Rainbow Cookies

From Greenpointers, Recipe: Rainbow Cookies

I've had this recipe for Rainbow Cookies on my fridge since last year and decided to make it. Working my first job as a counter girl at an Italian bakery in Queens and accepting collect calls from the grumpy bakery owner's son, who was in jail for idiotic low-level racketeering, gave me have a distaste for Italian pastries, with the exception of a few things: Pignoli Cookies, Rainbow Cookies & Cannolis (but only the cannolis that the nuns from the San Carlo monastery on Erice, a medieval mountain town in Sicily make. God is in them.) The rest of the Italian pastries can burn in hell.

Rainbow Cookies are pretty pricey per pound and if you're going to buy them around Brooklyn I would recommend Fortunata Brother's on Manhattan & Devoe.

Making the rainbow cookies seemed pretty pricey, too. It didn't help that I had to buy 3 half sheet pans at $15 a pop from The Brooklyn Kitchen, plus 4 tubes of Almond Paste at $8 a pop! I definitely came home grumpy.

"I should have just bought them at the bakery," I said as I laid the ingredients on the counter. But the process and the end result were worth it, plus we got between 150-200 cookies out of it.

I cut the recipe out of New York Magazine from the chef of Torrisi Italian Specialties, a great Italian restaurants down on Mulberry, the walls lined with Manhattan Special: my favorite drink, espresso soda.

If you plan on making rainbow cookies, make sure you have an entire day off plus a partner with good hand-eye coordination. I am lacking in that area and Jon, who is mechanically inclined proved, to have amazing cake layering and chocolate spreading skills. Had I tried to take this endeavor solo, I assure you these cookies would not be so pretty.

When it comes down to it, "it's a lot of work, Jane," as Nonna, my Sicilian Grandma would say. There are many steps: beating the egg whites for stiff glossy peaks, splitting one batter into three for coloring, baking three cakes separately until just underdone so they stay moist, cooling the cakes then layering them using orange marmalade as glue, letting them set then spreading warm chocolate on the top and bottom. Start as early in the morning as you can.

While getting closer and closer to chocolatey soft almond cookie goodness, I was giddy. I remember saying, "this sure as hell beats last minute christmas shopping." In fact, making these cookies is what the holidays are all about: slowing down, spending time with someone you love, making something you love, then giving to people you love." These cookies put a truer smile on faces than anything you can unwrap and rip a price tag off of.

Torrisi Rainbow Cookies Recipe from New York Magazine

12 large eggs, separated

2 2/3 cups sugar

24 oz. almond paste

8 sticks butter, softened

5 2/3 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp. salt

2 tsp. red food coloring

2 tsp. green food coloring

16 oz. orange preserves, heated and strained

8 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped

Preheat oven to 350. Beat egg whites in electric mixer until they just hold stiff peaks. Add ½ cup sugar, beating until whites hold stiff, slightly glossy peaks, then refrigerate. Beat together almond paste and remaining sugar in mixer. Add butter gradually and beat until mixture is fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add yolks and beat until well combined. Reduce speed to low and add flour and salt and mix until just combined. Fold in egg whites. Divide batter equally among 3 bowls; wearing gloves,(1) whisk red food coloring into one and green into another, leaving the third batch plain. Spread each batter separately and evenly, about ¼-inch thick, onto 3 half-sheet pans, each greased and lined with parchment paper. Bake until just barely set, about 7 minutes. (2) When layers are cool, spread half the preserves onto the green layer. Invert plain layer over it and discard paper. Spread on remaining preserves, and invert red layer over it; discard paper. Wrap with plastic and top with a weighted baking pan. Refrigerate for several hours. Remove plastic and bring to room temperature. Melt chocolate in a double boiler, and (3) spread thinly on top layer. Chill in freezer briefly until firm. Cover with wax paper, place another baking sheet on top, then invert cake onto sheet pan and remove paper. Quickly spread with remaining chocolate and return to freezer until firm. Trim edges, slice, and serve.

