Punsch-roll facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Punsch-roll

Dammsugare
Alternative names	Dammsugare, arraksrulle
Type	Pastry
Place of origin	Sweden
Main ingredients	green marzipan, chocolate, cookies, butter, cacao, punsch liqueur

Punsch-roll (called dammsugare in Sweden) is a tasty Swedish treat. It's a small, round pastry covered in bright green marzipan. Both ends of the roll are dipped in yummy chocolate. Inside, it's filled with a mix of crushed biscuits, butter, and cocoa, all flavored with a special ingredient called punsch.

What's in a Name?

This fun pastry has a few different names!

Why "Dammsugare"?

The most common name in Sweden is dammsugare. This means "vacuum cleaner" in Swedish. It's called this for two main reasons:

• It looks a bit like an old-fashioned vacuum cleaner hose.
• Some people say bakers used to collect leftover crumbs from other cookies to make the filling. This helped use up all the tasty bits!

Other Names for Punsch-roll

• Arraksrulle: This name comes from "arrak," which is an ingredient found in punsch. So, it means "arrak roll."
• 150-ohmare: This is a super unique name! It means "150-ohmer." It's a clever joke about how the colors of the pastry (brown, green, brown) look like the color codes on an resistor. In electronics, brown-green-brown means a resistance value of 150Ω (ohms).

Different Kinds of Rolls

Other countries have pastries that are similar to the Punsch-roll, but with their own special twists!

Danish "Træstamme"

In Denmark, there's a pastry called træstamme. This means "tree trunk."

• These pastries usually aren't green like the Swedish ones.
• They also don't have the punsch flavoring in their cookie and butter filling.

Dutch "Mergpijpje"

The Netherlands has a pastry called mergpijpje, which means "little marrowbone."

• Mergpijpjes are usually cream-colored, not green.
• They come in two main sizes:
  • A small version with a creamy filling.
  • A larger one called reuze mergpijp ("giant marrowbone"). This big version is filled with cake and a layer of cream. Sometimes, it even has a thin layer of berry jam inside!