Italian rainbow cookies are a staple cookie found on every one of my cookie platters, especially during the holiday season. The thin layers of almond cake married together with raspberry jam are delicately wrapped in chocolate to create a well balanced, flavorful cookie.
The problem with rainbow cookies is that they are very labor intensive and take two days to make. I am very impatient and hate having to wait overnight for my baked goods to be ready. Because of this I made it my mission to create a rainbow cookie-inspired recipe that could be made in just one day. What I ended up with is this revamped recipe for Italian rainbow sugar cookies that can be made in less than four hours. That includes chilling time!
My cookie recipe keeps all the great flavors of a traditional Italian rainbow cookie, but replaces the cake-like cookie with an almond flavored sugar cookie. The rainbow sugar cookies are then jam packed (literally) with raspberry filling, and smothered in a rich chocolate ganache.
Ingredient Notes and Substitutions
Unsalted butter: This recipe calls for unsalted butter. This makes it easier to measure and control the amount of salt in the cookies. Make sure the butter is softened, not melted when mixing the dough.
Almond paste: One of the most important ingredients in this recipe is the almond paste. This acts as the main flavoring agent in the recipe. Almond paste should be available in most grocery stores in the baking aisle. In my local supermarket, the almond paste was located near the instant jellos and puddings.
All-purpose flour: When making this reci0pe, make sure to measure the flour correctly. If too much flour is added, the dough will become brittle and crack when you begin to shape and fill the cookies.
Brown sugar: Brown sugar is not a typical ingredient used in sugar cookies, but I like to add just a little to help keep these cookies soft and chewy.
Corn starch: The cornstarch is used to help prevent the cookies from spreading too thin. We want these cookies to be thick enough to hold a good amount of raspberry jam.
Raspberry Jam: Jam, jelly, or fruit spread will all work the same in this recipe. Just make sure that the fruit preserve you buy is seedless.
Food coloring: The food coloring in this recipe is completely optional. You can also mix and match different colors! If you choose not to use food coloring, I would still recommend dividing the dough into three equal sections when forming and filling the dough balls.
How to Make Rainbow Sugar Cookies
The great thing about this cookie recipe is that it has the same flavors of a traditional Italian rainbow cookie with half the work. Here’s a quick rundown of the recipe.
- Cream the butter, sugars, and almond paste together until light and fluffy. The mixture will be crumbly at first, but will come together nicely after a few minutes of creaming.
- Add the eggs and vanilla extract. First add the eggs, making sure to add one at a time. Then add the vanilla extract.
- Combine and add the dry ingredients. Combine the flour, cornstarch, baking powder and salt together. Add the dry mixture to the wet ingredients.
- Mix until just combined. Mix in the dry ingredients, making sure not to over mix.
- Divide and color dough. Divide the dough into three equal pieces. Use red, green, and yellow food coloring to dye each dough ball.
- Make the dough balls. Cut and stack the dough, and fill with jam. Top with remaining dough. *** find detailed steps in the next section
- Chill cookies. Refrigerate cookies for approximately 2 hours. This will help limit the cookies from spreading too thin when baked.
- Make ganache. Simply heat up the heavy cream in the microwave and pour on top of chocolate. Mix until melted and smooth.
- Bake. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 18-20 minutes.
- Decorate: Spread the chocolate ganache on top of cooled cookies.
How to Form and Shape Rainbow Sugar Cookies?
Assembling the Italian rainbow sugar cookies is easy once you get the hang of it. Here I will break down each step of shaping the cookies, with pictures (for my visual learners).
Step 1: Divide the dough into three equal pieces. Dye each piece one color. Roll each piece into equal sized logs, about 10 inches long.
Step 2: Cut each log into 12 pieces. You will have 36 pieces of dough in total. Roll each piece into a ball (not shown in photo).
Steps 3-5: Take one yellow ball and stack it on top of one red ball. Lightly press down so they are stuck together. Using the back of a cookie scoop or tablespoon, make a small indentation. Fill the indent with 1 tablespoon of raspberry jam. Take one green ball and flatten it in your hands. Drape the flattened dough on top of the jam filled cookie and lightly press along the edges so the green dough sticks and a dough ball is formed. Repeat 11 more times.
How to Make Chocolate Ganache?
Italian Rainbow Sugar Cookies
Equipment
- Stand/Hand Mixer
- Mixing bowls
- Measuring Cups
- Measuring Spoons
- Parchment Paper
- Cookie Sheet
Ingredients
Cookie Dough
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter softened
- 1⅓ cup granulated sugar
- ⅔ cup light brown sugar packed
- 4 oz almond paste
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 3½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tbsp corn starch
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- red, yellow and green food coloring optional
Jam Filling
- 1 cup seedless raspberry jam
Chocolate Ganache
- 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
- ¾ cup heavy cream
Instructions
- In a medium bowl combine flour, corn starch, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter, sugars, and almond paste on medium-high until light and fluffy.
- Beat in eggs one at a time. Add vanilla. Scrape down sides of bowl as needed.
- Add flour mixture and mix until just combined.
- Split dough into 3 equal balls. Dye one ball red, one ball yellow and one ball green.
- Roll each ball into a 12 inch long. You should have three logs at the end. Cut each colored log into 12 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a ball. You should have 26 dough balls in total.
- Stack one yellow ball on top of one red ball. Gently push down so the dough balls stick together. Using a tablespoon, gently indent the dough ball. Fill the indent with about 1 tablespoon of raspberry jam. Take a green dough ball and lightly flatten it in your hands. Place the flattened green dough on top of the jam filled dough ball. Push the green dough down so it sticks to the dough ball and covers the jam. Repeat until 11 more times. ***See pictures for visual instructions
- Chill cookies in fridge for 2 hours. While cookies are chilling, make the chocolate ganache.
- After 2 hours, preheat oven to 350℉. Take cookies out of fridge and evenly space onto a parchment lined cookie sheet, 6 cookies per sheet. Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until the edges and tops are just lightly browned.
- Let cookies cool on sheet for 10 minutes before moving to a wire rack to finish cooling.
- Once completely cooled, spoon and spread 1-2 tablespoons of the cooled chocolate ganache on top of each cookie.
Chocolate Ganache
- Pour heavy cream into a medium, microwave safe bowl. Microwave until heavy cream begins to steam, about 45 seconds. Add chocolate to the hot cream; try to get most of the chocolate covered in the cream. Let sit for 3 minutes.
- Whisk the chocolate and cream together until the chocolate is completely melted and the mixture is smooth. If necessary, heat mixture in microwave in 15 second intervals to completely melt chocolate. Allow to cool on countertop before covering with plastic wrap and placing in fridge.
- Remove ganache from fridge once cookies are ready to be topped.
Did you make this recipe?
Please let me know how it turned out for you! Leave a comment below and tag @the.little.baker.who.could on Instagram.