Icelandic cooking, recipes and food

Since the holiday season in upon us I decided to gather together all the Christmas recipes I have published on this blog. I chose to do it this way rather than repost them because the comments get lost when reposting. I plan to make this an annual post, with new recipes added as they come along, so if you have comments, please comment on the recipes themselves, unless you don't mind if your comments go missing every time I repost this list. So here they are, starting with the Christmas dinner dishes: Starters or desserts: Rice pudding Ris a la mande Vanilla ice cream Main dishes: Hangikjöt (smoked lamb) Pork rib roast Roast lamb Rock ptarmigan Side dishes and accompaniments: Leaf bread Christmas cocktail Pickled red cabbage Caramel potatoes Cakes and cookies: Gingerbread sandwich cookies   Sarah Bernhardt cookies Jewish cookies Half-moons Coconut wreaths Siggi's cookies Syrup cookies Air cookies Spice cake with buttercream Christmas cake

Mömmukökur (Mother's Cookies) My mother only makes these gingerbread cookies before Christmas, but they are excellent at any time of the year. When I was little, I thought it was my mother's own recipe. Different people have different ways of making mömmukökur . My mom makes them quite thin and bakes them until they are a rich ginger colour and crisp to bite into. Others make thicker, light ginger-coloured cookies that soften quickly once the icing is on. My mom allows them to stand until completely cooled and then puts them in tins for storage. This is to ensure that they will stay crisp. Then, just before Christmas - usually on Þorláksmessa (December 23rd) - the five of us (my parents, my brother and his partner, and I) get together and stick the cookies together two by two with vanilla butter icing, to make sandwiches. Recipe: 125 g butter/margarine 250 g golden syrup 125 g sugar 1 egg 500 g flour 2 tsp baking soda 1 tsp powdered ginger 1 portion butter icing Melt together...

L ike a number of other great artists, most famously the ballerina Pavlova and opera singer Nellie Melba, actress Sarah Bernhardt had some sweet desserts named after her. There is a Sarah Bernhardt cake, and then there are these delicious confections called Sarah Bernhardt cookies, invented by a Danish pastry chef who wanted to honour the actress. These cookies, which we usually just call "Sarahs", are a great favourite of mine, and I try to make some every year for Christmas. Note: I have updated the recipe. The original has one thing wrong with it, which is that the buttercream icing has a tendency to separate when made like the recipe tells you to. I found more precise instructions on how to make this kind of icing in my trusty cooking encyclopedia, and have added them into the original recipe (in closed brackets) for those interested. The downside to the new version is that it does not yield enough icing for all the macaroons (at least if you like to use as much as I do)...

The Icelandic term for gingersnaps and gingerbread cookies literally means “pepper cookies”. These unusual gingerbread refrigerator cookies not only contain pepper, but also paprika. My mother modified the recipe from one she found in an old recipe booklet. 500 g flour 500 g brown sugar 250 g butter 2 eggs 5 tsp baking powder 1 tsp baking soda 2 tsp ginger 1 tsp cinnamon 1/2 tsp powdered cloves 1/2 tsp ground pepper 1/4 tsp paprika Mix together the dry ingredients. Add soft butter and eggs and knead until smooth. Cool in the refrigerator overnight. Roll out into sausage shapes of even thickness, pinch or cut off small portions and make little balls out of the dough. Put on a cookie sheet covered with baking paper and press your palm on top of each ball to flatten slightly. Bake at 200°C until browned. Update: I made a batch on Saturday. These are very good gingersnaps. Instead of making balls and flattening them with my hand on the cookie sheet, I cut the dough rolls into thin slic...

An anonymous commenter requested a recipe for Cinnamon 'snails', so here it is. This first recipe is the way my grandmother makes them. The second recipe is included for those who can not get their hands on hartshorn (baker's ammonia). This is originally a recipe for Jewish Cookies, which are a Christmas staple in many Icelandic homes. I have included instructions for both cookies and 'snails'. According to Nanna Rögnvaldardóttir, author of the Icelandic food encyclopedia Matarást ,  Jewish cookies got the name because they were originally made and sold by Jews, who presumably had a different name for them. It's a bit ironic that they should have become associated with Christmas in Iceland. Cinnamon 'snails'/Jewish Cookies 175 g flour 100 g butter or margarine 1/2 tsp hartshorn powder (baker's ammonia) – see Note 60 g sugar 1 egg 1 tbs sugar For cookies: 10 almonds For 'snails': Sugar and cinnamon, mixed together, approx 4 ...

