Cardamom Seeds - For Gourmet Pastries And Dessert Sauces

Decorticated cardamom seeds

For gourmet pastries and dessert sauces, cardamom brings a delightful spicy, warm flavor. Cardamom seeds, or what is often called decorticated cardamom, are small, granular, black seeds removed from green cardamom pods. Green cardamom is called "green" because of the color of the outside pod. You achieve a stronger, spicy, warm flavor if you grind whole cardamom seeds freshly for your pastry dough or dessert sauce. Cardamom is also available in ground powdered form, but it lacks the intense flavor you get when it's freshly ground. The sweet and warm savory flavor of Swedish cardamom buns (kardemummabullar) is one of the more well-known pastries for the spice.

Decorticated cardamom refers to the outer covering that has been removed.

Green Versus Black Cardamom

• Black cardamom, which comes from a black pod, has a more robust flavor more suitable for cooking savory dishes.

• Green cardamom has a spicy, warm flavor that is preferred for sweet pastries.

Grinding Cardamom for Making Pastries

For pastries using yeasted enriched dough, I typically grind the cardamom seeds along with coarse sea salt. I use a spice grinder to grind both the cardamom and salt together before adding the mixture to the dough.  I prefer to add the cardamom after the pastry dough has been in the mixer for a few minutes to develop the gluten unhindered and for the yeast to thrive. I like a course grind as it allows for dark specks in the pastry dough. It is typical to see dark specks in cardamom buns.