Red, White, and Blue Rainbow Cookies

With a few substitutions to traditional rainbow cookies you will have a fancy desert ready for the Fourth of July with this recipe from mysequinedlife web site. These patriotic red, white, and blue rainbow cookies are layered with raspberry preserves and topped with dark chocolate for a festive treat that will feed a crowd.

You Will Need:

4 eggs, separated
1 cup granulated sugar
1 8-oz container almond paste
1 ¼ cups unsalted butter, softened
1 teaspoon almond extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
Red and blue food coloring
1 cup raspberry preserves
8 oz dark chocolate chips
Red, white, and blue sprinkles for decoration

What to Do:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9″ x 13″ rectangular pan with butter or cooking spray, then press parchment paper to bottom of pan, leaving enough excess paper sticking up along the 9″ sides so that you can lift out the cookie layer by them after baking. Grease top side of parchment paper, and set pan aside.

2. Beat egg whites on medium-high speed using a mixer for several minutes until peaks form. Gradually add ¼ cup of the sugar to the egg whites until mixture holds stiff peaks, approximately 2-3 minutes.

3. In a separate bowl, add almond paste and remaining ¾ cup sugar and mix on medium speed until almond paste is broken up and both ingredients are well combined. Add butter and mix for a few minutes until light and creamy.

4. Pour in egg yolks and almond extract and mix for another few minutes. Lower mixer speed to low and add flour and salt. Beat until dry ingredients are just mixed in.

5. Pour half of egg white mixture into butter mixture and fold in. Repeat with remaining half of egg white mixture.

6. Separate dough into three equal sections and place each in a separate bowl. Add red coloring to one bowl, blue coloring to another, and leave one bowl as-is. Stir coloring into the batter in the two bowls.

7. Spread dough from one of the bowls into the prepared baking pan and smooth the top. The batter layer will be very thinly-spread. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until batter has just set and a toothpick comes out clean. Using excess parchment paper sticking out from beneath the cookie layer, lift layer out of pan and place on wire rack to cool.

8. Press new parchment paper into pan and grease top, leaving excess on two sides as before. Bake next layer in the same manner as the first. Once done, repeat steps with the remaining layer.

9. Heat the raspberry preserves in a small saucepan set over low heat until mixture is slightly heated throughout. You may strain preserves once heated if desired, but it’s not mandatory

10. Once cookies layers have cooled, invert the blue layer onto a sheet of parchment paper, and peel off parchment paper that used to be on the bottom of the layer. Spread half of raspberry preserves evenly over blue layer, then invert white layer on top.

11. Peel parchment paper from the top side of the white layer and evenly spread second half of the raspberry preserves over it. Invert the red layer on top and peel off its parchment paper.

12. Place a new layer of parchment paper over top of red layer, and wrap cookie layers with plastic wrap. Place a baking sheet on top of the cookie layers to weigh it down slightly and refrigerate at least four hours, or ideally overnight.

13. Once the cookie layers have chilled, remove from the refrigerator. Trim the sides to form an even rectangular shape.

14. Melt dark chocolate using a double boiler or in twenty-second intervals in the microwave, stirring after each interval. Spread a thin layer on top of the cookie. Spread sprinkles on top of the melted chocolate and place the pan back in the refrigerator until chocolate has set.

15. Once chocolate has hardened, slice, and serve.

References:

Recipe from mysequinedlife
Photo by Stephanie Felzenberg