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How to make Swedish cardamom ice cream

As Sweden edges closer to summer, how about learning how to make a cool dessert with one of Swedes' favourite spices? This creamy cardamom ice cream (kardemummaglass in Swedish) is easy to make and easy to scoop. John Duxbury shares his favourite recipe with The Local.

Published: 16 April 2015 18:00 CEST

How to make Swedish cardamom ice cream

Cardamom ice cream. Photo: John Duxbury

Summary

Serves: 4

Preparation: 10 minutes (plus freezing time)

Ingredients

3 or 4 green cardamom pods
1 large egg
90 g (3 oz) sugar, preferably raw cane sugar (3/8 cup)
240 ml (1 cup) whipping cream (35-40 percent fat)
120 ml (1/2 cup) milk (full fat or semi-skimmed)
1/2 tsp vanilla powder (or 1 tsp vanilla extract)

Method

1. Lightly bash the cardamom pods in a mortar and remove the casings. Grind the seeds with the pestle until you can’t be bothered any more.

2. Whisk the egg in a mixing bowl until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.

3. Whisk in the sugar a little at a time, then continue whisking for another minute until well blended.

4. Pour in the cream, milk, ground cardamom and vanilla powder and whisk to blend.

5. Pour into an ice cream maker with the paddle running.

6. Transfer to a tub and keep until required. (Note: this ice cream is soft enough to serve straight from the freezer, but for best results move the tub to a fridge about 15 minutes before required.)

Without an ice cream machine

If you’ve not got an ice cream machine, continue whipping after stage 4 for another 2 or 3 minutes, then transfer to an ice cream container. Cover the surface of the ice cream with cling film (food wrap) and freeze. Remove the mixture from the freezer every half hour. Fork over the mixture thoroughly and return to the freezer. Repeat this step until the mixture is thoroughly frozen, which will normally take 2 or 3 hours.

Recipe courtesy of John Duxbury, editor and founder of Swedish Food

OPINION: Are tips in Sweden becoming the norm?

The Local’s guide to tipping in Sweden is clear: tip for good service if you want to, but don’t feel the pressure: where servers in the US, for instance, rely on tips to live, waiters in Sweden have collectively bargained salaries with long vacations and generous benefits.

SEE ALSO: What’s the tipping etiquette in Sweden?

But there are signs that this is changing, and the change is being accelerated by card machines. Now, many machines offer three preset gratuity percentages, usually starting with five percent and going up to fifteen or twenty. Previously they just asked the customer to fill in the total amount they wanted to pay.

This subtle change to a user interface sends a not-so-subtle message to customers: that tipping is expected and that most people are probably doing it. The button for not tipping is either a large-lettered ‘No Tip’ or a more subtle ‘Fortsätt’ or ‘Continue’ (it turns out you can continue without selecting a tip amount, but it’s not immediately clear to the user).

I’ll confess, when I was first presented with this I was mildly irked: I usually tip if I’ve had table service, but waiting staff are treated as professionals and paid properly, guaranteed by deals with unions; menu prices are correspondingly high. The tip was a genuine token of appreciation.

But when I tweeted something to this effect (a tweet that went strangely viral), the responses I got made me think. Many people pointed out that the restaurant trade in Sweden is under enormous pressure, with rising costs, the after-effects of Covid and difficulties recruiting. And as Sweden has become more cosmopolitain, adding ten percent to the bill comes naturally to many.

Boulebar, a restaurant and bar chain with branches around Sweden and Denmark, had a longstanding policy of not accepting tips at all, reasoning that they were outdated and put diners in an uncomfortable position. But in 2021 CEO Henrik Kruse decided to change tack:

“It was a purely financial decision. We were under pressure due to Covid, and we had to keep wages down, so bringing back tips was the solution,” he said, adding that he has a collective agreement and staff also get a union bargained salary, before tips.

Yet for Kruse the new machines, with their pre-set tipping percentages, take things too far:

“We don’t use it, because it makes it even clearer that you’re asking for money. The guest should feel free not to tip. It’s more important for us that the guest feels free to tell people they’re satisfied.”

But for those restaurants that have adopted the new interfaces, the effect has been dramatic. Card processing company Kassacentralen, which was one of the first to launch this feature in Sweden, told Svenska Dagbladet this week that the feature had led to tips for the average establishment doubling, with some places seeing them rise six-fold.

Even unions are relaxed about tipping these days, perhaps understanding that they’re a significant extra income for their members. Union representatives have often in the past spoken out against tipping, arguing that the practice is demeaning to staff and that tips were spread unevenly, with staff in cafés or fast food joints getting nothing at all. But when I called the Swedish Hotel and Restaurant Union (HRF), a spokesman said that the union had no view on the practice, and it was a matter for staff, business owners and customers to decide.

So is tipping now expected in Sweden? The old advice probably still stands; waiters are still not as reliant on tips as staff in many other countries, so a lavish tip is not necessary. But as Swedes start to tip more generously, you might stick out if you leave nothing at all.

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