Tuesday, December 30, 2008

7 Layer Cookies aka Rainbow Cookies

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I promise you they DO have 7 layers. Let's count. Chocolate, green, jelly, white, jelly, red, chocolate...see, there are 7!!! This recipe comes from my other Italian Grandmother. My Grandmother Josephine. I'm not sure where she got them from but I know it was someone named Rosemarie because the recipe I have says "Rosemarie's 7 Layer Cookies". I'll have to ask her if she remembers who that is she stopped making them years ago and passed it onto my mom who passed the job onto my sister and I. It wouldn't be Christmas for my family without these cookies and everyone who knows us always asks for them come Christmastime.

Like any other family we think our family recipe is the best. How could anyone not like their own family recipies they grew up on, right? Well anyway, our recipe is different from most because we do not use Almond Paste. Almond paste is the main ingredient (or only ingredient, I'm not sure) in Marzipan and Pignoli Cookies. I just can't aquire a taste for that but lucky for me our recipe uses almond extract. The almond flavor isn't as in your face as some bakery versions in my very humble opinion. Whatever it is or isn't I know this...they are good! Great even! They take some time (and patience....right Danielle?) but they are well worth it.

I read on someone else's blog that they like to cut them with a serrated knife. I thought I'd try it. It would be good if you wipe off the knife every time which I just don't have the patience for. So, you can see that it messed up the look of them a bit but they were still great tasting. My suggestion for slicing would be to take them out of the fridge once they chocolate is hard and let it warm up a bit before slicing. If you don't do that you'll have some cracked chocolate. It isn't the worst thing in the world but if you want them to look as good as they taste you won't want that.

One more thing before I post the recipe (I know, I know, I'm babbling today). On Sunday I complained to my Cousin Donny's wife Nicole that my layers aren't always even. She said that she puts weight on them to press them together. I will try that next time for sure. Thanks Nicole for the tip!

Okay, Okay, here's the recipe!!!


Rosemarie's 7-Layer Cookies


1 ¼ cup flour
3 eggs (large)
1 cup sugar
3 teaspoons almond extract
2 sticks (melted butter)
1 jar apricot butter or preserves or seedless raspberry preserves
6 oz. bag of semi sweet chocolate morsels
1 tablespoon of oil
Red and green food coloring


3 pans 11x7x1 ½ or approximate size

Mix in bowl with electric mixer (if desired), flour, sugar, almond extract,
eggs, melted butter.

Separate into 3 bowls evenly. After which you leave one bowl plain, in 2nd
bowl add 8 drops of red and the last bowl add 8 drops of green coloring.

Then in greased pans (or parchment lined pans) pour mixture so it covers all of the pan evenly. Bake for 10 minutes at 350.

Remove from oven, on wax paper on foil, first turn over green layer, coat
lightly with apricot, then white layer over that and coat with preserve.
Last red layer melt chocolate in pot with 1 tablespoon of oil. Coat one
layer with chocolate, refrigerate until hard then turn over wax paper or
foil. Coat second layer, let it get hard then cut and slice.

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27 comments:

Spryte said...

Those are giant cookies!!

Bob said...

Nice, those look awesome. I've never had them before, they look cakey, are they?

vanillasugarblog said...

Oh I'm first? Cool. Well, I've seen these a few times and I have to admit they do intimidate me a bit. Seem hard to make, but the colors are what I love.

Laurie said...

Hi Michele! What a wonderful blog and heart warming tribute to your grandma! I so miss the stories my grandma used to tell me of her home and growing up on a farm in Calabria and running after the chickens at meal time. :)

Those cookies look wonderful and what patience you have for all those layers! I also loved the fontina risotto cakes.. yum, I wish I had right now for breakfast! :)

Ciao and thank you for visiting me at my blog.. it is so nice to come to your blog!

Michele said...

Thanks!!!!

Spryte - they are small! That's just a super close up!!! LOL

Bob - Yes, they are like little cakes.

Dawn - You can do it!!!

Lucy..♥ said...

