Rainbow Cookies

This will be my last Christmas cookie. This is my favorite and my sister's favorite too! I will forewarn you, they are a bit time consuming, but not difficult! And, the more often you make them the easier and quicker it gets.

Here is the recipe, and then I will give ya some photo highlights. :)

Rainbow Cookie Recipe (aka Venetians)

Ingredients:
8 ounces almond paste
1 ½ cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
4 eggs, separated
2 cups sifted flour
1 teaspoon almond extract
¼ teaspoon salt
Red food coloring
Green food coloring
Raspberry (seedless) preserves
12 ounce bag semisweet chocolate chips

Method:
1. Spray 3 disposable 13 X 9 pans with non-stick spray. Line with wax paper. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine almond paste, sugar, butter, egg yolks and almond extract. Beat 5 minutes until light and fluffy. Beat in flour and salt.
3. In separate bowl, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Fold egg white mixture into almond mixture. Divide into 3, 1 ½ cup portions. Add red food coloring to one and green to another. (enough drops to get deep color). Spread each color into a pan.
4. Bake 15 min or until edges are golden brown. Removes cakes from pans by grabbing wax paper and set on cooling racks.
5. Once cool, stack layers in 13X9 pan lined with wax paper, with preserves in between each layer. Use just a very thin layer of preserves. Place a second 9X13 on top and weigh down with 2 5 pound bags of sugar. Refrigerate overnight.
6. The next day, remove stacked layers from pan and place on cutting board. Place chocolate in microwave safe bowl and melt chocolate. Spread melted chocolate over top of stacked cakes. Allow to set for 15 minutes. Cut into bars. Allow chocolate to fully set before storing.

First, here is a pic of the prepared pan. You spray the disposable pan with non-stick spray and then line with a piece of wax paper.

Here are the egg whites, beaten to stiff peaks. Stiff peaks means that if you lift your beater out, it should leave a peak at the top and the peak should stay standing up straight. I know it is hard to see in the pic. If the peak falls over, it is only soft peaks.

Here is one of the pans with the batter spread in it...it is a very thin layer, as the cookie will end up with 3 layers total.

Here is the pan after I took it out of the oven...see the golden brown edges??

This is after I have the stacked the 3 layers with a think layer of jam between.

Here is the pan weighted down. I only had one 5 pound bag of sugar, so I also used a bag of brown.

Here is how I melt the chocolate. I do have an official double boiler, but much prefer a glass bowl sitting on top of a pot of simmering water. Just be sure the water does not touch the bottom of the bowl.

Here are the bars with the chocolate spread on top. I also threw on some sprinkles. Other pic is the bars cut. You can cut off the edges to neaten them up before cutting into squares.

Last pic is them all pretty on a plate. They look very impressive when served!

Enjoy!!!