Description
Norwegian crispy and fluffy smultringer, or donuts, with warming cardamom. Perfect pair with a hot chocolate on a cold winter day!
Ingredients
Units
Scale
- 3 large eggs
- 1 1/2 + 1 tablespoon sugar, 330 grams
- 5 ounces heavy cream, (150 milliliters)
- 10 ounces sour cream 35 % fat, 300 grams (Norwegian: seterrømme)
- 5 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (700 grams)
- 1 tablespoon ground cardamom
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 teaspoon hartshorn (baker's ammonia)*
- 3 - 4 1/2 pounds lard or coconut fat, 1 1/2-2 kg (Norwegian: Flott matfett)
Instructions
- Beat egg and sugar: Beat sugar and eggs into a white, thick and fluffy consistency, about 10 minutes.
- Whip heavy cream: Whip heavy cream until stiff peaks and fold in sour cream. The fold the cream mixture into the whipped sugar-eggs.
- Mix dry ingredients: In a small bowl, mix the dry ingredients together: flour, cardamom, salt, and hartshorn.
- Combine: Fold the dry ingredients carefully into the egg-cream mixture, just until incorporated. The dough will be sticky, but that makes for better doughnuts in the end.
- Rest overnight: To make them more manageable to handle, place them in a cold place overnight. Cover it both with flour and with a towel to avoid a crust forming.
- Heat the lard: The next day, melt lard or your subsitution, into a Dutch oven (Norwegian: jerngryte). Don't melt more than 2 pounds (1 kilo) at the time, if your Dutch oven isn't very large. Be sure to have the cover nearby, and stay away from water as it reacts violently to the fat.
- Correct temperature: When the lard is simmering around a wooden spoon, the lard is hot enough. This is about 338-356℉ (170-180 ℃).
- Roll and cut the dough: Divide the dough into smaller pieces and roll out one at a time. Leave the other pieces in a cold place. Roll out with a rolling pin, until it is around 1/4 inch (1 centimeter) thick. Using a doughnut cookie cutter dipped in flour, cut the dough.
- Fry donuts: Fry 4-5 doughnuts at the time, to avoid cooling the lard too much. They will first sink to the bottom, and then rise. You want them to be dark, but not overly so, remember they will continue to darken a bit after they have gone to the cooling rack. Pick them up using the backside of a wooden spoon.
- Cool: Place them on a cooling rack covered with paper towels or parchment paper. You could also roll them in cinnamon sugar before they cool if you want, but then I prefer to make apple cider donuts!
- Store: Eat some when they are fresh out of the Dutch oven, and cool the rest. Place in plastic bags or airtight containers and they can be freezed.
- To reheat: Best when served a little warm, I like to preheat my oven to 300 ℉ (150 ℃) and reheat for 5 minutes. 10 if from frozen!
Notes
* I highly recommend finding hartshorn for this recipe. It is a leavening agent common in traditional Scandinavian baking. Baker’s ammonia produce a lighter, crunchier crumb, because when the tiny crystals decompose in the heat of the oven, they leave minuscule air cells from which moisture easily escapes. However, if you can't find it, you can use 1 1/2 tsp baking powder and 1/2 tsp baking soda. Same goes for the lard!
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Inactive Time: 8 hours
- Cook Time: 1 1/2 hours
- Category: Desserts
- Cuisine: Norwegian
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 donut
- Calories: 146
- Sugar: 5.6
- Sodium: 10
- Fat: 8
- Saturated Fat: 3.6
- Carbohydrates: 16.6
- Fiber: 0.4
- Protein: 2.1
- Cholesterol: 23