Cardamom knots are to lockdown 2.0 what sourdough and cinnamon buns were to our first confinement

So here we are again. Sheltering at home for many of us across the country, except everyone’s feeling slightly less spirited than the first time around. There are a lot fewer jam sessions with neighbours on the balcony. And those online sourdough courses are feeling stale. But there’s one thing the internet is excited about: kardemummabullar, Sweden’s favourite sweet treat, cardamom buns.

These buns are the fix we all need now. They fill the house with a woodsy, floral aroma, even store-bought ones (the good ones, anyway). And biting into them is divine: buttery and soft on the inside, crunchy on the outside and not overly sweet. Cardamom’s exotic, enchanting notes transport us at a time when we can only dream of faraway places.

Often associated with savoury cooking and coffee flavouring in South Asian and Middle Eastern countries, cardamom has long been used to scent dough throughout Scandinavia. “Cardamom is part of my DNA, the aroma takes me back to my childhood, every time,” said Louise Hurst, a U.K.-based half-English, half-Swedish baker and caterer who blogs about Swedish baking on nordickitchenstories.co.uk.

Coffee and cardamom buns, and their counterpart, cinnamon-scented kanelbulle (which also call for cardamom) fuel Swedish fika, the twice-a-day break from work to recharge that is baked into the culture. But how did a spice that’s grown 7,250 kilometres away, in its native mountain area of Kerala, India, become such a defining flavour of Swedish and other Scandinavian cuisine and baking?

The spice was first mentioned in Scandinavian cookbooks in the 14th century. Scandinavian culinary scholars attribute its arrival in their countries to the Romans, who traded with Asians. Others put it to the Vikings, who were said to have picked up cardamom in the spice bazaars of Constantinople, and brought it home where it was prized for healing properties. Revised history points to the Moors, who, several hundred years later, brought their cooking to continental Europe where it found its way north. Still others postulate that it came into Scandinavia through the great Baltic ports.

“From the beginning it was very rare and exclusive to have these spices so when you offered someone a bun with cardamom it was very special,” said Charlotta Zetterstrom of the famed Stockholm bakery Fabrique.

Zetterstrom and her husband, David, a baker, are arguably responsible for spreading the Swedish cardamom bun phenomenon ­– though technically they make knots. “In Sweden you do different shapes, but we think the knot gives the best taste,” she says. “The knots are the perfect shape to divide the filling of butter, sugar and the spice.”

The couple opened their first Fabrique in 2008, specializing in sourdough bread and cardamom buns. after bemoaning the absence of good artisan bread. “No one was baking anymore. A tradition we have had for thousands of years,” she says. They now have 19 bakeries in Stockholm and six in London. In 2019, they opened a Fabrique in New York, and those same New Yorkers who had been possessed by cronuts started queuing for cardamom buns.

The spice is gaining a following on our side of the border, too. Toronto’s Brodflour, which has its own Swedish-style onsite mill and a menu designed by Swedish baker Robin Edberg, draws crowds for cardamom buns baked with their red fife flour, as well as their Brod Latte, made with cardamom and oat milk. Fika, another Swedish style coffee house in Toronto’s Kensington Market, also makes a popular cardamom latte. In Winnipeg, Adam Donnelly shuttered his highly regarded restaurant Segovia during the first lockdown, and has since started working on a new culinary project, Midsommerbread, with offerings that include impeccably crafted cardamom buns.

If you are baking cardamom knots at home, you can use the ground pods of green or black cardamom. “Green cardamom has lovely floral notes, a sweet taste with overtones of lemon and eucalyptus,” Hurst says. Zetterstrom, though, uses ground black cardamom seeds, which provide a nice crunch on the outside of the bun. Topping with pearl sugar is another way to add crunch and texture to the bun.

You can use pre-ground cardamom but the older it is, the less fragrant it’s likely to be. In that case, be overly generous adding it to your dough. These knots should never be slathered with gooey icing like cinnamon buns, and if your knot doesn’t come out picture perfect, that’s okay. Always think: These are Cinnabon’s exotic cousin.

Kardemummabullar

Makes about 18 buns

Dough

• 1 cup milk, warmed
• 2 teaspoons active dry yeast
• 3-3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup butter, softened
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Filling

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 2-3 teaspoons ground cardamom
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• Pearl sugar or sliced almonds, for sprinkling (optional)

Put the milk into a large bowl and stir in the yeast to dissolve. (If you’re worried about its age, you can proof it – let it stand for 5 minutes, until it’s foamy. If it doesn’t get foamy or look active, you may need fresh yeast.)

Add 3 cups of the flour along with the butter, sugar, egg, cardamom, vanilla and salt. Stir until the dough comes together, and continue to knead, or use the dough hook attachment of your stand mixer, until the dough is smooth and elastic, adding more flour as needed (you’ll likely need 3 1/2 cups). It should be quite tacky – it will smooth out and become less tacky as it sits. Shape into a ball and place it back in the bowl, cover with a tea towel and let stand in a warm place until the dough has doubled in bulk, 1 1/2-2 hours.

Cut the dough into two pieces and on a lightly floured surface, roll each piece out into a rectangle that’s about 9x12 inches. In a small bowl, stir together the soft butter, brown sugar and cardamom, and spread half over each piece of rolled-out dough. Fold each piece up in equal thirds, as if you were folding a letter, and roll it again until it’s roughly 8x14 inches.

Cut the dough lengthwise into strips about 3/4-inch wide. Twist each strip by holding each end and twisting in opposite directions, then holding one end, wrap it around two or three of your fingers (as if you were wrapping up an electrical cord), then tuck the end over, under and through the hole in the middle.

Place each rolled bun on a parchment-lined sheet, brush with beaten egg and sprinkle with pearl sugar or sliced almonds if desired, and let them sit for about half an hour, while you preheat the oven to 350 ˚F.

Bake the buns for 15-20 minutes, until golden.

Recipe courtesy Julie Van Rosendaal.

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