Italian Rainbow Cookies Better Than the Bakery
These Italian Rainbow Cookies will brighten up any cookie platter. Layers of almond cake are sandwiched together with raspberry and apricot jam and then iced with a layer of chocolate. These cookies are so easy to make and taste way better than the ones sold in bakeries.
Homemade Rainbow Cookies are WAY Better!
These cookies were one of the most popular cookies that we sold at our bakery. Sidenote: We ran our bakery for 10 years before selling it and made everything with high quality ingredients and a lot of love.
Everyone that tried them would say that they were the best that they ever had. The reason for that is that we never skimped on high-quality ingredients and never over-baked them. Many times the rainbow cookies that I’ve recently tried from bakeries tend to be very dry and lack almond flavor. The key flavor in these cookies is almond and it comes from both the almond paste and pure almond extract. You need both!!
Pure almond extract is key because the imitation does not taste like almond.
As for the almond paste, you can usually buy it in the baking section of your supermarket. It should be soft. I have bought rock hard almond paste in the past and it ruined my recipes. Making almond paste at home is super easy and all you need is a handful of ingredients and a few minutes.
Homemade Almond Paste
- 2 cups (160 grams) of blanche almond flour
Combine all of the ingredients together in a bowl or in a tabletop mixer and beat until a dough is formed. The almond paste can be used immediately for the rainbow cookies or stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for a few days. Bring it to room temperature before adding it to the rainbow cookie dough.
Make-Ahead Instructions
This recipe makes a big batch of cookies. I would make a double batch especially around the Holiday season as they make delicious gifts and/or additions to a cookie platter. They freeze beautifully!! Up to 2-3 months. Truth be told, they’ve never made it past the first month in this house, but, we made large batches of these at the bakery and they tasted delicious 2 months later too!
To make the cookies ahead of time, bake the almond cake layers and assemble them with the jam in between. Then, wrap them tightly in a few layers of plastic wrap and freeze! I would spread the chocolate on them right before serving as chocolate tends to crack and turn grey in the freezer.
