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Kardemommeboller
Modern Viral Baking · New Wave

Kardemommeboller

Pure cardamom knots — fragrant, feather-light and glazed — the bake that defines new Nordic baking.

2 hr 15 minModerate
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Cultural Context & History

Where cinnamon once ruled, cardamom now reigns. The pure cardamom knot — no filling, just an intense hit of freshly ground pods — has become the emblem of the internet's Scandinavian baking obsession.

Ingredients

  • 500 g wheat flour467 kcal · 6.7 g protein · 20 g fat · 66.7 g carbs per 100 g
  • 80 g sugar523 kcal · 10.3 g protein · 31 g fat · 50.5 g carbs per 100 g
  • 1 1/2 tsp ground cardamom, 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 sachet dried yeast
  • 75 g butter, melted714 kcal · 0 g protein · 78.6 g fat · 0 g carbs per 100 g
  • 300 ml milk, lukewarm55 kcal · 3.4 g protein · 2.1 g fat · 5.1 g carbs per 100 g
  • For the filling: 75 g soft butter, 50 g sugar, 1 tbsp crushed cardamom seeds
  • 1 egg beaten with a splash of milk, and pearl sugar, to finish

Per-100 g values shown for ingredients verified against Nutrition data: USDA FoodData Central (snapshot 2026-09-11). Ingredients not yet verified show no nutrition line.

Recommended Tools

  • Mortar and pestleCrushes the seeds and releases their aromatic oils.
  • Rolling pinRolls the dough to an even rectangle for filling.
  • Pastry brushLays down a smooth egg wash for a glossy crust.

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Step-by-Step Instructions

  1. 1

    Mix all the dough ingredients and knead for 10 minutes until smooth and elastic. Cover and leave to rise for 1 hour, until doubled.

  2. 2

    Roll the dough out to a large rectangle, spread with the soft butter, and scatter over the sugar and freshly crushed cardamom seeds.

  3. 3

    Fold the dough over on itself, slice into strips, then twist and knot each one.

  4. 4

    Arrange the knots on a lined baking sheet and prove for a further 30 minutes.

  5. 5

    Brush with the egg wash, sprinkle with pearl sugar, and bake at 220°C (430°F) for 10-12 minutes until deep golden.

Chef's Tip

Crush whole green cardamom pods and sift out the papery husks just before baking — the volatile oils fade fast once ground, and that fresh perfume is the whole point.

Chef's Tip

The shaped knots take well to a slow overnight prove in the fridge; bring them back to room temperature before they go in the oven.

How this page was made

Written by
The Norcook editorial archive. No individual author is named yet — see the editorial and food-safety policy for what that means and what has to happen before a byline appears.
Content last checked
— “checked” records an editorial check, not a qualified review. Where one exists, the recipe-specific review record appears in the food-safety callout.
Regional context
Modern Viral Baking — the hub carries the wider background, the ingredient glossary and its own sources.
Sources
No page-level sources are recorded for this recipe yet. The cultural background above is written as general context, not as a sourced historical claim.

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