This lovely pudding is frequently served for lunch at my parents' house on Saturdays, and we all love it. This is a cheap, nourishing, tasty meal, which I make much too seldom in my own home. At Christmas, we have a small serving of rice pudding before the main meal of hangikjöt. According to tradition, my mother hides a peeled almond in the pudding and we each choose one bowl. The person who finds the almond gets a small gift, typically some chocolate.    1/2 litre water 200 gr. rice (do not use quick-cook or instant) 1 1/2 litre whole milk 1 tsp salt Cook the rice in the water until it's almost completely absorbed. Add the milk and lower the heat to simmer. Continue cooking until the rice is tender (the whole process takes about an hour). Add salt and serve with cinnamon sugar. - cook a handful of raisins with the rice for a few minutes before serving, for an authentic, old-fashioned "rúsínugrautur" (raisin pudding). - The pudding is usually eaten wi...

My paternal grandmother always makes these for Christmas. 500 g flour 250 g sugar 200 g margarine ½ tsp hartshorn powder 1 tsp baking powder 1 egg 100 ml (2/5 cup) milk Cardamom essence to taste Rhubarb or other jam Mix together sugar, baking powder, hartshorn powder and flour. Add soft butter and mix until crumbly. Add egg, milk and cardamom essesnce and knead until smooth. Store in a refrigerator until cold through (overnight is usual). Flatten with a rolling pin and cut out cookies with a glass or circular cookie cutter. Put about a teaspoonful of jam in the center of each cookie, fold cookies in half and press edges together with a fork. Arrange on a lightly floured baking sheet and bake at 200°C for 7-10 minutes, or until golden.

I don't particularly care for these, as I don't like raisins in food and the currants remind me of them, but my grandmother loves them. 375 g butter, softened 375 g sugar 7 eggs, yolks and whites separated a few drops of lemon essence 500 g flour For decoration: Currants, chopped blanched almonds, extra sugar (no amounts are given in the original recipe) Cream sugar and butter, then add the egg yolks one by one, mixing well in between. Gradually add the flour, then the lemon essence. Whip the whites separately until stiff and fold into the dough. Put the doughonto a baking sheet and spread evenly over the sheet, using a spatula. Sprinkle a mixture of currants, almonds and sugar on top. Bake at about 180°C until golden and cut into squares while still warm.

My mother used to make these every Christmas when I was little. They have a buttery, coconutty taste and are great with tea or cold milk. 200 g flour 200 g dessicated coconut 150 g sugar 200 g butter, softened 1 egg Mix flour, coconut and sugar. Fold in the egg and butter and knead. Run through a cookie press, taking lengths of about 8 cm. and forming them into circles. Put on a baking sheet and bake at about 180°C for about 8 minutes, or until they are a light golden colour.

I don’t know who Siggi is or was, but the recipe is for dry chocolate chip cookies that can be stored for several months. It is one of three types cookies my mother always makes for Christmas. They are excellent dipped in coffee. 1/2 cup margarine or butter (softened at room temperature for no more than 40 minutes, or the cookies will spread too much) 6 tbs sugar 6 tbs brown sugar 1 egg 1 1/4 cup flour 1/2 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp salt 1/2 cup chopped nuts. My mother uses hazelnuts, but I bet it would also be good to use cashews, peanuts or macadamias. 1/2 cup (100 g) chopped chocolate or chocolate chips (dark, semi-sweet is best) 1/2 tsp vanilla essence Dash of lukewarm water, if needed Cream the butter and sugars together until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and mix well. Mix together flour, baking soda and salt and add gradually to the batter. Fold in nuts and chocolate, adding a little water if the dough gets too thick to stir easily. Drop teaspoonfuls of dough on a bakin...