A DOZEN EGGS BAKE SHOP

    After a long hike up to see the White Rocks, in Vermont's Okemo Mountain region, we were craving hamburgers and had some delicious local pastured beef waiting at home. We were missing the buns, so I went into A Dozen Eggs Bake Shop hoping to find some English Muffins.

    I didn't find any bread but did stumble upon lots of mouthwatering cupcakes. Mike and I had sworn off sweets that morning while gobbling down french toast drowned in maple syrup and after eating a quarter of Sassy Sweet Treats' Sour Cream Coffee Cake. But, who can turn down cupcakes? Especially gorgeous cupcakes like Laura, the cupcake lady behind A Dozen Eggs Bake Shop creates. 

    Driving by I was drawn by their adorable cupcake logo and the "am I in brooklyn?" well designed egg carton graphic. Their eye catching blue and chocolate color scheme was also pleasing. When I entered, aside from being mesmerized by all the goodies, I noticed some familiar artwork from Everyday Is a Holiday. It was Jenny and Aaron's signature "Keep Calm and Have a Cupcake" Poster, which I just adore! Visit their shop. Everything they do is amazing and this particular piece was just featured in a NY Times article Remixed Messages.

    

     After dragging in Mike to behold Jenny and Aaron's work, we chatted it up with Laura for a while and what a sweetheart she was. Originally from Cape Cod, she has worked in Fashion and as a Personal Chef in Boston. Laura and her husband finally moved to Vermont and started A Dozen Eggs with their signature Sugar Cookies, which are adorable and beautifully detailed. Since A Dozen Eggs has expanded to cupcakes and other goodies, like macaroons and meringues. 

     I was going to purchase one cupcake plus some coconut macaroons for Mike, but Laura Sweet Laura sent us home with a bunch of "samples" to taste for the blog. Wow! So after our burgers, we did a Cupcake Binge Test. I cut the cupcakes up into quarters and Mike and I scientifically devoured them, ranking them on things like deliciousness and deliciousness.

We had: Red Velvet with Cream Cheese Frosting (a favorite cake of mine in general), Maple with Maple Cream Frosting, Yellow Cake with Blueberry Filling and Lemon Cream Frosting, Yellow Cake with Raspberry Filling and Chocolate Frosting and finally Orange Sherbet, which was Mike's pick. 

     This concept of filling cupcakes with frosting is quite new to me and very exciting. I mean cupcakes on their own get me amped, as do Jelly Munchkins from Dunkin Donuts, so the surprise in the middle of these cupcakes was something else. It worked most successfully with the Raspberry Chocolate cupcake. The tart of the raspberry complimented the sweet very light buttery frosting well. I don't think I could fairly judge the filled cupcakes after I cut them in quarters because its that gooey surprise bite thats really effective. I was expecting something different from the Blueberry. I think the frosting was a bit sweet. And, in general I am severely against Orange Sherbet, but Mike enjoyed that one fully. Laura got the idea for the Orange Sherbet from her dad, who described her cupcakes as "orange and a half," and he was right. I could definitely appreciate its likeness to orange sherbet. Laura knows how to mix and match flavors and she apparently experiments with her cupcakes a lot. 

    Next was the Red Velvet, which I was very satisfied with, especially since most bakeries let me down in the Red Velvet department. Laura's was perfectly moist with that signature Red Velvet crumble and the Cream Cheese Frosting was just right, not too sweet and nice and soft, not stiff. I also loved the red sprinkles and blueberry garnish.

    This leaves me with the last and my favorite cupcake, the Maple with Maple Cream Frosting. In the spirit of being in Vermont, this cupcake was my first choice and a good choice it was. Again, Laura is on when it comes to bringing out flavors in baked goods. This moist cupcake was buttery and had a nice hint of maple syrup. And the frosting was perfect to boot, not to sweet and a nice smooth texture. 

