(The Nosher via JTA) – I love rainbow cookies. Love. And they are a serious obsession for my entire family. So when I made this recipe Passover-friendly last year, it was a wonderful, delicious game-changer for our Passover celebrations.
Simply replace the regular flour with 1/2 cup matzah cake meal and 1/2 cup almond flour (note: not almond meal).
To make this recipe non-dairy, simply replace the 1/2 cup butter with 1/2 cup nondairy shortening or margarine.
You will need three 8-by-8-inch square pans to make this recipe (you can buy disposable if you don’t want to invest in buying pans). I also strongly recommend using a food scale to measure the quantity of batter in each layer.
Ingredients:
For the cake:
4 eggs
1 cup white sugar
4 ounces almond paste, broken into little pieces or processed in food processor for 30 seconds
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter or margarine
1/2 cup matzah cake meal
1/2 cup blanched almond flour (not almond meal)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon kosher-for-Passover vanilla extract
red and green food coloring (about 8 drops each)
For the chocolate glaze:
1 cup dark or semisweet chocolate chips
1 tablespoon vegetable shortening or vegetable oil
pinch salt
For the filling:
raspberry jam
Special equipment: 3 square baking pans, offset spatula, food scale.
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease your pans. Add parchment paper to bottom of each pan. Grease again and add light dusting of matzah cake meal. Tap pan to remove any excess flour.
2. Using a hand mixer (or whisk attachment to stand mixer), mix eggs and sugar until thick and yellow. Add crumbled almond paste and combine.
3. Add melted butter (or margarine), matzah cake meal, almond flour, salt and vanilla.
4. Divide batter into 3 equal amounts. (Try using a food scale if eyeballing is too difficult.) Leave one plain. Add green food coloring to one batch of batter. Add red food coloring to the other batch of batter.
5. Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until just set and no longer wet in the middle.
6. Allow to cool completely.
7. Place chocolate, shortening and pinch of salt in a glass bowl. Microwave for 30-second intervals until melted. Stir vigorously to ensure there are no clumps.
8. Place a piece of parchment paper on top of a platter or baking sheet. Add red cake layer to parchment paper. Spread thin layer of raspberry jam. Top with white layer. Add another thin layer of raspberry jam. Top with green cake.
9. Carefully spread half the melted chocolate on top. Place in refrigerator for 15-20 minutes or until completely hard.
10. Turn over and spread remaining chocolate on other side. Place back in refrigerator for 30 minutes or overnight.
11. Trim edges and slice into cookies. Serves 18-24 cookies.
(Shannon Sarna is the editor of The Nosher.)