The original name is probably riz à l’amande (French for almond rice ), but the Danish call it ris a la mande . Whether it is originally French or the name simply got Frenchified, I don’t know, but I do know this is a delicious pudding if correctly made. In some Icelandic households it is served instead of rice pudding (see previous recipe) at Christmas. The first time I tasted ris a la mande , I didn't like it at all. This is perhaps because it was lumpy and the cook had left out the vanilla. I have since made peace with it, and like it just as much as the traditional Icelandic rice pudding. 50 g rice (not quick-cook or instant) 600 ml milk 1/2 vanilla bean 30 g sugar 15 almonds, blanched and slivered or chopped 370 ml heavy cream, whipped 6-7 (12-14 grams) sheets gelatine Bring the milk to the boil in a large saucepan. Add the rice and vanilla bean and cook up a rice pudding (see previous recipe for method). When the pudding is done, remove the vanilla bean. Add the sugar...

These are popular spiced cookies you often see around Christmas in Icelandic homes. 200 g golden syrup (may be replaced with runny honey or corn syrup, but will be less flavourful if corn syrup is used) 250 g brown sugar 200 g unsalted butter 500 g flour 1 1/2 tsp baking soda 2 1/2 tsp ground cloves 2 1/2 tsp cinnamon 1 egg Mix together flour, spices and baking soda. Add soft butter and mix until crumbly. Add syrup, egg and brown sugar and knead until smooth. Store in a refrigerator for 2-3 days. (BTW, this is not my recipe – I can not imagine that it needs to be stored for this long before baking. Overnight should be plenty of time). Flatten dough until about 2-3 millimetres thick and use cookie cutters to cut into shapes. Put on a lightly floured baking sheet and bake at 175°C on the centre rung of the oven until the edges of the cookies turn dark. Cool and decorate with icing.

I finally got round to making those coconut balls, and here are the results. I only made half a recipe, which was enough for seven balls, about the size of golf balls. + (I have also added a second photo to the original recipe). I was contacted by Freyja (if you know Icelandic you can read her comments), who tried the recipe and wrote back to say that the cookies tasted a bit too much of raw oatmeal. She also suggests using icing sugar instead of regular sugar, which I agree with, since there isn't really enough moisture in the dough to dissolve the sugar grains. The balls came out looking just like bakery made ones, but neither the taste nor the texture was enough like the coconut balls you can buy from bakeries. Bakery coconut balls are chewier and the texture is similar to thick cookie dough. These are harder, the sugar has not melted properly (as Freyja commented) and the oatmeal taste is too raw. Rum or sherry drops could help with the raw taste, as could reducing the oatmeal ...

One of the things I got frequent requests for back before I closed my public e-mail account because of spam overload was Kókoskúlur or Coconut Balls. These are candies or no-bake cookies sold in most Icelandic bakeries. I was unable to find a recipe and no bakers were willing to part with one, so I had to give up. Now I have finally found a recipe. I don’t know if it is the right one, as I haven’t tested it, but I plan to make it on the weekend and do a taste comparison with a bakery-bought specimen. I can tell you right away that there is one ingredient missing that some (but not all) bakeries put in their coconut balls: rum essence. Here is what they look like: Ingredients 75 g (1/3 cup + 1 tsp) butter, soft 100 ml (2/5 cup) sugar 1 tbs vanilla sugar 300 ml (1 1/3 cups) oatmeal, the quick-cooking kind. Do not use instant as these have added salt. 175 g (6.3 oz) chocolate 2 tbs milk, at room temperature 100 ml (2/5 cup) desiccated coconut (small flakes) Melt the chocolate in a bowl ov...

This side dish is good with many kinds of roasted and broiled meats. For many it is a necessity with the Christmas ham or steak. I don't particularly like vinegar pickled cabbage so I haven't tried this recipe myself, but I'm told it is good. 2-3 tbs butter 1 kg red cabbage, shredded 1/2 cup white vinegar OR red wine vinegar 1/2 cup sugar 2-3 tsp salt Melt the butter at medium temperature. Add finely shredded red cabbage and stir to coat with the hot butter. When the buttered cabbage begins to sizzle, add vinegar, sugar and salt. Simmer until the cabbage is limp and boiled through (about 45 mins. to 1 hour). Serve with ham, pork roast, roast lamb, duck, goose or turkey. Some people will eat this with hot dogs as well.

