Seven Layer “Rainbow” Cookies
Equipment
- Stand Mixer
- quarter size baking sheet tray
Ingredients
Cookie Batter
- 8 eggs
- 16 oz vegetable shortening I use one small container of crisco
- 2 cups flour 16 oz
- 2 cups sugar 16 oz
- 1 tbsp almond extract
- Food Coloring I use Americolor Gel in Forest Green and Red Red, but any food coloring will do.
Filling
- seedless raspberry jam or strawberry jam I prefer to use raspberry
- apricot jam If you do not like apricot jam, you could use strawberry, orange, or just keep it as raspberry as well
Chocolate Top Coat
- semi-sweet chocolate chips
- some kind of neutral oil like coconut or vegetable
Instructions
Cookie Batter
- Preheat oven to 350°
- In a stand mixer, add eggs with sugar and almond extract and beat.
- Gradually start adding in spoonful's of the vegetable shortening. You will see it mix in but there will still be spots of unmixed crisco, that is ok as long as they are small, there should be no large clumps.
- Gradually add in the flour and mix till combined only. Do not over mix.
- Using three of the same bowls, ladle out the batter into three. If you have a food scale, it might help to use it here so that you get as close to even amount as possible.
- Leave one bowl of batter white, and then add the food coloring to each respective bowl. If using the gel food coloring, remember a little goes a long way. Try your hardest to not over mix, just mix till there are no more streaks of white.
- Line a quarter baking sheet tray with parchment paper, covering the sides flat so that the batter doesn't stick to the metal sides. You can use a little dab of the leftover batter in the mixer to help the parchment paper stick to the baking sheet.
- Pour the batter onto the baking sheet lined with parchment. Using an offset icing spatula, evenly spread the batter from corner to corner as leveled as possible.
- Bake each layer for 30 minutes. Once removed leave them in their trays and let them come to a cool.
Filling and Assembly
- After the cookie has cooled, take one of the colored layers.
- Without removing the cookie from the tray, add apricot jam directly to the top. I use about 1/4 – 1/2 of the jar
- Take the white layer and align the edges to the side of the tray with the jam.
- Carefully flip the white layer directly on top of the jam layer. The parchment layer should be exposed now.
- Carefully peel the parchment paper off the back of the white layer.
- Add the raspberry jam and spread again. Then add other colored layer and carefully flip it onto the white layer.
- Remove the tray so that the parchment is exposed. At this point, the jam has to serve as a glue to keep the layers together.
- Invert the tray so that the parchment is now meeting the bottom of the tray. This tray will serve as a "dish" to hold the weights. Place heavy things on the top and let this squeeze and seal for at least 3 hours, but I have also left it overnight. The longer you leave it the tighter the layers. I have used weights, cookbooks, canisters of olive oil, my stand mixer, and containers of rice to press the cookies down.
Chocolate Topping
- After the cookies have settled, remove the weights and expose one side of the cookie.
- In a bowl, add about 1 ½ to 2 cups of semisweet chocolate chips. To that, add a small amount of your neutral oil.
- Begin to microwave the chocolate in increments of 10 seconds, lightly stirring in between each session, till the chocolate is completely smooth.
- Pour the chocolate directly onto the layer of the cookies and with an offset spatula spread it as evenly and as quickly as possible. Try not to make the layer too thick because then it will be hard to cut without breaking. It is ok if the chocolate falls off the sides as you will be cutting them off later.
- Place the cookie into the fridge to allow the chocolate to harden for at least an hour.
- Once the chocolate has hardened and settled, place parchment in the same quarter size tray, place it over the chocolate side, and flip so that the uncovered size in now exposed.
- Repeat the chocolate instructions on this side and then let it cool in the fridge again.
Cutting the Cookies
- Remove the cookies from the fridge and place on a large cutting board.
- Using the sharpest knife you own, carefully start trimming the edges away so that you have removed any of the excess jam and chocolate. Save these, they are great munchies to snack on before eating the actual cookie.
- Then, start cutting into like a "column" about 1 -1½ inches or to your desired width. If your knife is sharp enough and the chocolate is not too thick, it should cut through with minimal breakage.
- At this point you can decide to freeze the cookies or cut all of them. I tend to cut about 2 sticks, and freeze the rest.
- FREEZING: Take saran wrap and completely roll and cover the stick of the rainbow cookie uncut. Then cover again in aluminum foil. Then place in a freezer safe ziplock for up to 3 months.
- CUTTING TO SERVE: Place the stick of the rainbow cookie on its sides so that the layers are expose. * Do not cut on the chocolate side as they will all break*Then cut along the layered side to the desired width of your cookie. This is entirely preferential. I tend to cut them a little on the thinner side so that I get more cookies, but I have also seen people cut them into little squares so it is totally up to you.
Video
The Augello Family’s Secret Rainbow Cookie Recipe
This is the most nerve-wracking, anxiety-inducing, recipe I have ever shared. I have been so hesitant about sharing my family’s recipe for Seven-Layer Cookies for three reasons:
- It is a generational recipe that has been passed down from my grandmother, to my aunts and uncles, and then eventually me. It is a near and dear recipe that I have extensively researched to see if anyone made it like my family, and they do not. Everyone has their own variation of the rainbow cookie, but none have the ingredients my nonna used. It deeply terrifies me that some conglomerate is going to steal this cherished recipe and make money off of it. I am fully aware that no one is probably looking at my little blog, let alone reading this, so the likelihood of that happening is rare, but nonetheless, it is still a fear.
- The use of shortening. So many people are going to look at this recipe and something negative towards the usage of shortening. Listen, I get it, it isn’t healthy, it isn’t good for you, but it’s a friggin cookie. And my nonnas recipe is perfect. So, if this isn’t for you, great, keep it moving. Use one of the recipes that you do like, it won’t taste like my nonna’s but that is your loss.
- Sharing isn’t always caring. My family took quite some time to come around to giving me the recipe. Anytime people have asked for the recipe, there is always a kind laugh followed by a “no, no, no” from my family because it is after all, a family secret. I, on the other hand, hate gatekeeping, and I want to share it with everyone. Not just because I think it is the best, but because it is a small way I can document the nostalgia of this little cookie. And I hope they don’t murder me for it.
Nonna Pina
My nonna, aka grandmother, is one of my favorite humans on this planet. She has helped raise me my entire life, and that woman is a godsend to me. She is currently turning 94 years old in about two weeks. While she doesn’t have all the skills and abilities she once did, she still has an unending love for me in her heart. The thing I love about this recipe the most, is that my grandmother actually wrote it down for me many moons ago, before I even knew she was giving me the recipe. My Zia Antonia and Uncle Joe gave it to me more recently because I swore I never had it.
Prior to moving into my first house, I lived in a little apartment in Bensonhurst for about five years. When I had left my parents house, I had a box of “unnecessary but necessary” things. Things like my old journals, silly pictures, letters from my friends, cards I received over the years, etc. I never opened the box after unpacking into the apartment. When we moved into the new house in 2020, the box resurfaced from the depths of the closet. In an effort to minimize the moving load, I went through the box looking for things to declutter. And there, in the midst of all these little old tickets, receipts, and postcards, was my nonna’s handwriting on the smallest little paper, ripped out of a little spiral notebook.
My grandmother only made it to like the second grade, there was no grammatical lessons or spelling, there was barely penmanship classes. Yet, she managed to write down so many recipes over the years, and I am lucky enough to be the recipient of one. Actually a few, I found a couple other ripped papers, but they aren’t as legible as the rainbow cookie recipe. And, for her and her alone, is why I absolutely cherish this recipe, the writings on the paper, and her.
