Cream Puffs or Bollur - Recipe

Since Bolludagur is in 2 weeks, February 11th this year, I thought this would be the perfect recipe to share today. Bolludagur is an Icelandic holiday, which I posted about here. This recipe makes a choux pastry, pâte à choux, and is translated from metric measurements, I hope it works out for you. This site has pretty good pictures of the process and what it looks like at each stage. This pastry gets it's height from the steam created by the moisture of the batter, if you open the door you will lose that steam and your puffs will fall. This pastry would be the perfect example of why ovens have a light inside and a window in the door.

Cream Puffs

INGREDIENTS

Pastry:
1 1/3 cup water
1 stick butter
1 1/4 cup flour
3 eggs

Filling:
1 cup whipping cream
2 Tbsp powdered sugar

Chocolate Icing:
1/2 cup Semisweet Chocolate, chopped
3 Tbsp cream

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 400 degrees
Heat water and butter in small pot until it just comes to a boil
Add flour to the pot all at once and stir until incorporated, continue stirring for 1 minute or until film starts to form on the bottom of the pot (about 1-2 minutes)
Add eggs 1 at a time and combine completely before adding next egg.
This will form a very soft dough that you drop by tablespoonful onto a parchment sheet lined cookie sheet
Cook for 23-26 minutes at 400 degrees until very light golden brown
Do not open the oven to check the puffs or they will fall, use the window to get an idea of color.
After the pastry comes out of the oven let them cool completely before assembling.

Prepare filling by whipping cream until soft peaks form, sift in powdered sugar and whip additional 5 seconds

Place chocolate in microwave for 15 seconds
Add cream, microwave for additional 15 seconds
Mix well, microwave in additional 15 second intervals, if needed until you can stir it until smooth.

To assemble:
Slice open
Top with dollop of whip cream
Dip top in chocolate and nestle on top of whip cream

Pönnukökur - Recipe

Every family has their recipes that only come out certain times of the year, whether it be THE Christmas cookie, or Auntie's eggnog recipe or Grandma's pecan pie. In my house, it was generally a lot of Icelandic recipes, including this one for my Amma's Pönnukökur. They were only made on special occasions, I'm guessing mainly because the pancakes, like waffles, are made one at a time. The recipe makes a lot of them so it's a somewhat long ordeal, but well worth it. For some reason, I decided to make these for breakfast on Saturday and thought I'd share the recipe.  You'll want to make these on a crepe pan or a griddle, something where it can cook flat to be flipped. Icelanders actually have a special pan well seasoned just for making these pancakes, and just about every household has one. I'll say it's not necessary to try them out, but if you love them and intend to make them often the pan is worth it.

Pönnukökur

Ingredients

250 g flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
25-50 g margarine or butter (1 stick)
6-7 dl milk
2 eggs

Directions

Add dry ingredients to a large bowl, whisk to mix
Melt margarine or butter on pan if using crepe or Pönnukokur pan (else melt in microwave)
Pour melted butter into dry ingredients and whisk with some milk until a smooth paste forms.
Add remaining milk to make a thin batter
Beat in eggs
Pour into pan preheated over medium high heat using 1/4-1/3 cup
Rotate pan until fully covered
After edges are cooked through to the top, use a spatula to loosen the pancake and flip it
Let cook just a bit and flip it over onto a plate
Repeat with the remaining batter

To serve:
Sprinkle with sugar and roll up
-or-
Spread with a thin layer of jam and a dollop of whip cream in the middle, then fold in half and in half again to form a wedge shape

Skyr - Recipe

I talked a bit about my love affair with skyr yesterday, and promised after it was whipped up and sampled that I'd share the recipe. You do need skyr to make skyr, so if you are lucky enough to be in Iceland grab yourself a container of plain skyr.  Otherwise go to Siggi's Skyr and see if you can find a location near you that sells it. The nice thing is that you once you make skyr you can continue making the next batch with the skyr you've made and so on.  As long as you make it every three weeks or so you don't need to buy skyr again.

This is what I did after reading as many online recipes for skyr as I could find.  It worked beautifully!

Skyr

Ingredients

1 gallon skim milk
2/3 cup skyr

7-8 drops animal rennet
-or-
4 drops vegetable rennet
-or-
1/4 rennet tablet
1/4 c warm water

Sterilized Cooking Utensils needed

These need to be sterilized (dunked in boiling water) or taken clean direct from the dishwasher.

large pot with lid (big enough to hold a gallon of liquid)
whisk
4 cup canning jar - or equivalent storage
2/3 measuring cup
2 cup or larger bowl
8 cup or larger bowl (I used another big pot)
strainer spoon or slotted spoon
mixing bowl
mixer beaters
rubber spatula
thermometer

If using a tablet:
small cup
1/4 measuring cup
small spoon

You also need cheesecloth or a cotton dishtowel and a big fluffy towel or two.

Directions

Pour the gallon of milk into a large pot and bring to 180F over medium heat whisking frequently to prevent scalding.  Turn the heat to low and bring to 185F, whisking constantly. Remove from heat immediately.  The last bit is to prevent scalding, however a little scalding is alright, just make sure you don't whisk the scalded bits up into the milk.  Place the pot into a cool water bath (sink full of cool water works well) until the temperature reaches 110F.  I changed out the water once during this cool down, I brought it down to 140F rather quickly, then let it come down the rest of the way slowly.  I didn't want to accidentally cool it too much.


Once the milk is cool, pour 2/3 cup skyr and approximately a cup of the cooled milk into a small bowl and whisk it together. Pour into the pot of cooled milk and whisk to distribute.

