Kleinur are Iceland's everyday fried pastry — small twists of cardamom-scented dough, deep-fried until golden and crackly, eaten with coffee or as a snack. Twisted into a characteristic knot shape (the name comes from 'small knot'), they are the bakery staple of every Icelandic village, found at every kaffitími.
Kleinur (literally 'small knots', singular kleinur) are the everyday fried pastry of Iceland, related to the Danish klejner and the Norwegian fattigmann. They came to Iceland with Danish baking tradition but became distinctly Icelandic in their ubiquity and their place in the kaffitími (afternoon coffee) ritual. Every bakery in Iceland sells kleinur, every grandmother makes them for the family, and they are eaten at every coffee break. The dough is lightly cardamom-scented (a Scandinavian spice inheritance); the knot shape is made by cutting a diamond, slashing the center, and pulling one end through. They keep for weeks in a tin.
A small, golden, twisted knot of fried dough, crackly on the outside, soft and slightly cardamom-scented inside. Bite in: it shatters, then yields to a tender, lightly sweet crumb. Not too sweet, not too rich — the perfect thing with a cup of afternoon coffee. Eat three without noticing.
The dough is a simple yeasted (or baking-powder-leavened) wheat dough, enriched with a little butter, milk, and egg, and scented with cardamom. It is rolled thin, cut into diamonds, each diamond slashed in the center, and one end pulled through the slash to form the knot. The frying (180°C, 2-3 minutes) must be hot enough to set the outside instantly but slow enough to cook the inside — too hot and they burn outside while raw inside.
Variations
Some add lemon zest; some use yeast instead of baking powder; the size varies; some sprinkle with coarse sugar.
On the Palate
Where Kleinur sits in the Icelandic flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 20
How it's made
8 steps · 50 min active + 40 min waiting
- 15 min
Warm 250 ml milk; melt 50 g butter into it; cool to lukewarm.
- 23 min
Mix 500 g flour, 50 g sugar, 1 tsp cardamom, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt.
- 38 min
Add the milk-butter, 1 egg, and 1 tsp vanilla; knead to a smooth dough; rest 20 minutes.
- 420 min
Roll the dough to 5 mm thick; cut into 6x10-cm diamonds.
- 58 min
Slash a 3-cm cut lengthwise through the center of each diamond.
- 65 min
Pull one pointed end through the slash to form a knot.
- 715 min
Heat oil to 180°C; fry the kleinur in batches 2-3 minutes until deep gold.
Watch outHold the oil steady around one-eighty — hot enough to set the outside fast but not so fierce it browns before the inside cooks; too hot and they're dark outside, raw within.
- 85 min
Drain on paper; cool; store in an airtight tin.
