italian rainbow cookie gelato sandwiches

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Hello from Alaska, friends!!! I am here learning about salmon fishing, hiking, eating s’mores in the shadows of glaciers, living a cell phone service-less life, and looking at all of this wild beauty from underneath four layers of fleeces and I’m as happy as a clam. I can’t wait to tell you more about it!! I’ll be back in a couple of days, right in time to spend a week doing nothing but prep Eggsister's wedding cakes and then party my bum off on the big day.

Right before I left I filled the freezer with gelato sandwiches so that E-boy doesn’t go hungry while I’m gone. Full disclosure, with Eggmom across the street he never actually goes hungry when I’m gone (…it’s when Eggparents go camping and I happen to be gone that I really have to make sure that there are frozen tater tot hotdishes in the freezer.) So I guess these sammies are more like a Tour de France viewing treat. They are made with Italian Rainbow Cookies which I always used to find next to the Black and White Cookies in New York. They’re basically colorful marzipan cake layered with jam, so basically a perfect food. Every time I see one of those “name the ice cream/gelato flavor of your wildest dreams” contests, I enter with Italian Rainbow Cookie flavor. I haven’t won yet but I vow to keep trying. I just love their soft consistency all cozied up with ice cream. And cakey cookies make the best ice cream sandwiches since they allow your whole bite to be a smooth ride, you don’t have to deal with any of that business where ice cream splats out the sides. 

I partnered with Talenti Gelato to make these little guys in celebration of National Ice Cream Day this Sunday!! I’ve been a Talenti fan for so long, especially since it’s because of them that I can get my pistachio gelato fix in Grand Forks. Short of making my own, Talenti is literally the only way that I can get pistachio gelato in town, and I am down with that because their ingredients are great and I just found out that the Talenti Sicilian Pistachio Gelato contains my new favorite ingredient, pistachio butter. It's also got pistachios from volcanic soil near the Mediterranean sea! So in addition to using pistachio gelato in these sammies, I also used their Double Dark Chocolate Gelato (which has a dash of vermouth!) since Italian Rainbow Cookies are typically covered in chocolate, and Vanilla Blueberry Crumble Gelato which has little tasty brown sugar oat crumbles throughout. The flavors/richness/creaminess are a perfect match to the almondy Italian Rainbow Cookies and while making these sandwiches is a process that requires two extended resting/freezing periods, they are worth it, yo. The key is having taste tests along the way: have a bite of almond paste when making your cookies, steal a scoop of gelato when assembling, you know the drill.

italian rainbow cookie gelato sandwiches

makes 15 sandwiches

ingredients

6 large eggs, separated (see note)

1/4 c (50g) plus 1 c (200g) sugar

2 c (450g) unsalted butter, at room temperature

12 oz (340g) almond paste, chopped

1 tsp kosher salt

1 tb lemon juice

1 tsp almond extract

2 2/3 c (340g) all-purpose flour

1 tsp green liquid food coloring

1 tsp red liquid food coloring

6 tb (112g) apricot or raspberry jam

3 pints Talenti Gelato (you really can't go wrong with flavors but i like Sicilian Pistachio Gelato, Double Dark Gelato, and Vanilla Blueberry Crumble Gelato!)

rainbow sprinkles

clues

preheat the oven to 350ºf. grease three 8-inch square pans and line them with parchment paper that comes at least 2 inches up two of the sides of the pan. if you don't have 3 pans, you can bake the layers in batches.

in a large bowl or in a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat the egg whites to soft peaks. with the mixer running on medium, gradually add the 1/4 cup of sugar. increase the speed to medium-high and beat to stiff peaks. set them aside (see note). in a large bowl or in a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat together the butter, almond paste, salt, and remaining 1 cup sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. reduce the speed to medium and add the yolks, one at a time, beating well after each. beat in the lemon juice and almond extract, then reduce the speed to medium-low and gradually add the flour. mix to combine. use a rubber spatula to fold in the whites.

transfer one-third of the mixture to one of the pans and use a small offset spatula to spread it out evenly. transfer another third of the mixture to a separate bowl and fold in the green food coloring. fold the red food coloring into the remaining third. transfer these into the remaining 2 pans, spreading them out evenly.

bake until the tops are just set and no longer shiny. begin checking for doneness at 15 minutes. let cool in the pans for 5 minutes and then lift them out and place on a wire rack to cool completely.

