Bun day is celebrated in Iceland Monday before Bursting Day, when Icelanders, old and young, dedicate the day to the consumption of delicious cream filled buns. The tradition comes from Scandinavia, where the bun was traditionally a kind of a cream-filled chocolate eclair, a little like profiteroles. It is a particularly fun time for young children who have an unofficial licence to wake their parents up early to start feasting. The tradition is that children wake their parents by spanking them with a specially made bun day wand. As a prize for waking them up they would get a bun, one for each spank! These buns are really delicious filled with wipped cream and fresh fruit of your choice.

Pre-heat the oven to 180°C.In a large saucepan over medium-high heat, stir together water and margarine/butter until melted. Add flour and baking powder and beat quickly until mixture thickens and pulls away from the side of the pan. Remove pan from heat.
Vigourusly whisk in one egg at a time until the batter has the consistency of a thick pudding. Drop heaped tablespoons of the batter on a parchment lined or lightly greased baking sheet. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes, until golden brown. Do not open the oven door during the cooking period because your buns will fall – and no one likes fallen buns.

While the buns are in the oven, gently melt the chocolate.
Transfer buns to racks to cool and dip the top of them in melted chocolate. Whip the cream until stiff peaks form. Once the buns have cooled slice each one in half and spread the lower half with jam. Top with a dollop of whipped cream and fruit before replacing the top half.

This blog is written from the book “Recipes from the realm of Vatnajökull.” Author: Halldór Halldórsson