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Smultringer
Modern Viral Baking · New Wave

Smultringer

Old-fashioned cardamom doughnuts fried until golden — cakey, lightly spiced and dusted with sugar.

1 hr 15 minModerate
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Cultural Context & History

The Norwegian doughnut is dense, cakey and warm with cardamom, traditionally fried in lard. A fixture of Christmas and country fairs, smultringer are humble nostalgia on a plate.

Ingredients

  • 3 eggs571 kcal · 3.6 g protein · 35.7 g fat · 57.1 g carbs per 100 g
  • 150 g sugar523 kcal · 10.3 g protein · 31 g fat · 50.5 g carbs per 100 g
  • 150 g sour cream200 kcal · 3.3 g protein · 16.7 g fat · 6.7 g carbs per 100 g
  • 75 g butter, melted714 kcal · 0 g protein · 78.6 g fat · 0 g carbs per 100 g
  • 450 g flour333 kcal · 6.7 g protein · 0 g fat · 70 g carbs per 100 g
  • 2 tsp baking powder0 kcal · 0 g protein · 0 g fat · 0 g carbs per 100 g
  • 1 tsp ground cardamom0 kcal · 0 g protein · 0 g fat · 0 g carbs per 100 g
  • Lard, for deep-frying902 kcal · 0 g protein · 100 g fat · 0 g carbs per 100 g

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

  • Smultring cutterStamps the ring and centre hole in one press.
  • Deep-fry thermometerHolds the lard at a steady 180°C for even colour.
  • Slotted skimmerLifts the rings cleanly from the hot fat.

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Step-by-Step Instructions

  1. 1

    Whip the eggs and sugar to a pale, thick eggnog, then fold in the sour cream, melted butter, cardamom, baking powder and flour to a soft dough. Cover and chill overnight.

  2. 2

    Roll out the chilled dough on a lightly floured surface to 1 cm thick.

  3. 3

    Cut out rings with a smultring cutter, keeping the hole in the centre.

  4. 4

    Heat the lard to 180°C and fry the rings for 1 to 1.5 minutes each side, until deep golden brown.

  5. 5

    Lift out, drain on kitchen paper, and serve fresh.

Chef's Tip

The overnight chill is not optional — a cold, rested dough holds its shape in the fat and drinks up far less of it, giving a lighter ring.

Chef's Tip

Keep the lard steady at 180°C; too cool and the rings turn greasy, too hot and they colour before the centre sets.

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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