MARZIPAN RAINBOW COOKIES RECIPES

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350°. Grease three 9”-x-13”pans with cooking spray and line with parchment paper leaving a 2” hangover on each side. In a large bowl using a hand mixer, beat almond paste and ¾ cup sugar together until light almond paste is broken into smaller pieces and looks crumbly. Add butter and beat until light and fluffy. Add egg yolks and almond extract and beat until incorporated. Add flour and salt and beat until just combined.  In another large bowl, beat egg whites until foamy, then slowly add in remaining ¼ cup sugar while beating and continue beating until stiff peaks. Add about ? of the egg whites to the batter and gently fold in until combined, then add the rest of the egg whites and continue gently folding until fully combined. Divide batter evenly into 3 separate bowls. Dye one bowl of batter red and another bowl green, leaving the third one plain. Add batters to prepared pans and use an offset spatula to spread into an even layer.  Bake until no longer shiny and feel just slightly soft when pressed with a finger, 12 minutes. The cakes should be starting to peel from the edges and barely any color will be gained. Let cool 10 minutes in pan, then use the parchment to help lift out and place on cooling racks. Let cool completely.  To assemble the cakes, place a piece of parchment paper over the green layer, then invert layer onto a board. Peel off top piece of parchment paper. Spread warmed apricot preserves over green layer.  Invert white layer onto another board and peel off parchment paper. Gently slide it on top of green layer. Spread warmed raspberry preserves over white layer. Finally, invert red layer onto another board, peel off parchment and gently slide on top of white layer. Place a piece of parchment paper on top of red layer, then place a baking pan on top of parchment.  Weigh down the pan with cans and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or up to overnight.  When ready to coat in chocolate, remove from refrigerator while you temper your chocolate. To temper your chocolate, place ¾ cup chocolate chips into a microwave safe bowl. Microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring after each one, until chocolate is smooth and reaches between 113° and 118°. Microwave in 5 to 10 seconds bursts as needed to hit your desired temperature. Add remaining ½ cup of chocolate chips a little at a time, stirring until completely melted between additions. Keep stirring until your chocolate reaches 88° or 89°. You can add a little more chocolate as needed to help cool your chocolate down, making sure the new chips melt completely before adding any more.  Add about half of your tempered chocolate on top of the red layer, and working quickly so it doesn’t set, use an offset spatula to spread into an even layer. Refrigerate until chocolate is completely set, 30 minutes.  If your chocolate hardened while the first layer was chilling, microwave in 10 second bursts until smooth and chocolate reaches 89° again. Once chocolate is set, invert onto another board and spread remaining chocolate over the green layer. Refrigerate until chocolate is set or until ready to serve, 30 more minutes.  Using a large knife, trim edges of cakes to get clean sides, then cut into 28 pieces.

Steps:

• Preheat Oven to 350 degrees.
• Grease 3 8"x8" metal baking pans. After greasing, line the bottoms of the pans with wax paper, smoothing the paper down onto the pan. Grease the tops of the wax paper and then flour the pans. Put aside.
• In a large mixing bowl, Beat together on medium-high speed the Almond Paste, Sugar, Almond Extract and butter until well blended. (there might be some small lumps of Almond Paste remaining and that's fine.).
• Reduce speed to medium and beat in the eggs one at a time until blended.
• Reduce speed to low and then add the flour and salt slowly to the mixture until combined.
• Take two small bowls and add 1 rounded cup of batter into each bowl. (there should be another rounded cup of batter still in the original mixing bowl.).
• Add 15 drops of red food color to one bowl and 15 drops of green food color to the other. Stir each bowl until evenly blended with color.
• Spoon the untinted batter into one pan. With metal spatula spread batter evenly (layer will be about 1/4 inch thick). Repear with red batter in second pan and green batter in remaining pan.
• Bake until set and toothpick inserted in center of layers comes out clean. 10-12 minutes.
• Cool in pans on wire rack about 1/2 hour. Cake should be cool to the touch.
• Run tip of knife around side of pans to loosen layers.
• Lay a piece of wax paper on a flat surface that will be able to fit in refrigerator.
• Take the green layer and flip over pan onto wax paper. Gently pull off the wax paper. Spread 1/3 cup of apricot preserves onto the green layer.
• Take the untinted layer and remove from pan. Place it onto the green layer with the wax paper side up. Press down gently and then remove the wax paper.
• Spread remaining 1/3 cup of Apricot preserves onto the untinted layer.
• take the remaining red layer and remove from pan and place upon the white layer again with the wax paper side up. Press down gently and remove the wax paper.
• In a 1 quart saucepan, heat chocolate and butter flavored crisco over low heat, stirring frequently, until melted.
• Spread melted chocolate mixture on top of the red layer evenly. Do not put mixture on sides.
• refrigerate until chocolate is firm, at least 1 hour. (at this point, if you want, you can cover and refrigerate for up to 3 days before serving).
• To serve, with a large sharp knife, trim about 1/4 inch from the edges. Cut the stacked layers into 6 strips. Cut each strip crosswise into 6 pieces. You will get 36 square cookies from this.
• Place the cookies in a single layer in a waxed paper lined container. They can be refrigerated for up to one week or freeze up to 3 months. These cookies must be kept in the fridge.