MIA, NOT THE ARTIST.

I am totally going to listen to MIA right now while I describe to you all what I have and have not been doing the past months. Clearly, I have not been blogging. I don't really like blogging that much so it's understandable. I am really using this to document certain recipes and memories that I have.

I lied about the pierogies, but those are still coming because I have a secret weapon that will blow your mind.

I've been homeless, kind of, for a few months now so have not really been available to post on the internet mostly because I find it depressing. BUT there is nothing that makes you feel better than the supple combination of cookie and cake in one magnanimous treat! So I bring you, a Jen semi-original recipe, in that I veganized a traditional recipe, so of course it is not original because nothing is fucking original. Let's see if you can guess. Did anyone else grow up in Long Island, too little to truly understand why you hated family parties but you just knew that there was only one thing to look forward to after dinner? Nope, not going home, or going to sleep, or sketching pictures of your stuffed animals because you are mad your mom wouldn't let you have any more ITALIAN RAINBOW COOKIES!! aaahhhhhh. I really hope there is someone else out there who understands how important it is to have a vegan recipe of these little bakery delicacies.

Usually, these cookies are made with eggs so that was really the only thing to replace. No problem. Let's just use our replacer calculator. Cakey cookies are not crispy so that should leave out the sole useage of Ener-g or more baking powder. We don't want to introduce flavors that don't belong, so I skipped the applesauce and bananas. I decided that silken extra firm tofu would do the trick. Flavorless, dense, and binding. But there's more.



Okay here is the recipe, and like I always say, theresahtweakintobedohn.

Italian Bakery Rainbow Cookies
(makes about 30 cookies)

What you'll need:
3 Pans, rectangular. Regular cookie or cake sheet pans are fine.
3 separate mixing bowls
a food processor or electric hand mixer (if you don't have any of these, you can still do this but it will be a lot more work)
parchment paper and plastic wrap
3 cooling racks or surfaces
TIME

7 oz (one tube) of almond paste (you can find this in the baking aisle usually. NOT marzipan decorating paste)
1 cup Earth Balance
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. almond extract
4 replacement eggs: This needs more explaining. I used 2 tofu eggs at 1/4 cup xtra firm silken each and 2 Ener-g eggs at 1 1/2 tsp and 2 TB water each. I also threw in 1 tsp on guar gum to see what it would do and I think THINK THINK I could have skipped the ener-g altogether and just used more tofu and more guar. But it turned out pretty fucking well so whatever.
2 cups of whole wheat pastry flour
red and green food coloring
one jar of preserves (I used apricot but cherry, raspberry, etc. would be delicious too!)
For the Ganache:
1 bag of chocolate chips (12 ounces usually)
3 TB Earth Balance
1/2 cup coconut creamer
3-5 TB confectioner's sugar

Preheat oven to 350F
Okay here we go! First of all you should whip up the egg replacers. Put your 3 tsp of ener-g powder and 4 TB of water and blend until bubbly, one or two minutes even. Then add the silken tofu and guar. I added a couple of splashes of water because of the guar gum. After all of it is completely smooth, pour into a little bowl.

Then use your food processor or mixer to blend the almond paste. It's super stiff in the tube so we want to make it mixable. Then add the margarine sugar and extract. Cream away! (ew)

Fold in your egg mixture then your flour with a wooden spoon

Divide the batter into 3 separate bowls (EVENLY!) Mine turned out to have about 1 1/2-3/4 cup batter in each. But eye it.

Add your food coloring to respective bowls and mix until you achieved desired color.

Put parchment paper down on your 3 pans. I even spray some Pam on there to be double sure. NOTHING is worse than sticking. Smooth out the batter one each pan very carefully with a metal spoon. You want to make sure all three cakes are pretty much the same size. If you measured out the batter into thirds properly, then when you spread it out as thin as possible, it should come out exactly right. Remember, the little cakes really shouldn't rise too much and shouldn't be too thick.

Bake for anywhere between 10-15 minutes. Ovens are so different. The one I used at this current house I am staying at is super old school like 1950's or 60's. So I had to flip the pans halfway through and kind of tell when they were done by smell and touch. In my old apartment, everything cooked in half the time. So annoying.

Let the cake cool on the pan when it's done. Then transfer to cooling rack to cool for at least 25-30 more minutes. DO NOT BREAK THE CAKES. To transfer from a pan to the rack, I usually do the flip trick. Get a cooling race smaller than the pan, place it on top of the cake and flip the pan over to be on top. Put back down on the counter, peel the parchment paper off carefully and there ya go!

While the cakes are cooling you can prepare your preserves. Unless you get apricot butter, the preserves are going to be too gelatinous and chunky to spread. So I put the whole jar in the food processor and blended until smooth.

Also, place a layer of plastic wrap on a pan. Place first layer of cake (red or green) down and spread a generous layer of apricot preserves onto it. Next cake (white) down and another layer of preserves. Last cake down (whatever is left) and the last layer of preserves on top of that. Wrap with plastic wrap (it's okay that the plastic wrap on top gets all jammed up). Place books or whatever you have on top to apply weight. This will even out the layers of the cookies. Let sit overnight or you know, 6 hours or so, preferably in a fridge.

After time has passed, you can make the ganache. In a double boiler, melt the chocolate, then add the butter, confectioner's sugar and creamer. You could even throw a little maple syrup in there if you want. However you like your chocolate. When everything is melted and combined, take off and let cool to a pourable consistancy.

Pour the chocolately goodness over the cake and spread around with a spatula, covering all of the sides and top. This is the 7th layer. Place the cake in a fridge or freezer uncovered for an hour (maybe more maybe less) but basically until the chocolate has hardened. When the chocolate has hardened, you can then cut this baby up. I think I did 4 cuts and then 7 or 8. I forget. But basically the cookies should be big enough that the chocolate doesn't crack off. Be gentle.

Get it, they are little Italian flags, sort of. Except obviously the red is more like pink and the green is spearminty. Keep chilled until ready to serve or else the chocolate will melt!

Enjoy!! <3