Two Things I Wanted to Do Before Autumn

Two things had been high on Una Þorsteinsdóttir’s autumn wish list: a beautiful linen tablecloth from Kokku and the chance to finally bake gochujang bread rolls.

She often walks through central Reykjavik and finds herself stepping into Kokku, a shop on Laugavegur that serves both tourists and people who live in the neighborhood. Its shelves mix souvenirs with items for the kitchen and home, making it difficult for her to pass without looking inside.

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I admit freely that I have a bit of an obsession with Korean cuisine. There is something about the balance between spicy, sweet and powerful flavors that always hits the mark.

On a recent visit, she asked about the shop’s linen tablecloths and its recipe for Japanese-style buns. The newest tablecloths feature flowers reminiscent of Icelandic nature. One design, called Sveitablóm, is made of linen and sold at Kokku. The choice left her torn between the minimalist look she prefers, inspired partly by small Haussmann-style apartments in Paris, and a more colorful home that would bring Icelandic nature indoors for autumn.

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The idea was to create a burger bun that was more than just a neutral frame around the food.

She left without the tablecloth, deciding to sleep on the decision, but took the bun recipe home. Þorsteinsdóttir says she has “a bit of an obsession with Korean cuisine,” especially its balance of spicy, sweet and powerful flavors. Gochujang, the red chili paste, gives the buns a deep reddish tone and subtle heat that complements crispy chicken without making the bread overly spicy.

She describes the result as a blend of Japanese milk bread and brioche. The recipe uses tangzhong, a Japanese baking technique in which part of the flour and liquid are heated together at the beginning, changing the structure of the starch in the flour.

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By mixing gochujang into the dough, the bun gets a deep reddish tone and subtle heat that brings out the best in crispy chicken.