Having grown up in Manhattan my friend Maria would rave about the delicious cookies and desserts she would get when she was a kid, but couldn't find in the Bay Area after having moved to California decades ago. One of her favorites were rainbow cookies, also known as tricolor or seven-layer cookies that were sold at all the Italian bakeries. I'd never paid much attention to rainbow cookies before because I was team black & white cookie (after watching that famous Seinfeld episode). Never one to pass on a delicious cookie I was open to giving them a try.
On a recent trip to NYC I made sure to get my hands on some rainbow cookies so that I could have a taste for myself. Per Maria's recommendation I headed to Veniero's Pasticceria & Caffe, in the Lower East Side, who are famous for their rainbows. While the cookies were delicious, at $22 a pound (cookies are sold by weight), I thought they were a bit on the expensive side. When I got back to San Francisco I challenged myself to come up with a worthy replica.
I had made rainbow cookies once before, but because the results were less than stellar I never made them again. Maria had success with this NY Times recipe and so I gave it a try. With February 14th just around the corner I thought it was a great excuse to make Valentine's Day Italian Rainbow Cookies in pink tones.
A word of caution though if you decide to make them: while the cookies taste really delicious, the process to make them is rather tedious and you end up with quite a lot of dirty dishes to contend with. I don't see myself making rainbow cookies often, but I would definitely make them for holidays and special occasions.
