Yummie Swedish Confections from Ikea...Dammsugare!

Ok, this blog post almost did not happen. Here's why: I almost ate it. Yep.
Years ago my coworker Joe, the awesome mind behind Boulevard Concepts, brought back some delish souvenirs from his trip to the newly opened Ikea store over in Stoughton, MA. They were tiny, dense, and incredibly sweet, with a liqueury finish and made me feel like I was getting away with having an after-dinner drink at work.

So, visiting the store for the second time myself last night...I crept over to the Ikea Marketplace, and there, beyond the gigundo bags of frozen meatballs, ta-da! I found out they were called "Dammsugare" in Sweden, which means "Dust Sucker", or "Vaccum Cleaner." So what the heck does that mean..? Well these little cookies resemble old retro vaccuum cleaners! The bright green ones with the dark ends. They are also called "Punsch-Rolls", (Swedish: punschrulle) named after Swedish Punsch, or the arrak liquor flavoring inside. It tastes very similar to amaretto.

I like the name because it reminds me of the slightly guilty feeling I have after scarfing them all down: "Damn, Sugar!" ...The flavors inside these yummie suckers are marzipan (egg white, sugar and bitter almond oil or extract), chocolate, and apricot (which you really can't taste too much, but they do contain some of the fruit.)
Fruit or not...look at those fat grams...yikes!

Here's a pretty cool recipe from the Caramella Cooks blog. 
And for your enjoyment, the last pics of the DammSugares before they met their untimely end.