Rainbow-Striped Cookies- All-Out Va-Voom (Because Sometimes, Less is a Bore.)

Sometimes, flash is inverse proportion of deliciousness.
Not in this case.

The first time I went to Ferrara's on Mulberry street in Little Italy I was dazzled- a dazzled seven year old, a dazzled seven year old who wanted to go back with money- so I did. I've never been casual about pastry, and when I ordered a half pound of assorted cookies, I expected to select them individually. My mouth was still open in a gasp as the counter guy gruffly handed me a white paper bag. Happily, some of these were inside.

Since then, on and off but mostly on, I looked for a recipe. Much of this time was pre-internet so that meant library and bookstore searching of indexes of all Italian cookbooks and all pastry cookbooks. It turned out to be a curiously elusive recipe for a ubiquitous (in Manhattan) cookie. Then, in 1999, the holiday issue of Gourmet comes out and these are in it, just like any regular recipe- not one you've been seeking for nearly 2 decades- no fanfare, no nothing.

Especially if these are unfamiliar, their gently kitschy appearance could be off-putting. But during the holidays, there's room for a little more va-voom. (After all, who would you rather have baking your Holiday cookies- Mies van der Rohe, or Robert Venturi?).

I won't say these aren't a bit of a project. But they are quite a bit less difficult than they appear, and you end up with a lot of cookies, a lot. And they are rich and dense and they do not spoil or dry out, and they freeze like a dream. And they are not a bit tricky or tempermental or delicate. The ingredients are a little pricey, so you want to be confident they are worthwhile. Oh my they are- you can taste the expense. There is nothing humble about these little Zsa Zsa Gabors of the cookie tray- it's all delicious, over-the-top glamour.

There's some assembly required- but, like the ingredients, you can taste the effort too.

We'll need:
- a food processor

-2 big bowls, or a standing mixer and one extra bowl and a hand mixer.

-A couple of thin cutting boards or the removable bottoms of tart pans, for moving the cakes around.

-3 pans of 22 x 32 c, (9" x 13") I used pans of a similar size- 25 x 28 cm- and only 2- I re-used the first pan.

-Non-stick parchment

-a couple of spatulas

-3 smallish bowls (for tinting the divided batter)

And the ingredients:

200 g/ 7 oz/ 1 C *almond paste

200 g/ 1 C sugar (if your almond paste is store bought and quite sweet, use a little less sugar)

340 g/12 oz butter

10 ml/ 2 tsp. almond extract

pinch/ 1/4 tsp. salt

4 eggs- separated

240 g/ 2 C flour

about 300 g/ one regular jar raspberry jam

200 g/9 oz dark chocolate.  

*I made my own version by moistening ground almonds (almond meal) with egg white until it formed a paste. This has the advantage of being as (un)sweet as you like- I added just a bit of powdered sugar.

Line your pans with non-stick parchment, and then oil it lightly to be on the safe side. Heat up the oven to 180 c/375 f.

Process the almond paste and sugar together in the food processor so that there are no lumps of paste (it can sometimes be dry if you have not made your own), and add the butter. Keep beating until it is light and fluffy- It's a heavy batter and it's hard to keep much air in it at all, but we can try. Beat in the 4 egg yolks as well, along with the salt and the almond extract, then add the flour:

In a separate bowl with clean beaters, beat the 4 egg whites until fluffy but not too stiff:

Keep them soft- if they get too stiff or dry they are difficult to fold in.

Now fold them into the batter. Don't worry- this isn't going to look like it's going all that well. Conventionally, the method for lighting a batter with beaten egg whites is to incorporate about a third of the whites into the batter to lighten it, them gently fold in the rest. But our batter here is so stiff and so dense and heavy that this is not happening- I used a wire whisk to blend them in, and indeed the batter was a little lighter:

Try to make sure no streaks of white remain.

A soft hand with the whisk and slow, thorough strokes keep it light. Essentially we are making three very, very thin cakes. Dividing the batter evenly is very helpful. Measure it out amongst three bowls- weighing the batter of this does not seem like overkill- or at least use a measuring cup. If you come out short on one batch, it is hard to spread it in the pan. Leave one bowl golden, tint one bowl a yummy pink (gently, just a drop or two at first- the batter takes color quite easily), and another bowl a pistachio green. 

Now we can bake the first layer. Spreading the batter in the pans is the trickiest part- the batter is thick and heavy and sticky, and the paper slides around under it as you're trying to spread it. The good news is, you don't need to do a very good job:

This gives you an idea of how very little batter
there is to spread in the pan.

Distributing the batter here and there in the pan makes it easier.

Now put the first one in the oven on the middle rack, and bake 8-11 minutes, until it takes on just the barest color in a few spots:

Don't worry- the color is not washed out at all-
it is all vividly there under the surface.

As I had only 2 pans, I removed the first cake, together with its paper (very carefully), and used the same pan for the last cake to go in. As they are so thin, they will cool almost immediately. Using thin cutting boards or the bottoms of tart pans to support them and keep them from cracking, flip them over, and peel off the baking paper. Start with the green layer and flip it back over, top side up, and spread it with half of the jam, as evenly as you can. Then lay the golden layer over this, spread it with the rest of the jam, and then lay the pink layer on top. Again, with the help of a cutting board or the bottom of a tart pan, wrap the whole block in plastic wrap, leaving none of it exposed. Put a pan on top of it to keep it flat, and weigh the pan down with a couple of cans of tomatoes. This allows the jam to seep in and bind the layers together. After an overnight rest, it is one cohesive thing, with a rich, moist texture throughout.

Mow we can spread them with chocolate. Melt the 200 g/ 7 oz dark chocolate in a small bowl in the microwave on low power or in a metal bowl over simmering water. No need to heat until all the pieces are melted- when most of them are, you can stir until it is all smooth and glossy:

Unwrap the cake carefully- again with the help of a thin cutting board or the bottom of a tart pan to move it around, and spread the melted chocolate over the top (pink layer on top is traditional):

As soon as it just barely starts to set, score the top so you will be able to cut it without breaking the chocolate. Good to work quickly- once it begins to set, it sets quite fast, First score a straight line right at the edge so you can trim them for neatness, then determine how wide you would like them to be- 5 cm/ 2 " is nice- and score it that way first, then, divide those in half, and from there score the thickness you would like- about the width of a finger. Using the score marks, simple cut them into rows and then individual cookies with a sharp knife.

Given how moist and rich these are, I would imagine they have an excellent shelf life, but I don't think there has ever been an opportunity to test this. Happily this makes plenty of cookies- enough for sharing. I got about 80 out of my batch. Of course all cookies are good with espresso, but with all the rich almond paste, these are especially so.

More holiday color:

Hand tinted sugars customize your holiday palette