stack them up (from bottom to top: green, white, red) with 3 tablespoons jam between the layers. wrap the loaf firmly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight.

with a long sharp knife, cut the cookie loaf into long skinny slices, 1/2" thick. line the bottom and two sides of a 9” x 13” pan (or something of relatively similar size, i used an 8” x 8” pan plus a loaf pan) with parchment paper, allowing parchment wings to come all the way up the sides. lay the cookie slices flat and snuggly in the bottom of the pan. soften 3 pints of gelato at room temperature for about 15 minutes, until spreadable. give the gelato a little stir so it’s all one consistency and then spread it evenly over the cookie slices. top with the remaining cookie slices and then freeze for 4 hours or overnight, until firm. use the parchment wings to lift your giant cookie sandwich out of the pan and onto a cutting board. with a sharp knife, trim the edges so they’re nice and even and then cut into squares. (save edge scraps in an empty talenti container!)

Note: with any recipe that calls for beating something else in the same mixer, I do a few steps to cut down on dishes and ensure that my egg whites don't have any bit of yolk in them, which will cause them not to beat to stiff peaks. I first separate an egg into 2 medium bowls. I then pour the white into my mixer bowl. then I repeat for each egg, adding the whites one by one so that if one gets contaminated, they're not all ruined. and then i beat the whites to stiff peaks first, scoop them out of the mixer bowl, and then use the mixer bowl for the next step. if you use a rubber spatula to get 95 percent of the whites out, there's really no need to rinse the mixer bowl for the yolk step.

-yeh!

thank you, talenti gelato, for sponsoring this post! 

s'mores mini cakes + instaglamp registration!

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in the alternate reality where we never grow up and i am eternally a 12-year-old with crimped hair and a body glittered face, you will find me at summer camp near the canteen with a frozen charleston chew going into my mouth. and i might also be writing a letter home on hello kitty stationary or on my way to pick up a care package full of tampon boxes that are actually secretly full of red vines and cow tales. this is my heaven. 

idk, maybe it’s obvious from the fact that i sleep in this sweatshirt every night and watch wet hot american summer and camp nowhere as often as possible and devoted a whole chapter in molly on the range to camp and just about fell off the treadmill when unorthodox announced their summer camp episode but i am the most summer camp obsessed lady in all of the red river valley. 

which is why i am excited af x 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 to announce that registration for a **new** grownup summer camp is officially open!!!!!!!!

instaglamp is what happens when summer camp grows up, leaves home, gives away its juicy velour sweatsuits, and now instead of playing gaga and eating spray can cheese, it is into things like styling cute picnic lunches, cooking shakshuka by campfire, foraging, and posting all about it on instagram. all of the great campy things like s’mores and care packages are still there but these s’mores will have ~fancy~ marshmallows and the care packages just might be boozy. and the spray can cheese will get swapped out for cheese tasting at a goat farm!!! 

it will be held at firelight camps (just look at the tents that you get to stay in!!) and the counselors will be johnna foxmeetsbear, emma frisch, and me! emma and johnna are the best and we’ve been chatting and scheming for months now and have cooked up a schedule that is geared toward anybody who is looking to work on their photo taking, food styling, editing in both lightroom and mobile apps, and all of the fun things that go into building an instagram feed that you love. we’ll also venture out around the finger lakes to explore breweries, farms, and the ithaca farmers market. it’s going to be bonkers and i hope you will join us!

spots are limited, so head over here for more details and book as soon as you can!

to celebrate instaglamp registration opening, i made cakes! duh. they are s’mores inspired mini cakes that are made up of graham cake, chocolate buttercream, and a marshmallow topping that i torched with eggboy’s tiniest farm torch. i was inspired by deb’s s'mores cupcakes to put actual ground up graham crackers into the cake rather than hunting down graham flour, and it is such a tasty addition. if you don’t have a little torch, you can totally skip that step (but do add a kitchen torch to your next birthday list because torching marshmallow frosting is sooo satisfying). 

s'mores mini cakes

makes 10 mini cakes

ingredients

for the cake:

1 c sugar

1/2 c brown sugar

1 1/2 c all-purpose flour

9 large graham crackers (1 package), finely ground in a food processor

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp kosher salt

1 tsp ground cinnamon

2 large eggs

1 c buttermilk

1/2 c flavorless oil, like canola

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 c water

 

for the chocolate frosting:

