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RECIPE

Recipe: How to make these Swedish ‘mandelflarn’

Almond tuiles are tasty, elegant and easy to make. Interested? Then food writer John Duxbury has the perfect recipe for you.

Published: 3 March 2017 06:12 CET
Recipe: How to make these Swedish 'mandelflarn'
Almond tuiles, in Swedish: mandelflarn. Photo: Swedish food

Summary

Makes about 18 tuiles (or 'mandelflarn' in Swedish)

Preparation: 15 minutes

Cooking: 30 minutes

Ingredients

50g (1/2 cup*) almonds, shelled weight

50g (4tbsp) butter

50g (4tbsp) caster (superfine) sugar

1 tbsp plain (all-purpose) flour, sifted

1/2 tbsp milk

1 tbsp ljus sirup or any other light coloured sirup

*Don't mix the units!

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 175ºC (350ºF, gas 5, fan 160ºC) and line a large baking tray with baking parchment or silicone paper.

2. Chop the almonds coarsely, using a sharp knife or a food processor.

3. Melt the butter in a saucepan on a low heat. Remove the pan from the heat once the butter has melted.

4. Add the sugar, flour, milk and ljus sirap. Beat until smooth. Stir in the chopped almonds. Replace the pan on the heat and bring to the boil. Simmer for about 1 minute. Reduce the heat to very low, just enough to keep the mixture warm until you have used it all up.

5. Using about 1½ teaspoons per tuile, spoon the mixture on to the prepared baking tray, allowing 6 tuiles per sheet with plenty of space between each one. (Unlike classic French tuile, there is no need to spread the mixture out as it will spread out by itself as it cooks.) Bake for 6- 8 minutes, until the tuiles are golden brown.

6. a) For flat tuiles: allow to cool on the tray for a minute or so and then use a palette knife to transfer them to a board to cool completely.

6. b)For shaped tuiles: allow the tuiles to cool for a minute or so, loosen with a palette knife and then shape them on a greased rolling pin or brandy snap cone moulds, with the upper surface on the outside. When firm, transfer them to cooling rack to cool completely. (If the tuiles cool too much while still on the baking tray and become too brittle to mould, return the tray to the oven for a moment to soften them.)

7. Repeat steps 5-6, until you have used up all the mixture.

8. When the tuiles are cold, store them in an airtight container. For maximum crispness, consume within 24 hours.

Tips

– Swedes normally use ljus sirap (light syrup) when making mandelflarn, but any light coloured syrup, such as golden syrup, can be used instead.

– Allow plenty of space for the mixture to spread, so don’t bake more than 6 at once.

– After baking, the biscuits can be left to cool on a flat surface or shaped on greased rolling pins or on brandy snap cone moulds. (Note: almond tuiles are too brittle to roll into classic ‘cigar’ shapes.)

– If you are shaping the tuiles, bake the mixture in three batches, otherwise some are likely to harden before you get a chance to shape them!

Serving suggestion

Almond tuiles go particularly well with ice cream, such as with bilberry ice cream (wild blueberry ice cream).

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

FOOD AND DRINK

OPINION: Are tips in Sweden becoming the norm?

Should you tip in Sweden? Habits are changing fast thanks to new technology and a hard-pressed restaurant trade, writes James Savage.

Published: 5 April 2024 13:59 CEST
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. 

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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