Cookie Debacle
Over the holiday, while I was visiting New York, Theresa, Pritpaul, and Tracy and I went to Veniero’s and had coffee and dessert. I re-discovered the Italian rainbow cookie. That — plus the spiked coffees with cool names and of course Tracy, Theresa, and Pritpaul — was one of the major highlights of the break.
When I got back to Atlanta last week, I was feeling like I had alllll this time to get stuff done, and I thought doing a little baking project might be fun. Cyd said she was making calzones (round pizzas in Cyd’s-Grandma-Speak) and I figured rainbow cookies would be the perfect dessert. They looked a little complicated when I looked at recipe online, but somehow when I read the whole thing I still figured it wouldn’t be too bad.
It was so bad.
It took me three entire days from start to finish, from about 2:45 p.m. on Sunday to midnight on Tuesday. Partly, I was distracted by Lila getting sick.
But it was also just a freaking pain. Just in case you didn’t look at the recipe, here’s some highlights:
- Not only do you have to separate the eggs, the you have to add them at completely different times AND whip the egg whites for freaking ever. This involved washing my one and only electric mixer.
- You have to divide the batter into three to get the darn colors right.
- You have to SHRED the almond paste if you do not have a food processer. I do not. Almond paste gets angry when you try to shed it. It melts and just generally freaks out.
I’ll spare you the rest of the details. The plus side was the recipe was pretty easy to follow. And I really appreciate the tips from Theresa’s Italian Mom. They don’t look terribly pretty in the pictures because my attempts at being a food stylist failed. But I swear they are good!
Elizabeth set up a better picture. (Hi, Pam!)
We’re having them this week at Sunday dinner.
January 16th, 2009 at 08:38
Rainbow cookies are my favorite cookies ever. But I’m very picky. I like mine very moist and very almondy. Not a big fan of the dry kind. Oh, and I like a nice layer of jam in them.
I keep thinking about making them since I like them so much, but I think all that color and layering scared me.
January 16th, 2009 at 11:18
I apologize for ever disparaging your cookie-making. Those things look crazy! Very glamorous.
January 17th, 2009 at 05:17
Those cookies look fab, and totally brought me back to that snowy night…I miss you K!
T
January 17th, 2009 at 11:31
Hi! Dang, I took food pictures yesterday but didn’t add action figures. Dammit.
Lila is so cute. Did she like the cookies?
One of my superpowers is starting recipes and not realizing how complicated they are until it’s too late. I once screamed profanity at the piece of paper with the recipe because it had yet another step that involved 42 dishes. (blanch, strain, divide, set aside … )
January 18th, 2009 at 14:11
WHEN CAN I EAT THE COOKIES?