Kleina is a twisted, lightly spiced fried Icelandic doughnut, denser and less sweet than its American cousin. It is a traditional coffee-table treat sold in every Icelandic bakery.
Where to eat it: 3 restaurants across 1 city.
The kleina arrived from Scandinavia and became a fixture of Icelandic baking by the 19th century, made at home for guests and holidays. The dough, flavoured with cardamom or lemon, is rolled, cut into diamonds, slit and twisted into its signature knot before frying. It is eaten plain with coffee, never iced. Reykjavik's oldest bakeries, Bernhoftsbakari among them, still turn them out daily as part of the traditional pastry counter.
Common allergens: Gluten, Milk, Egg
Tip from the editors. Keep the oil at a steady 180C; too cool and the kleinur soak up grease, too hot and they brown before cooking through.
This is the TableJourney editorial recipe, modelled on the canonical bistro / counter version. The first place to try the dish in its city of origin is below.
Bernhoftsbakari, founded 1834, is Iceland's oldest business, a Reykjavik bakery now run by the fifth generation and stocked with snudur and kleinur.
Order: A snudur, the Icelandic cinnamon bun, or a twisted kleina doughnut.
Tip: Iceland's oldest continuously operating business, on Klapparstigur. The traditional pastries are the draw.
Worth the queue: Snudur cinnamon bun
Bjornsbakari on Hringbraut has baked since 1900, a long-running Reykjavik neighbourhood bakery turning out kleinur, snudur and daily bread for locals.
Tip: More local than touristy, out toward Vesturbaer. Good for traditional pastries without the downtown queues.
Worth the queue: Kleina doughnut
Sandholt on Laugavegur serves an all-day bakery brunch in Reykjavik, with shakshuka, sourdough toasts and savoury waffles by the pastry counter.
Order: The shakshuka, or sourdough toast piled with eggs and cheese.
Tip: The pastries come straight from the bakery in the same room. Arrive early at weekends to beat the queue.
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