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.

RED-ORANGE CURRANT MUFFINS

     I bought one tiny basket of red currants from the Farmer's Market when we had our second farm breakfast, thinking the six of us could get through those littly "poison berries" as Stephanie so suspiciously called them as she waited for a guinea pig not to die before she tried one. So no one died, but we still didn't finish them. No problem, give me a few days with them, but still, I only ate a few here and a few there. These little suckers are super pretty, but a little tart. I can't eat them voraciously as I can say cherries or blueberries. 

    So what to do. Waste no want not. I searched the interweb and came upon a lot of jams and sauces for meats with currants, and lot of recipes that called for pounds and pounds of currants. Then I found an orange currant cake. Getting somewhere. But I had just made a peach cobbler the day before and its just ridiculous to make so much dessert. Then I found in a comment on this horticulture blog a recipe for red currant muffins from Anne P, who has this knitting/spinning/chickening/mothering/chocolate blog. I was planning on straight using the recipe then just adding some orange zest because that sounded nice, but the batter was cookie dough dry (a metric to US measurement conversion might have cause this), so I had to moisten it a bit and I ended up entirely morphing the recipe.

     So I would aptly call this a recipe inspired by Ann P from that long blog above. Thanks Anne!

Red-Orange Currant Muffins

1 1/2 C. flour

1/2 C. sugar

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

2 eggs, beaten

1/2 C. milk

1/4 C. orange juice

zest of 1 orange

1/4 C. extra virgin olive oil

1 C. red currants

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix the flour, baking powder and salt in one bowl. In another bowl cream the sugar with the eggs, then add the milk, the oil, the orange juice and the orange zest. Gently fold in the red currants. Bake in greased muffin tins for about 18-22 min in a preheated 350 degree oven. 

I'll take one of everything! Brooklyn's Unfancy Food Show

    Who needs fancy when you can just eat and have fun? Thats what the Unfancy Food Show was all about, sampling some really delicious grub while meeting the geniuses who's very hands created it. Having been raised by my Sicilian father Rocco, I have mastered the art of talking with my mouth full. I have not mastered the art of ordering a prosciutto sandwich with my mouth full of mulberries and trying to take a photograph of the sandwich while paying for it. So I did the eating and let them do the talking and learned a lot of interesting facts about what went into the food that was going into my mouth. I also came home with lots and lots of goodies! 

   First stop, Gerald Jerky. I have to admit, after the Slim Jim factory explosion, I am not pro-jerky, plus its seems like mystery meat. But this Gerald Jerky actually looked like chunks of meat. 

   And Rachel, the Jerky Lady, hand made it in a food dehydrator with no preservatives. She spiced the jerky just right and it tasted like meat, not like salty MSG. Delicious. And soon she'll be making these with pastured grass fed beef. Even better. One bag of Jerky please!

    Next, McClure's Pickles. I am really a sweet gherkin kind of girl, but Bob McClure, co-owner with his brother (I love family enterprises) had some really tasty garlic pickles, some outrageous hot spicy pickles, and a mustard that was out of this world. How much for a case? 

   Onto Mama O's Kimchee, another family pickling venture. Kimchee is a Korean super-food, raw and very nutritious.  

   Mama O was right there being great and mama-ish. Kheedim Oh, son and chef/owner, was super nice and his kimchees were phenomenal. There was kimchee salsa, cucumber kimchee, daikon kimchee and I picked up a tub of traditional kimchee. All were ridiculously good and the perfect spice level for my taste. 

   Time to represent at the Queens County Farm Museum! When I was a kid this farm was an educational petting zoo. Pat, my godmother, helped out there one summer and explained to her tour group of kids that the horse's untimely erection was really a ladder for climbing onto the horse! No pony rides that day!

     The girls at the farm table explained to me that the farm has come a long way since then. Now they sell fresh produce, eggs and even farm raised pigs at the Union Square Farmer's Market on Fridays. I bought a round zucchini and made it that night for dinner in the form of Zucchini Stew and it was so flavorful and fresh. There I also bought a cup of their super sweet mulberries and cursed myself for wearing light colored pants. Lookout for the Queen's Farm's and Brooklyn-Based July 4th Weekend Pig Roast!

   Next door was the Brooklyn Kitchen table and a lot of fun cooking supplies. Their canning display caught my attention because of all the produce I have been getting from the CSA and my anticipation of some really fresh plum tomatoes for sauce that I want to preserve. I bought a Canning Manual and they gave me a lot of great advice. Check out Brooklyn Kitchen's cooking classes. 

 Across the way, the sight of a woman cutting pieces of fresh prosciutto off a pig caught my eye. Salvatore Bklyn, a wholesaler that sells to the likes of Marlow and Son's, was whipping up amazing open-faced prosciutto sandwiches smeared with fresh homemade ricotta and arugula and drizzled with extra virgin olive oil. Yes!

   Chocolate time. First stop, Nunu Chocolates with some really nice salted chocolate caramels. A box of those to go. Owner Justine was a doll and explained that the company was started to give away goodies during her partner and husband's music shows, but the company just took off with a few successful retail stores, one on Atlantic Ave in Brooklyn, and they still haven't given them out during performances. They get their cocoa from Brazil and look forward to a trip there to visit the farm.

   Taza Chocolate had an elaborate display, with lots of free samples, like my favorite the Guajillo Chili Mexicano which tasted like chocolate covered peppers! (Hmmm? Kitchen experiment tomorrow?) Their organic and sustainable, direct trade and stone ground chocolate from Mexico and the Dominican Republic was really delicious and had that unfancy raw texture I prefer in dark chocolate. Anne showed me what a giant cocoa pod looks like, inside of which the cacoa beans are found.

    I even tried some raw ground unsweetened cacao nibs which almost had a nutty, Grape Nuts cereal flavor, and would be great to put on ice cream or Ann recommended in place of chips of chocolate chip cookies. A bag of nibs, thanks!

   There were two cheese stands, but they were so packed with people I literally couldn't get a taste, so more chocolate made sense and I headed over to Fine & Raw Chocolates for some dark chocolate from Equador. Their newest product, Raw Chocolate Ice Cream, was displayed on dry ice. Sexy.

    I had to elbow my way into Liddabit Sweet to try some of their local seasonal candies. Their cucumber mojito jelly candy was really like nothing I have ever tasted and I loved it! It was like eating fresh candy. No weird artificial aftertaste. Great!

   My last stop was the Marlow and Son's table, a sea of sanwiches and a tough decision. White fish or Brisket Sandwich? How does one choose? White fish, and can I just try a piece of the brisket, please?

 They were such a fun crew and let me have my white fish and my brisket, too! Both were such a great way to end my day of sampling at the Unfancy Food Show. I didn't have one beer while I was there but I felt drunk (in a good way) on irresistible food while I headed home. Thanks Brooklyn!