Italian Rainbow Cookies

Good morning!  I'm really excited to share this recipe with y'all today and really upset because I ate the last of these cookies this weekend!  Recently, I shared a post (here's the link) about our trip to Florida two weeks ago.  While we were there, we went to the best Italian market and bought my favorite cookies: Italian rainbow cookies.

These are sometimes also called Neapolitan or Italian flag cookies and are layers of almond sponge cake sandwiched with raspberry jam and covered in chocolate.  Well, I'm Italian and my love language is clearly food, so as Mike started the outdoor prep for the hurricane last week, I took care of the indoor prep (including baking).  These cookies are a bit time-intensive (including sitting in the fridge overnight), but they're so worth it, and make a bunch!!

Ingredients:
- 1 cup sugar
- one 8-ounce can almond paste
- 3 sticks unsalted butter, softened
- 4 eggs, separated
- ¼ cup milk
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 2 cups flour
- red food coloring
- green food coloring
- ½ cup raspberry jam
- 1½ cups semisweet chocolate chips, melted
- chocolate sprinkles
You'll also need: non-stick cooking spray, parchment paper, three 9x13 baking pans, plastic wrap, and cans or weights

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
2. Spray all three pans will cooking spray and line them with parchment paper
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine sugar, almond paste, and 1 stick of butter on medium speed.
4. Once fully mixed (without any lumps), add the other 2 sticks of butter, followed by 4 egg yolks, milk, almond extract, and flour.
5. Once all ingredients are well-mixed, remove from the mixer.
6. With a hand mixer, whip the egg whites until stiff peaks form and fold into the batter.
7. Separate the dough into 3 equal bowls.  To one, add green food coloring, to a second, add red food coloring, and leave a third as is.
8. Evenly spread each color dough into its own baking pan.
9. Bake each sheet pan in the oven for 11-13 minutes, or until just set.
10. Allow the pans to cool fully before spreading one half of the jam evenly over the green cookie layer (while it is still in its pan).
11. Place the white layer on top of the green layer to sandwich the jam, and spread the other half of the jam on top of the white layer.
12. Place the red layer on top of the green and white layers to sandwich the second layer of jam.
13. Cover the fookies with a layer of plastic wrap and top with another sheet pan.  Weigh down the cookies with weight (cans, plates) in the refrigerator overnight (at least 12 hours) to help the cookies form together.
14. Remove the weight and plastic wrap from the cookies and spread half of the melted chocolate chips on top.
15. Place the cookies back in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to set the chocolate.
16. Flip the cookies onto a plate and spread the second half of the chocolate on top of the cookies.  Finish with sprinkles. 
17. Refrigerate for another 30 minutes.
18. Cut the edges off the cookies (so that all cookies are uniform on the edges) and slice into squares.

This recipe makes a whole bunch.  I dropped off a few boxes to neighbors and had plenty to eat over the long weekend, staying at home!  These would also be awesome for other holidays.  Since each layer is the same flavor, you don't have to do red and green, so you could coordinate for a birthday party or do orange for Halloween!