3 oz chocolate chips

1/2 c unsalted butter, softened

1 c powdered sugar

1/4 c cocoa powder

a pinch of kosher salt

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2 tb heavy cream

 

for the marshmallow topping:

4 egg whites

3/4 c sugar

a pinch of kosher salt

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

 

sprinkles, optional

clues

for the cake:

preheat the oven to 350ºf. line a half sheet pan with parchment and set aside.

in a large bowl, combine the sugar, brown sugar, flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. in a separate bowl, mix together the eggs, buttermilk, oil, vanilla extract, and water. add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix to combine.

pour the cake batter into the prepared pan and until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, begin checking for doneness at 20 minutes. let cool in the pan fully.

when the cake is cool, use a 2 1/2" circle biscuit cutter to cut out your mini layers. (to get the cleanest edges, i typically wrap the cooled cake in plastic wrap and then freeze for an hour or so (or even up to a couple of weeks) before cutting out my circles.)

for the frosting:

melt chocolate chips in a double boiler, set aside to cool to room temperature.

in a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine the butter, sugar, cocoa powder, salt, and vanilla until combined. add the cream and then with the mixer on low, stir in the melted chocolate.

to assemble:

stack up three layers of cake circles with a layer of chocolate frosting between them, leaving the top unfrosted and ready for the marshmallow topping. it's important to do this step before making the marshmallow topping since once you make it you'll want to pipe it on immediately. 

for the marshmallow topping:

in a double boiler fitted with a candy thermometer, combine the egg whites and sugar and cook over low heat, stirring constantly with a rubber spatula, until it reaches 160ºf.

transfer the mixture to the bowl of your stand mixer and beat on high with the whisk attachment until the mixture forms glossy stiff peaks. stir in the salt and vanilla and then immediately transfer to a large piping bag fitted with a large circle tip. pipe large blobs onto the tops of the cakes and then torch with a kitchen torch to lightly toast it. top with sprinkles if desired.

enjoy!

-yeh!

firelight photos by: andy noyes, kathryn leighton, and allison usavage! 

coconut rose cake

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i spent the weekend doing two of my favorite things: filling up an entire deep freeze with chocolate chip cookie dough and morning-after-eggsister-wedding bacon muffins, and cleaning the house with eggboy and stacy, our pet roomba. i don’t know when my geezerness became so extreme that house cleaning jumped to the top of my list of favorite things but here we are, sitting in a living room that now feels twice the size, thanks to some furniture rearranging and cookbook organizing, in a house that won’t be a total embarrassment when my family arrives from chicago later today for a visit. yay! we’re going to defrost this carrot cake finally.

and speaking of cake we’ve now passed the three week mark until eggsister’s wedding which means that cake baking can now comfortably commence without fear that freezer smell will soak into the layers. i am so excited. all i really want these days is 314 people to come to town every weekend, hungry for wedding cake, so that i can bake this much all the time. oh, i guess that’s what bakeries do...

so the past two weeks have been filled with finalizing the recipes for all of the layers. did i tell you eggsister’s brilliant idea? rather than having each of the cakes a different flavor, each layer will be a different flavor so the cakes look rainbow-y. 

two of the cakes will be: pistachio, hazelnut, and orange blossom almond (very excited for this recipe in particular, i’ll be sharing it soon!!) 

and two of the cakes were originally supposed to be: sprinkle, chocolate, and coconut…

but as i was visualizing the white sprinkle layer, the brown chocolate layer, and the white coconut layer together, i kept wanting the coconut layer to be pink. wouldn’t that be pretty to have sort of a neapolitan look? so i got to work, testing what seemed like a reasonable choice given the floral theme of the cakes and bridesmaid dresses: coconut cake with hibiscus! i loved the idea of making a naturally pink cake using just hibiscus flowers. so i ordered a pound of dried hibiscus online, confirmed via lily that coconut and hibiscus would go well together, and then spent a wild week wishing i hadn’t been such a slacker in high school chemistry. here’s why: what makes hibiscus that beautiful bright pink color are anthocyanins. based on some limited harold mcgee and bravetart research, i learned that anthocyanins are red/pink in acidic situations. but to make a cake rise you have to add leavening agents like baking powder, baking soda, egg whites, which are all alkaline and can bring the ph of the cake batter into basic territory. not basic like loving ryan gosling, but basic like opposite of acidic, like your ph is higher than 7. and in a basic situation, anthocyanins turn anywhere from purple to a gross grey. so the challenge was adding just enough leavening agents to produce a tasty fluffy cake but not so much that the color turns gross grey. and enough acid to keep it a pretty color but not so much that the flavor makes you pucker up. here is a video summary:

