Dammsugare

Old-fashioned Swedish pralines called dammsugare (“vacuum cleaners”), which in appearance resemble Polish bajaderki. They are made using leftover cakes or biscuits, so perhaps the name comes from the idea of “cleaning out” the cupboards ;). Or maybe it comes from their appearance, as the mixture is shaped like an old-style vacuum cleaner that was popular in Sweden several decades ago? Another equally popular name for these treats is punschrullar, referring to the liqueur added to the mixture. Whatever you call them, they are delicious! It’s worth seeking out some arrack flavouring especially for these, as it’s not something often used in modern cooking. Serve them with a cup of tea or coffee during fika, a little break to relax and take a breather from everything…

Dammsugare can be made not only with leftover biscuits, but also with different types of cake (without cream). Moist butter cakes work well, as do chocolate cakes and sticky cakes such as brownies. In that case, follow the recipe below, but replace the biscuits with 250 g of cake and reduce the amount of butter from 150 g to 75 g. The exact amount of the other ingredients will depend on the type of cake used, so it’s worth having an extra tablespoon of double cream or butter on hand to achieve the right consistency, making the mixture easy to work with.

Makes 20.

Ingredients for dammsugare:

• 200 g biscuits, finely crushed (you can use a mixture of different biscuits)
• 150 g butter, at room temperature
• 2 tbsp ground almonds
• 2–3 tbsp cocoa powder (if the biscuits were chocolate, I use the smaller amount)
• 2 tbsp icing sugar, or to taste
• 3 tbsp Punsch (arrack liqueur), or dark rum, or 1 tsp arrack or rum flavouring
• 2 tbsp double cream

Place all the ingredients in a food processor and blitz until you have a thick, fairly smooth praline mixture (visible pieces of biscuit are absolutely fine!). Transfer to a bowl, cover with cling film and refrigerate until firm – the mixture should be easy to shape into a log.

Once chilled, lightly dust the work surface with icing sugar to prevent the mixture from sticking and shape it into 3 logs, approximately 1.5 cm in diameter. Chill.

Additionally:

• 350 g marzipan
• lime-green food colouring (traditionally they are not quite as bright green as mine, although of course this doesn’t affect the flavour)
• 75 g dark or plain chocolate, melted in a bain-marie

Knead the marzipan with a little food colouring until it turns green. Lightly dusting with icing sugar, roll it out to a sheet approximately 3 mm thick. Place the first log on the rolled-out marzipan and wrap it in the marzipan, trimming away any excess. Repeat with the remaining logs. Cut each log into 5 cm pieces and chill.

Melt the chocolate in a bain-marie. Dip both ends of the “vacuum cleaners” into the chocolate and place on a wire rack or baking paper until the chocolate has set.

Store the dammsugare in the fridge.

Enjoy!

Recipe source: AnnesMat