The brown-and-green sweet, to one side of the coconut-covered chokladboll, is a dammsugare (Dom-Sue-gah-ray). The name, literally "vacuum cleaner," alludes to an old (and apocryphal) practice of sweeping up crumbs from the baking table. In combination with butter, cocoa, and punsch, a Nordic liqueur, the collected crumbs formed the core of the confection, which was then rolled in marzipan and dipped, except for a distinctive center stripe, in chocolate. Latter-day recipes call for crumbs that are bespoke, not repurposed; the dammsugare lives up to its name only if you hoover it down.
Previously: The downstairs dining room is snug, but good spirits carried the day. Communal baskets of bread, butter, and cheese and pitchers of a lingonberry drink accompanied personal tasting plates whose contents, over the years, seem to have changed very little. Shown, clockwise from front: gravlax, Swedish meatballs, lingonberry preserves, beet salad, ham, the fish stew called Jansson's temptation, and half a hardboiled egg topped with "Swedish caviar," or creamed, smoked cod roe paste.
Like that plate meal, the cream-filled drömtårta ("dream cake") was even richer and more filling than it looked. While most of the homemade baked goods were clustered on a display table, these rolled cakes were hidden away in a nearby freezer, but only because the chill helped the sponge cake hold its form when sliced. One slice at a time sufficed.
Church of Sweden Christmas Fair
Church of Sweden, 5 East 48 St. (Fifth-Madison Aves.), Manhattan
www.SvenskaKyrkan.se/newyork/julbasaren
(The 2017 bazaar was held on November 17-19)
