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Method to the madness
No. 1The Perfect Cookie
No. 2Components
No. 3Bakery Selection
No. 4Scoring Rubric
No. 5Meet the Tasters
The Perfect Cookie
Components
Bakery Selection
Scoring Rubric
Meet the Tasters

The Perfect Cookie

While elusive, the perfect rainbow cookie is a delightful mix of almond-flavored cake, thin layers of raspberry jam, and a dark chocolate coating. They are the quintessential New York Italian-American dessert, largely only available in NYC and neighboring New York towns. The cake layers are colored to align to the Italian flag, but sometimes vary for different occasions.

What makes up a rainbow cookie?

1
The Chocolate
Tasty, smooth, adds to the cookie, perfect ratio. Shouldn't be too sweet.
2
The Almond Flavor
Perfect almond taste, not liquor-y or extracty
3
The Jam
At least raspberry, sometimes apricot as well, not too much that it drips from the cookie.
4
The Cake Layers
layers are similar in height for each layer with a tight crumb, moist but not wet
5
The Color
bright and artificial, but not so much food coloring you can taste it

Bakery Selection

The List

    June 2024

  1. Gian Piero Bakery
  2. Parisi Bakery
  3. Astoria Bakery
  4. Paris Oven
  5. Il Fornaio (34th Street)
  6. Leli's Bakery & Pastry Shop
  7. Oasis Cafe
  8. Rose & Joe's Italian Bakery
  9. New York Bakery Café
  10. Il Fornaio (29th Street)
  11. Omonia Cafe
  12. Martha's Country Bakery
  13. La Guli Pastry Shop

    14. December 2024

  14. Valerio Bakery
  15. Cascon Cheesecakes
  16. Aphrodites Sweets
  17. Sweet treats pastry shop
  18. Lulu's bakery
  19. Queens pita
  20. La Dolce Italian
  21. Andre's Hungarian Bakery

May 30, 2024: I did a little Google search for bakeries in my area, focusing on a pretty specific zone: south to 36th Ave, west to the East River (but not past Crescent), north to the end of Queens (with Ditmars Ave as my furthest point), and east to 51st Street.

June 1, 2024: I walked 5.24 miles, hitting up every bakery on my list (which I’ve shared below) and snagged “two rainbow cookies” from each place. I marked each bakery bag with a number to keep track of where each cookie came from, noted the price, and moved on to the next spot.

The whole adventure took me about 2.5 hours and cost $37.55.

Afterward, I weighed and photographed all the cookies, assigning new numbers so I could taste them blindly, just like the others would.

I invited my sister Mattie, my friend Tracy, and my husband Ken to be the first round of blind taste testers. Each cookie was placed next to its assigned number, which was kind of random, ranging from 1 to 13.

We cut the cookies into smaller pieces and went through them one by one. Each piece was tasted, and we documented our scores.

There was some chatting, but we mostly kept our thoughts to the scorecards.

For palate cleansing, we had saltines, carrots, celery, and some unsalted slivered almonds on hand.

Once we finished tasting, I revealed where each cookie came from!

I repeated the same process mid-December for the second of the three taste tests for Queens. The third round will happen in January!

Scoring Rubric
Almond no almond or marzipan vibes or so much that it ruins the cookie bad extract or liquor amount choices essence of almond but that’s about it can taste the almond, meets expectations great almond taste, not extract-y or liquor-y
Chocolate gross choices for chocolate have been made chocolate is bad ratio is off, chocolate is chalky/wrong texture, taste is meh good but not amazing, adequate ratio perfect - tasty, smooth, adds to the cookie, perfect ratio
Texture bad. too wet or way too dry - distractingly so dryer or wetter than expectations fine - meets rainbow cookie expectations perfectly moist, crumbles, but is not dense
Jam non existent bad, not there, sad about it not noticeable or wrong ratio good but not notable, meets expectations flavorful, thin and perfect ratio
Color make better choices not red/white/green ?????? tried but not close enough close enough but not right hex values perfect Italian rainbow colors (red, beige/white, green)
Overall never again bad cookie below expectations - mediocre meets expectations, probably would go back again exceeds, will crave

Meet the Original Tasters

Tasting Notes

There's something so perfect about the combination of chocolate, jam, and almond. Now that I think about it, is there anything better?

Rosie

Harmony Enthusiast

Cares most about a perfectly balanced cookie.

Rosie visualizes data for a living, and sometimes it merges into her hobbies and joys in life. She loves rainbow cookies to a point where they’ve become a brand. 

Tasting Notes

I need to be able to taste the marzipan as much as possible and it has to be real. A full layer of it would be ideal.

Mattie

Almond Connoisseur

Cares most about marzipan, in rainbow cookies and in life.

Mattie is a professional problem solver and feels that way about figuring out her favorite desserts that must include chocolate. She is easy to please and hard to thrill, so take her recommendations seriously.

Tasting Notes

The cake needs to be the balanced, moist, perfection that makes the cookie delicious. Can't be too dry, can't be too wet.

Tracy

Harmony Enthusiast

Care most about the perfect cake.

Tracy bakes her own amazing rainbow cookies so her judgement holds some serious weight. She's a world traveler and knows everyone, so she understands the value of a great dessert recommendation.

Tasting Notes

A chocolate snap is ideal for the best cookie. Bad chocolate can ruin the entire cookie.

Ken

Chocolate Expert

Cares most about the chocolate of the cookie.

Ken grew up in New Jersey and is one of the best judgers of Italian bakeries. He prefers tiramisu so his reviews of rainbow cookies are more objective than those who are more obsessed with them.