Add the rennet drops if using liquid.  Drop them into a spoon and then add to the milk mixture, too much rennet will make the skyr rubbery. If using a tablet, dissolve the tablet into 1/4 cup warm water then add that to the milk mixture. Whisk the pot to distribute.

Turn the oven on to 200 for 1 minute (just to take any chill off). Put the lid on the pot. Wrap the pot and lid completely in the towel and stick in the oven for 12 hours. If the pot doesn't fit in your oven, or you need your oven, you can also put it in a cooler and put a couple of containers of warm water in around it.

Forget about the skyr for 12 hours, don't peek at it or disturb it.

At this point I'm sharing lots of pictures, because it's more about look and texture, which is hard to describe but very easy to see.

Take your pot out from it's cozy towel and open the lid.  This is what it will look like (click for a larger views if needed), if you wiggle the pot slightly you'll see a slight layer of whey and the milk will be congealed.

Take a knife and score through the skyr, until it's cubed.

Line your 8+ cup bowl with a double layer of cheesecloth or the cotton dish towel.

Use your strainer spoon or slotted spoon to scoop the skyr curds into the dish towel, draining it as best you can with the spoon as you go.  You may need to pause and pour some whey out of the bowl you are transferring to a couple of times so it will all fit.

Once it's all in the dish cloth (cheesecloth) twist up the ends at the top and tie them up around a long utensil or stick to keep the cloth above the whey if possible.

Put this bowl in your refrigerator for 6-8 hours and let it drain as much whey as possible.  Reduce to about 1/4 of what you started with (gallon of milk).

Unwrap and it'll look like this now.  Sort of dry looking and the consistency of cream cheese.

Put it in a mixing bowl and beat it for 3 minutes or so on high, might need to start on low for a bit at first.

When you are done it'll look like this.  Mmmmmm skyr!

It can be used plain as a cheese spread (treat it similarly to cream cheese as a spread).  Or, you can add a bit of milk to it and stir it together until you achieve a consistency similar to sour cream or yogurt.  Stir in fruit or sweetener of your choice and enjoy.

This made a 4 cup jar of plain skyr (nothing added) which will last between 3-4 weeks.

Plus enough for a small bowl to split with my daughter for dessert tonight, this is just under 1/2 cup skyr, and just under 1/4 cup milk and sweetener or fruit to taste. I like my skyr on the thick side.

Skyr and Cookbooks

Growing up our visits to Iceland were much more frequent than they are now. The food, while simple, was comforting and after seeing family is what I most look forward to each visit back.

I've often asked my amma for various recipes and they are generally a vague list of ingredients with a lot of "until it looks right" type instructions, I've only successfully duplicated a few of them so far. So cookbooks were high on my priority list of things to acquire while in Iceland.

I did buy a handful of baking cookbooks from Hagkaup, with recipes for things I generally want to make at Christmas time. Baking is so fussy, so having the right amounts or ingredients will be nice. They have full color pictures for each recipe and several have step images as well, to help with what looks right. I also brought back with me a cookbook simply titled Matur og Drykkur (Food and Drink) by Helga Sigurðardóttir. My mother has a well-used copy, and the book I brought back is my amma's well-used copy She's going to find me a copy in Iceland and bring it for me in October, and I'll be borrowing hers in the meantime. This is sort of like the bible of traditional Icelandic cooking, more on that book to come in a later post.

Cake Book Cookbook and Desserts Cookbook

Bread and Cake Book Cookbook

Simple recipe showing steps and photography

A bit of a teaser, the first recipe I'll be sharing doesn't come from these books. It is something I've been wanting to be able to make for a long time, but couldn't.  Mainly, because it is not available locally, and you have to have some to make some. So I couldn't even make some from scratch, until now. I brought skyr back from Iceland, so I can make skyr. Now that I have some as long as I consistently make it every 3 weeks or so I'll have a steady supply. Skyr is a very thick nonfat yogurt, often described as a yogurt cheese.  It is a little looser than cream cheese, but thicker than greek yogurt, maybe a thick sour cream consistency.

As a small child sitting in my amma's kitchen, often still groggy and rubbing the sleep from my eyes, my breakfast was generally served to me. A bowl of skyr placed before me, lightly sweetened and just the right amount of milk mixed in to it (just until it looks right). We often sprinkled the top with just a bit of sugar and poured in milk around it. Heaven was a small mound of thick, creamy skyr swimming in a shallow pool of milk. I never ever stir it together; instead I was careful to have each bite contain the perfect ratio of skyr to milk.

Even better were the mornings that grautur was offered to replace the sugar, my favorite was strawberry. Like a pourable strawberry preserves, nothing could compare to skýr and jarðaberjagrautur (strawberry grautur). I still remember my afi reading the newspaper, my mother and amma drinking coffee and conversing in Icelandic, while us kids relished our morning skyr.

The whey is currently draining off my skyr, so I'll whip it up and take lovely pictures tonight.  It's a 2 day process to make, but most of it is unattended and the skyr makes itself automagically.  I'll share the recipe and whole process tomorrow.

A gallon of milk set up

Iceland

Warning... picture heavy post.  Most of this week will be photo heavy posts.

Travelling with a toddler takes almost as much time to recover as it does for the actual trip! Well, probably not typically, but getting back into our routine after a week in a time zone 5 hours different from ours has been a bit of a challenge. She's also getting back into the notion that no she will not get whatever she wants when she wants it. Unfortunately, in order to pacify her and keep her from meltdown (mainly because she was out of her routine) we gave in on a LOT of things while we were on our trip. Also, everyone we visited gave her something, so it was like Christmas and we came home with lots more than what we had when we left.