Autumn Seven Layer Cookies

These Italian seven layer or rainbow cookies remind me when I lived downtown in NYC. Back then (before Chinatown swallowed parts of Little Italy) I used to occasionally wander around Little Italy sampling delicious everything from various bakeries.

Ever since I saw this excellent and comprehensive tutorial on Smitten Kitchen, I had hope that these cookies were actually possible to make. They do take a long time but mostly because they have to be refrigerated for 8 hours at one point.

I followed Deb's instructions to the letter and I have to say they came out great. Moist and almond-ee.

Here are my variations:

1)  I did not have almond paste, only marzipan (for an explanation on the difference, click here) so I made my own from this recipe.

2) Instead of the apricot preserves, I used my MIL's yellow plum compote she made from the yellow plums in our garden.

3) Instead of the Italian flag colors. I used Fall shades.  I created the yellow, orange and brown shades by coloring the layers with Wilton gel food coloring in Golden Yellow, Orange and Brown.

4) I made little fondant leaves to decorate the tops of the cookies.

To make the leaves, I made a small amount of this recipe for marshmallow fondant. I then separated the fondant five ways and colored each with Wilton gel colors Golden Yellow, Brown, Orange, Burgundy and Green.

I pinched a bit off off each color and worked them together a bit, taking care not to mesh the mass into one uniform color.

Using a small rolling pin, I flattened it and cut out the leaf shapes using a tiny leaf cutter.

By making my own almond paste and adding the fondant decorations, I probably added at least another hour to preparing these cookies. However, if you have the time and "lust" as German's say, I believe they are worth the hours. 

Hey we should be gaining an extra one soon anyway :-)

Happy Fall!