Rainbow Cookies

While John was in Puerto Rico for the weekend partying it up, I decided to be the best girlfriend ever and bake some cookies for him.

Ingredients:
8 ounces almond paste
1 cup sugar
2½ sticks unsalted butter, softened, cut into pieces, plus more for the pans
4 large eggs, separated
½ teaspoon kosher salt
2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for the pans
1 teaspoon red food coloring, gel or paste preferred
1 teaspoon green food coloring, gel or paste preferred
115-ounce jar smooth (not chunky) apricot jam
3/4 pounds bittersweet chocolate, chopped

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour three 9 x 12.5 inch rimmed sheet pans, and line the bottoms of the pans with parchment paper. (also called jelly roll pans)

Combine the almond paste and all but 2 tablespoons of the sugar in an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed until you have fine crumbles. Add the butter, a few pieces at a time, and pulse until well mixed. Plop in the egg yolks, one at a time, and mix until the batter is smooth. Sprinkle in salt, and mix. Sift in flour, and mix until just combined.

Whisk egg whites in a bowl until foamy. Your arm may get sore. Do this with a buddy. While whisking, slowly add the remaining 2 tablespoons sugar, and whisk until firm peaks form. Fold about a third of the egg whites into the batter to lighten it, then gently fold in remaining egg whites.

Divide batter evenly into three bowls. Leave one bowl plain, without any coloring. Add red food coloring to one bowl, stirring to make a deep-salmon color. Add green food coloring to last bowl, stirring to make a medium-green color. Spread batter into each of the prepared pans with a spatula. Bake, rotating pans to opposite racks, until cakes are cooked through and just beginning to brown around the edges, about 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from oven, let cakes cook completely on wire racks, then remove from pans.

Flip over the green cake, bottom side up, into one of the lined pans. Spread 1/2 jar of jam over the cake, almost all of the way to the edges. Place the plain layer of cake on top of the jam. Spread the remaining jar of jam almost all the way to the edges of the plain layer. Place the red layer on top of the ham, bottom side up. Wrap the entire cake in plastic, and top with another pan, weighted with cans. Chill in refrigerator 4 hours or overnight.

Melt chocolate in a double boiler. Unwrap the cake, and place on a wire rack over a rimmed baking sheet. Cut the cake into 4 or 5 logs the short way. Pour and spread the chocolate over the top of each log , using a spatula to guide the chocolate over the top and down the sides of the cake. If the kitchen is cool, let the chocolate harden that way; if it is warm, clear a space in the refrigerator to place the cake and let the chocolate harden. When the chocolate is about halfway set, gently rake the topping with the tines of a fork s, starting from the end of the chocolate covering all the way to the other end, slightly undulating the lines as you move along. Repeat until all of the chocolate has indented stripes. Let the chocolate set completely. 

Notes:

The original recipe said to use 10 x 15 in jelly roll pans, but that's not what we own. If you're using the larger pans, the original recipe cut the cooking time in half and doubled the jam and chocolate. 

These cookies are amazing. Best rainbow cookies I've had.