Ooooh Michele these look wonderful and no almond paste you say!!!! I will try this version, as most familiar w/the almond paste version.

Great!!

Megan said...

I'm glad there is a version that can be made without almond paste (nut allergies). I made these last year and they always look so awesome, but no one in my house could eat them (except me!). Next year I'll try your version - thanks!

Happy New Year!

Pat @ Mille Fiori Favoriti said...

HI Michele!

Thanks so much for the welcome back -- we had such a wonderful first Christmas with our grandson --I already miss him so much.

I make 7 layer cookies too --well actually 6 layers as I don't frost the bottom with chocolate. Thanks for sharing your recipe --I'll try it next time I make them to compare. They look fantastic!

HAPPY 2009! Hope many blessings will be yours in the new year.

Hugs, Pat

Anonymous said...

Wonderful! They look awesome! Happy new year :)

Stacey Snacks said...

These are my favorite cookies of all time.
We used to call them "colored cookies" and buy them in the bakery in Queens near my grandmother's house. Yours look perfect.
Happy New Year!
Stacey

Patsyk said...

I've never made them, but those are some of my favorite cookies!

diana d said...

Michele, these look better than the ones you get in a bakery! wow!

Sophie said...

Yeah! A grandma recipe :)! These are so so pretty. Lol my grandma's name is Josephina :).

Unknown said...

Hey, I have a recipe for these that I will be using this year. But, I love your blog. I also just wanted to mention how fun it was for me to read that the name of your grandmother was Josephine and the person's name on the recipe was Rosemarie. My great-grandmother was named Josephine and my grandmother was named Rose Marie. : )

Michele said...

Thank you! That's so funny! I still don't know who Rosemarie is. I'll have to ask her again. My grandmother Josephine is still with us, she's my Mom's Mother (not the one I dedicated this blog to.)

Anonymous said...

Thanks for sharing. This is the same recipe I've been using (but somehow it never made it back into my book last Christmas). Thanks so much for saving me great head ache and heart ache!

Unknown said...

Hi Michele, your blog is lovely, but did you know there's a significant difference between MELTED butter and SOFTENED butter? I was following your recipe but when my cookies came out like sunken sticky messes, i looked at other people's recipe for the same thing. SOFTENED butter.

Michele said...

Melissa I do MELT the butter for this recipe and is a very sticky dough. I made these yesterday following this exact recipe. It is supposed to be that way. You are pouring and spreading the dough/batter into the pans. They are very cake like.

onelove4ma said...

Hi michele i followed everything you said but was i suppose to double the recipe because my cookies came out very thin? please let me know thank you

Michele said...

Hey there. My cookies aren't as thick as the ones you sometimes see in the bakery. I think they are better that way because you can easily bite into them. Did they taste good?

Cindy said...

Thank you for the recipe and thanks for sharing. Made these w/my 4 year old son and they are absolutely delicious! They are out of this world even without the almond paste.
We had no problem following the directions and it was a breeze to make. The only part that was difficult for my son was waiting for the chocolate to set.

Wishing you and your family a Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year!

Cindy said...

Hi Michele! My 4 year old son and I made these cookies on Friday. They were so absolutely delicious!!

They were not difficult to make at all. As for my son, the only difficult part was waiting for the chocolate to set. I attached a picture of my son and the Rainbow cookies we made together.

Thank you for the recipe and thanks for sharing!

Wishing you and your family a Merry Christmas & a Healthy and Happy New Year!

Michele said...

Cindy I am SO glad that you liked them and that your son had fun making them! Have a very Merry Christmas!

Unknown said...

just baked mine. they came thin but ill make it work, first time is a test i soppose.. they look great though.

Unknown said...

hey i just made mine, they are a ;little thin, i used a 13'9 so i kno for next time double! they are looking great though! thanks!

Unknown said...

just baked mine. they came thin but ill make it work, first time is a test i soppose.. they look great though.

Suzie M. said...

I made these last year and they were AMAZING! I can't wait to make them this year :)