eventually i started packing the batter with acidic ingredients like lemon, buttermilk, vinegar, and toward the end i was subbing honey for part of the sugar. i was starting to love the color!! but also toward the end i made the biggest discovery of all which was that… hibiscus…is…not…good? i mean, i like it in tea. i like it in glaze. i like it pickled and stuffed with goat cheese on the streets of tel aviv. but in this application, i kept doing this face 😝😝😝😝😝 at the thought of having to taste test any of this cake. and when i finally admitted this on instagram stories, so many kind humans came out of the woodwork to tell me that yes, it’s totally ok to not like hibiscus because they, too, do not like hibiscus. thank you, kind humans. also thank you to all of you who sent over all sorts of awesome suggestions and cake batter ph resources (especially stella, who is wrangling some strawberry cake batter ph right now)!! 

so i had a talk with myself, i said self, if you don’t like hibiscus cake, how are 314 of eggsister’s closest friends going to like hibiscus cake?

and i sent the working recipe to michelle who is hopefully going to pick up this experiment where i left off.

and i pulled out my rosewater and food coloring. 

and i changed my stripper name from chinese hotdish to coco rose. 

and when, on test cake #6 i still couldn’t help myself from sneaking big bites of this new coconut rose cake, i knew i’d made the right decision. y’all i am so proud of this cake!!! it’s crazy moist, buttery, soft, coconutty, rosey, a tiny bit almondy, and it’s going to look great in between a chocolate and sprinkle layer. i slathered it with a layer of american buttercream but then whipped up some swiss buttercream to practice my roses. like italian buttercream, swiss buttercream was really easy to pipe and had a nice light texture. i love the look of it. but i just hated the process of making it, i get so stressed out heating egg whites and it always takes longer than i want it to. even though i was watching legally blonde the whole time i still wasn’t a fan of the process. additionally, i’m not wild about how italian and swiss buttercream pick up color. i thought i was adding a lot of food coloring but american buttercream seems to pick up color more easily… so i'm still leaning towards using american buttercream for the final wedding cakes but i also want to first try german buttercream. little sis mia will be in town to help me with that later this week!

also, here is another great buttercream rose video that i found that helped with this rose practice session. 

coconut rose cake

makes one 3-layer, 8-inch cake

ingredients

3 1/3 c (423g) all purpose flour

4 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp kosher salt

1 c (225g) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/2 c (100g) virgin unrefined coconut oil, soft but not melted

2 1/4 c (450g) sugar

pink and/or red food coloring (i used a bit of pink and a bit of red from this kit)

4 large eggs

2 tsp vanilla bean paste or extract

1 tsp rosewater

1/2 tsp almond extract

1/2 tsp coconut flavor oil (i get mine at michael's and prefer the flavor to extract, but if you can only find extract, use 1 tsp of that)

1 2/3 c (400g or 1 can) full-fat coconut milk

 

for the frosting:

1 1/2 c (338g) unsalted butter, at room temeprature

5 c (600g) powdered sugar

1/4 tsp kosher salt

6 tb (90g) coconut milk (or heavy cream, if you don't want to open another can of coconut milk; in that case, add 1/4 tsp coconut flavor oil or a splash of extract)

1/4 tsp rosewater

clues

preheat oven to 350ºf. grease and line the bottoms of three 8" cake pans with parchment paper and set aside.

sift together the flour and baking powder in a medium bowl. add the kosher salt and give it a little mix.

in a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together the butter, coconut oil, sugar, and food coloring until pale and fluffy, 3-4 minutes. beat in the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each. add the vanilla, rosewater, almond extract, and coconut flavor oil.

reduce the mixer to low and, in three alternating additions, add the flour mixture and the coconut milk and mix until just combined.

divide the batter among the cake pans and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, begin checking for doneness at 30 minutes. let cool in the pans for 10 minutes and then turn onto a wire rack to cool completely. 

for the frosting:

in a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat together the butter, powdered sugar, salt, coconut milk (or heavy cream + coconut flavor oil), and rosewater until smooth and combined.

frost the cake as desired (see notes for details on the buttercream roses!) and enjoy!

