Ask an Icelander about cookies and the answer usually turns to December. Baking several kinds of smákökur before Christmas is a strong household tradition, and many families have favourites that return every year.
But the same cookies appear outside the holiday season too. They turn up with coffee, in lunch boxes and in tins taken to summer cabins and long days outdoors.
This guide looks at traditional Icelandic cookies as everyday baking: what the main types are, where they come from, and how to make them hold up when they leave the kitchen.
Why Icelandic cookies look so Danish
Many Icelandic cookie recipes share roots with Danish baking. Iceland was under Danish rule for centuries, and recipes, ingredients and baking habits travelled north along with trade and family ties.
That shows in the names. Some cookies carry Danish-sounding origins, and several have close cousins in Danish and Norwegian kitchens. Over time, Icelandic households adapted them to local taste and to what was available in the shops.
The result is a style built on butter, sugar, flour, spices and, often, almonds or coconut. It is simple baking, but it rewards care with temperature and timing.
Piparkökur: thin Icelandic ginger cookies
Icelandic ginger cookies, piparkökur, are thin, crisp and spiced with ginger, cinnamon and cloves. They are closely related to Scandinavian pepparkakor and are often cut into hearts, stars and other shapes.
The dough is usually made ahead and rested, which makes it easier to roll thinly. Thin rolling is what gives the snap; thick piparkökur bake soft and lose their character.
Many families decorate them with white icing. For cookies you plan to pack and carry, leave them plain or use a thin line of icing that sets hard.
A softer relative, mömmukökur, uses a similar spiced dough but is baked thicker and sandwiched with buttercream. They travel less well, so they are better eaten at home.
Gyðingakökur: the "Jewish cookies"
Gyðingakökur translates as "Jewish cookies". The recipe is a buttery shortcrust cookie with an almond and sugar topping, and it is usually linked to the Danish jødekager.
They are one of the easiest traditional Icelandic cookies to make well. A typical dough uses about 250 g flour, 175 g cold butter, 100 g sugar and one egg, with a little baking powder in some versions.
Roll the chilled dough thinly, cut rounds, brush them with beaten egg white and scatter chopped almonds mixed with sugar and cinnamon on top. Bake at around 200°C for 8 to 10 minutes, until the edges are golden.
Because they are dry and firm, gyðingakökur keep well in a tin for a couple of weeks.
Sarah Bernhardt cookies
Sarah Bernhardt cookies are the most elaborate on this list. Each one has a chewy almond macaroon base, a dome of chocolate cream and a coating of dark chocolate.
They are named after the French actress, and similar cakes are known in Denmark. In Iceland they are a popular Christmas treat and are often bought from bakeries as well as made at home.
They take time, since each layer needs to set before the next. Keep them chilled and eat them within a few days; they are not cookies for a backpack.
Hálfmánar and other filled cookies
Hálfmánar, or "half moons", are folded cookies filled with jam. Rhubarb jam and prune jam are traditional fillings, both reflecting what Icelandic households could make or buy.
The dough often includes a little cardamom, which gives the cookies a warm, slightly floral taste. Seal the edges well with a fork so the filling does not leak in the oven.
Vanilluhringir, piped vanilla butter rings, and kókostoppar, small coconut macaroons, often join them in the Christmas tin. You will find more of these in our guide to Icelandic Christmas cookies.
Icelandic biscuits for every day
Not every Icelandic biscuit is festive. Plain tea biscuits and crackers are part of everyday eating, and older recipes for simple spiced or oat biscuits show up in many family notebooks.
Children grow up with no-bake treats as well. Kókoskúlur, oat and cocoa balls rolled in coconut, are among the first things many Icelanders learn to make.
These everyday versions are often the most practical to carry: sturdy, not too sweet and not easily crushed.
Ingredients worth knowing
Older Icelandic recipes often call for hjartarsalt, baker's ammonia. It gives very light, crisp cookies, but it smells strongly while baking. The smell disappears once the cookies cool.
If you cannot find it, baking powder works in most recipes, though the texture will be a little softer. Use a small amount and do not swap it one for one in recipes that already contain baking powder.
Butter matters more than anything else. Iceland's dairy tradition is strong, and most family recipes assume real butter rather than margarine.
Spices are usually ground ginger, cinnamon and cloves, sometimes with cardamom. Buy fresh jars before a big baking day; old spices make flat-tasting piparkökur.
For almonds, chopped or flaked almonds both work on gyðingakökur. Chopped almonds stay on better once the cookies are packed.
Baking tips for crisp, even cookies
Most traditional Icelandic cookies depend on cold butter and rested dough. Chill the dough before rolling, and chill cut shapes again if the kitchen is warm.
Bake one tray at a time on the middle shelf unless you know your oven well. Thin cookies can go from golden to burnt in a minute.
Cool cookies completely before storing. Packing them warm traps steam and turns crisp cookies soft.
Store crisp and soft cookies in separate tins. Moisture moves from soft to crisp, and you end up with neither.
Packing cookies for days outdoors
A tin of cookies has long been part of Nordic outdoor days, from berry picking to mountain walks. The best cookies for this are dry, flat and firm: piparkökur without icing, gyðingakökur and plain biscuits.
Pack them in a rigid tin or box rather than a bag, and put a piece of baking paper between layers. In cold weather, butter-rich cookies become harder and more brittle, so a snug fit matters more.
They also make sense on a riding weekend, when lunch is often eaten standing beside the horses and there is little room for anything fragile. If you are planning riding trips in the Norwegian mountains, a tin of firm, spiced cookies is an easy and very Nordic thing to bring.
Where to start
If you are new to Icelandic baking, start with gyðingakökur. The dough is forgiving, the ingredients are easy to find, and the result tastes clearly of the tradition.
Move on to piparkökur when you are comfortable rolling thin dough, and save Sarah Bernhardt cookies for a day with time to spare.
Keep notes as you go. Write down oven temperature, baking time and how thin you rolled the dough. Family recipes in Iceland are often short on detail, and your own notes will make the second batch better than the first.
For the wider picture of sweets in Iceland, from skyr cake to layered meringue, our guide to Icelandic desserts is a good next step.
About Sigrún Ólafsdóttir
Sigrún grew up baking rúgbrauð with her grandmother in Akureyri and has spent the last decade collecting recipes from kitchens all over Iceland. She writes Icelandic MAT's recipes, one dish at a time.