
1 Tbsp dried cumin
50 g soft butter
90 g flour
1 pinch of salt

1 tsp dried thyme

Preparation

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

Roast the cumin in a pan.

Cut the blue cheese into small pieces.

Then knead the cheese with the toasted, still warm cumin, the soft butter, the flour and the salt into a smooth dough. (Be careful with the salt - depending on the type of cheese, the cheese is almost spicy enough on its own.)

Roll out the dough, use a knife, a dough wheel or something similar to cut the dough into squares or diamonds...

...and place on a baking tray lined with baking paper.

Sprinkle the cookies with a little dried thyme...

...and bake in a preheated oven at 350 °F (180 °C) upper and lower heat for about 12 minutes.

[Translated from here.]

Eplabrauð

Apple bread

My husband is currently working from home in our Iceland house, and somehow I find it comfortable if I bake a sweet bread at least once a week and then we eat it during his lunch break, preferably nicely buttered if the bread is already from yesterday or the day before yesterday.

Recently we had the fluffy spice cake , this week it was this apple bread, which is a bit reminiscent of a yeast plait.

Ingredients

450 g flour
2 Tbsp oat flakes

1 pack of dry yeast

1 tsp salt

250 ml apple juice

2 Tbsp oil

1/2 apple

1 Tbsp oat flakes for sprinkling

Preparation

In a large bowl, add the flour, oat flakes, honey, yeast, salt and apple juice and knead everything into a smooth dough.

Add the oil and knead.

Finally, wash and peel the apple and then cut half the apple into small pieces.

Carefully fold the apple pieces into the dough.

Then cover the dough and let it rise for about a quarter of an hour.

Then place it in a well-greased loaf pan or one lined with baking paper and cover it again in a warm place and let it rise for about 3/4 hour until the dough has risen nicely.

Then sprinkle the apple bread with the remaining oat flakes, press it down carefully and let it rise for another 10 minutes.

In the meantime, preheat the oven to 400 °F (200 °C) upper/lower heat.

Then bake the apple bread in a preheated oven at 400 °F (200 °C) upper and lower heat for about 25 minutes (test with a toothpick!).

Then let the finished apple bread cool down a little, carefully remove it from the mold and serve sliced.

[Translated from here.]