The Christmas meal that is traditionally served in my family. I have received a question about traditional Icelandic Christmas dishes and as it’s a subject I’m sure many are curious about I decided to make a blog entry about it. Traditional Icelandic Christmas food is a somewhat complicated subject, as there are several traditional Christmas dishes and there is no one Christmas dish that is served in every home. Even the leaf bread, which is uniquely Icelandic and as traditional as it gets, is not served in every home. The most common main dishes served for Christmas in Icelandic homes are hangikjöt (smoked and salted lamb or mutton), ptarmigan (see recipe), lamb roast (see recipe for Sunday roast), roast goose, Hamborgarhryggur (smoked pork center rib roast), and American style turkey (relatively new, but has become a tradition in many families). As a starter or dessert, many serve either rice pudding (recipe will be posted soon) or ris a la mande (will also be posted soon) whi...

You may ask why I am publishing a recipe for Danish food when this is an Icelandic recipe blog? Well, this is something that has become an inseparable part of Christmas in my family, ever since I returned from a six month stay in Denmark and offered to cook rib-roast on Boxing Day. I have done it every year since then, and I know other Icelandic families serve rib-roast for Christmas, New Year’s or Easter. This is my variation of the recipe: Recipe (serves 4) 1 kg pork rib-roast, with skin and fat and with or without bones. I don’t know if this cut is available in the USA, but from having looked at American posters of pork cuts I don’t think so. This is what it looks like: Salt Pepper 2 bay leaves Whole cloves Water Take the roast and make cuts into the skin and fat almost down to the meat, with about a finger width between the cuts. Make either strips or diamond-shaped pieces (see images below). Do not cut into meat. Heat the oven to 250°C. Boil some water, put the roast into an ove...

Another cookie recipe my mother always makes for Christmas. These delicious candy cookies are light as air and melt on the tongue. The rising agent, baker's ammonia, unfortunately makes a big stink while the cookies are baking. I've seen these cookies for sale in Denmark, where they are called Rutebiler (Buses). 1 kg icing sugar 3 tsp bakers' ammonia 3 tbs cocoa 3 eggs, beaten Mix the dry ingredients and beaten eggs and knead well. Run the dough through a cookie press. Use this attachment: Each cake should be about 5 cm (2 inches) long. Bake in the center of the oven for 8-10 minutes at 175°C. These cookies are light and airy, with a hollow center. The unbaked cookies don't need to be big - they will expand in size 3-4 times during the baking.

This mix is, as far as I know, purely an Icelandic invention. In the first half of this century not many people could afford to buy ale and fizzy drinks, and they were therefore something to be enjoyed at festive occasions, such as Christmas and birthdays. Mixing the drinks together was probably believed to make it even more enjoyable to drink. The taste is sweet, malty and mellow. This is a comforting drink that always makes me think of Christmas. Take equal measures of an orange flavoured fizzy drink (Fanta will do) and brown ale (Guinness is supposed to be good) and mix together. Be careful to pour the orange drink first, and pour the ale carefully to avoid it getting too frothy. Drink with the Christmas meal. To get an authentic flavour, the orange drink should be the Icelandic Egils Appelsín , and the brown ale Egils Malt . Some people (like my family) like to add some cola, usually Coke.

Fried leaf breads. The top two have patterns made with a leaf-bread cutter, the third is hand cut: My father's extended family usually gather together at the beginning of December to make Laufabrauð , spending a whole day kneading, cutting and frying, before sharing a festive meal. There are usually 12-15 of us working together, turning out a couple of hudred of these flat, decorated breads in one day. The bread gets divided evenly between the families, who take it home and store until Christmas. This year’s gathering is tomorrow, so here is a recipe and I will try to remember to take photos to post. These deep-fried, thin wheat breads are traditionally cut with intricate decorative patterns, and are mostly eaten at Christmas. The tradition of making Laufabrauð has its roots in the northern part of Iceland, but has spread all over the country. Many bakeries now sell ready-made Laufabrauð, or pre-kneaded and cut dough that only needs decorating and frying, but nothing beats making ...