Boiled bread, often eaten with hangikjöt, is most common in North Iceland, even if it has spread a bit in recent years.
It is simple to make, and in a recipe book from 1891, it says it is made the same way as laufabrauð, but instead of cutting it, it is pricked with a fork, and water is used instead of milk. Then if people want the bread a bit thicker, they can make the dough a bit more watery.
Since it is made like laufabrauð, it is fried, not boiled. Why the bread is called “boiled” bread and not fried or deep-fried is anyone’s guess.
However, today most people use milk instead of water.
Ingredients of boiled bread
- 6 cups wheat
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp sal volatile
- just under ½ cup of sugar
- 1 tbsp margarine
- ½ liter whole milk
- caraway if you want
Directions:
- Heat the milk to a boil and melt the margarine in it. Let it cool a little; the dough will become tough if the milk and margarine are added to the dry ingredients while they’re still boiling. Mix the dry ingredients together and moisten with the milk and knead well.
- Flatten the dough into a cake about 1/2 cm thick, cut it into squares, and prick them with a fork.
- Fried in fat like kleinur. Turn during the roasting time.
Et voilà! You have yourself some delicious Icelandic boiled bread. If you are traveling in Iceland, you might find it in smaller stores outside Reykjavik. But if you are lucky, you might even find it in the supermarket Bónus!
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