 

-yeh!

pistachio butter pudding pops

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“dirty pop” has been stuck in my head all weekend, except all of the dirties have been replaced with “puddin” because it’s #popsicleweek and our lunch table* made pudding pops!!! 

*the imaginary lunch table of stephanie, lily, alana, michelle, and me. and by lunch table i mean group text thread, which is kind of the same thing when you spend all of your time at home in matchy sweats. 

we’re making pudding pops because pudding is a delicious, underrated food, and it’s kind of like grapes in that it’s good right out of the refrigerator but great right out of the freezer. the change color popsicles and those siamese popsicles were super cool but i’ve always always preferred creamy pudding pops, so i’m extra excited about this popsicle week. and if one side effect of our flooding the internet with pudding pop recipes is that bill cosby isn’t the first result when you google image search “pudding pop,” i’ll consider that a victory. 

this recipe is based on these peanut butter graham cracker pudding pops from a few years back and inspired by my favorite jell-o pudding flavor growing up. does anyone else think it’s kind of quirky that no matter how basic the grocery store is, the jell-o mix section always has the very non-basic flavor of pistachio? it’s like chocolate, vanilla, pistachio, and butterscotch. the four main flavors in life. stoop was all about butterscotch. i liked green. and when i got my wisdom teeth out i was mad that i couldn’t have the nutty bits in the pistachio pudding so mum made me basil infused pudding. i was so drugged up but i remember that as being a great consolation pudding!

this pistachio pudding is special because it is made with pistachio ~butter~, something that is always left out of the nut butter aisle. (how is it that the nut butter aisle is less hip than the pudding aisle?) but it’s ok because that’s what food processors are for. you put the pistachios in, you turn it on, you check instagram for 5 or 10 minutes, and then magically all of the nuts have let their oils out and what was once a pile of nuts is now a creamy butter. it makes these pops so creamy that they don’t really want to let go of any popsicle molds, so my solution is to make them in little paper dixie cups that you rip off right before enjoying. chocolate dip is optional. sprinkles are not. and a good food processor is required. if you don’t have one you can try and hunt down pre-made pistachio butter or simply sub the pistachio butter for 1/2 cup of another nut butter or…tahini????

anywho, happy #popsicleweek everyone!!! thanks to billy for putting together yet another fantastic celebration of summer!! check out all of the participating popsicles here, and definitely check out the other pudding pops at our lunch table:

stephanie made carrot cake pudding pops with cream cheese pudding which sounded so good and made me want to put labneh in mine but then i ate all the labneh in the house. 

lily made banana pudding pops which i am not going to eat because bananas are the devil but i want you to eat them if bananas are not your devil.

alana made matcha azuki pudding pops which she swore would turn out ugly but i knew that they would not be.

michelle made strawberry pudding pops that have yellow cake in them!!! gotta hide these from eggboy otherwise he will start foaming at the mouth. 

pistachio butter pudding pops

makes 6 (3 ounce) pudding popsicles

ingredients

1 c (128g) roasted unsalted pistachios

1 tb cornstarch

1 1/2 c (340g) + 2 tb whole milk

3/4 c (150g) granulated sugar

1/4 tsp kosher salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp almond extract

Zest of 1/2 a lemon

 

Sprinkles (i used these)

 

Optional: melted chocolate stirred with a bit coconut oil for dipping 

clues

First, make the pistachio butter. In a food processor, blend the pistachios, scraping the sides occasionally, until very creamy and spreadable, about 5-10 minutes.

In a small bowl, whisk together the cornstarch and 2 tablespoons of milk to make a slurry. Set it aside.

In a medium saucepan, whisk together the remaining milk, sugar, salt, vanilla, almond extract, and pistachio butter and heat over medium heat, whisking often. When it begins to steam, whisk in the cornstarch slurry and continue whisking for a few minutes until the mixture thickens slightly and coats the back of a spoon. Stir in the lemon zest and remove it from heat. Let cool for 10 to 15 minutes, whisking occasionally.

Spoon into 6 (3-ounce) paper cups. Top with sprinkles, place popsicle sticks into the centers and freeze until firm, about 5 hours or overnight.

Optional: once popsicles are frozen, melt about a cup of chocolate chips in a double boiler and stir in a tablespoon of coconut oil. Let it cool to room temp. rip the paper cups off of the popsicles and dip them in the chocolate. Serve or stick em right back in the freezer. 

-yeh!

p.s. shoutout to pudding skin singles.