    Where most cupcakeries fail is with their frosting, but not at A Dozen Eggs. A lot of people complain first that there is too much frosting. A Dozen Eggs cupcakes were on the heavier side in terms of frosting quantity, but Laura decorates them so beautifully and her frosting is so good that I say pile it on. Quality and quantity sounds like a good idea. So good, because it tastes buttery and not overly sweet or stiff. This girl knows her frosting. 

    It was difficult, but I was happy we saved the cupcake halves, first because it would have been so outrageous to eat 5 cupcakes between the two of us plus the macaroons, which were incredibly delicious. And it lefts us cupcakes to feast upon during the ride home. Even the next day these cupcakes rocked. 

    So if you're in Mt. Holly Vermont, be sure to stop into A Dozen Eggs for some Sugar Cookies and some cupcakes and to meet Laura. And visit A Dozen Eggs' Blog to get the latest info on this delicious bake shop.

JENNIE OF SASSY SWEET TREATS' PUMPKIN CREAM CHEESE ROLL CAKE

    My friend Jennie, the cookie genius who runs the best cookie company ever Sassy Sweet Treats sent me the message below in response to the jelly roll cake. Look how talented of a cake roller she is. She is even more talented at making amazing cookies. Check out her website and make someone's day by ordering some. Sassy Sweet Treats is my go-to Thank You Card when someone does something nice for me. I raved about her cookies so much to my friend Erik that he is always trying to figure out what nice things he can do for me to get a surprise of Sassy Sweet Treats cookies in the mail! He actually offered to come over and do my laundry! Very soon Jennie and I will be getting together to do some cooking and cookie-eating, which I will blog about so stay tuned.

Doesn't this look so good...

Jennie's message:

"I've attempted one rolled dessert in my life - last thanksgiving.  I saw it on the back of a can of Libby's Pumpkin and had to try it! I attached the pic I took of it! Here's the recipe! If you like cream cheese frosting and a delicious pumpkin cake....try this!! :)"

Thanks Jennie!

GREEN TEA MADELINES

(photo: ©Jennifer Galatioto)

This recipe was inspired by a madeline-like Japanese green tea cake I had the other day at lunch at the Japanese Market near work. It tasted like green tea and had that like dense fluffiness of a madeline. I am obsessed with madelines and green tea, so I made them get married and I am very happy with the result. I used a Emeril's Orange Madeline Recipe as my starting point and added to it the green tea and instead of oranges I substituted grapefruit. I also used castor sugar instead of regular sugar so they would be silky smooth and used cooking spray to grease the molds. Last, I omitted the chocolate dip. 

 

Words of advice: don't forget the eggs. For my first batch my batter was like green delicious crumply play dough. I knew something was wrong but I had to follow through. They came out like green tea biscuits and Mike had one and got sick. I had one too and I am fine. I think its his nerves. It wasn't smooth sailing. Instead of coating the pan with butter and flouring, I used cooking spray. They didn't pull completely off the pan. Then I tried to experiment. I did half the pan just with cooking spray and the other half with the butter and flour. The winner: cooking spray on its own. Those babies slid right out, and were delicious! 

(photo: ©Jennifer Galatioto)

For the green tea powder I used Mariage Feres Matcha Uji Green Tea that I got when I visited Paris. It tastes just like green tea ice cream and its really fine and perfect for baking. 

(photo: ©Jennifer Galatioto)

Green Tea Madelines

Ingredients

4 eggs at room temp

3/4 C. castor sugar

1/4 tsp vanilla

1 stick melted butter, cooled

1 C. flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. grapefruit zest

1 tsp. green tea powder

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray the molds with cooking spray.

On high speed beat the eggs sugar and vanilla for 8-10 minutes until they are light and fluffy.

In a separate bowl mix the flour, baking soda and green tea. 

To the egg mixture add the grapefruit zest and about half of the flour mixture. Mix until combined. Add the other half of the flour mixture and mix until combined.

In a steady stream pour the butter into the mixture while beating, until combined.

Let stand at room temperature for 10 min.

Spoon batter into molds so they are 2/3 full and bake for 18-20 minutes until golden brown.

Let them cool a few minutes before popping them out of the molds.