Leaf Bread for Christmas

- Icelandic Christmas flatbread

Laufabrauð, the traditional Icelandic Christmas flatbread, has sometimes been called “snowflake bread” in English because of the intricate cut-through patterns. It is first mentioned in writing in the early eighteenth century and more than 100 years ago, it had become the one and only Christmas bread of Northern Iceland. Now it is made all over the island, especially by people of northern descent.

There are many traditional leaf bread patterns, some quite elaborate, others simple. A special cutting wheel is available but not necessary, although it does make the cutting a lot easier. Children sometimes just cut a face into their bread.

Making laufabrauð is definitely not a job for one person, it is a family undertaking, and for many it is an essential part of the Christmas preparations. Dozens of family members or friends will often take a whole December afternoon or evening to knead, roll out, decorate, and fry the bread, which is then kept until Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, when it is eaten with the smoked lamb.

These laufabrauð-making gatherings were in many families, including my own, probably the only time of year when the men took any part in cooking – they either rolled out the dough (which takes considerable effort) or cut out patterns with their pocket knives. Even the smallest children usually got a cake or two to decorate for themselves, using a cutting wheel or a dull knife.

Leaf Bread
Laufabrauð
Makes around 50

The following recipe has been used in my family for at least fifty years. It contains no salt and no one has ever complained but most recipes include a little salt. The dough should be stiff but still smooth and moist. It must not dry out and has to be kept wrapped at all times – each time a slice has been cut off, be sure to wrap the dough again. When rolling out the dough, use as little extra flour as possible. It is quite an effort to roll the dough as thinly as needed and a heavy marble rolling pin might be of help, although others will work too.

Many people want the cakes to be very flat and free of air bubbles, so they prick them with a fork before frying and press them flat with a plate for a second or two while still hot, but this is never done in my family and we are quite happy with our laufabrauð.

3½ cups flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
4 tablespoons butter or margarine
1 cup lukewarm milk
Shortening or Crisco for frying

Mix flour, sugar and baking powder and cut or crumble in the butter. Make a well in the middle, pour in the lukewarm milk and gradually draw in the dry ingredients. Knead the dough thoroughly, adding a little more flour or milk if needed.

When the dough is absolutely smooth, divide it into 2 rolls, around 2 inches in diameter, and wrap each roll in plastic film but do not refrigerate. Cut a thin slice off one roll and roll it out in a circle as thinly as possible on a very lightly floured work surface. It is often said that you should be able to read a newspaper through the dough - at least the headlines. Cut out a circle, 7 to 8 inches in diameter, and hand it over to someone for decorating.

Continue until all the dough has been used up and all the bread has been decorated. Any piece that is not decorated at once must be kept covered with parchment paper, plastic wrap or a kitchen towel, so it doesn’t dry out. Decorated bread must also be kept covered until it can be fried.

Melt the fat in a suitable heavy pan – an electric deep fryer will not work here. The fat should be at least 2 inches deep and it should be hot, 390 to 400°F. Carefully lower a bread into the fat, decorated side first. Fry until pale golden. It really takes only a few seconds, and note that the bread will darken slightly when it cools.

Lift the bread up from the fat, using 2 forks, let the fat drip off for a second or two, and place the bread on absorbent paper to cool. Stack them up when they have cooled, wrap them in plastic, and keep cool. They will keep for weeks, or even months.

At serving time, a stack of leaf bread is placed on the table, along with butter. It is a matter of opinion if the butter should be cold or soft – some prefer to spread their bread with butter, others want to cut off small pieces of cold butter and eat it with the bread rather than spread it – and some do not want any butter at all.

The scraps or cut-offs should not be kneaded back into the dough and reused. Instead, they are kept separate until all the bread has been fried. Then they are fried in the hot fat and eaten warm as a snack.

Nanna Rögnvaldardóttir