This rainbow cookie crumb cake is a serious dessert. I originally saw a rainbow crumb recipe floating around on Food Network via Facebook. Here is the video you can watch. I knew these were bars I had to make. I mean I love rainbows and I love crumb cake so it was a no-brainer! Then, I just saw a facebook post of rainbow bars with a crumb topping that someone else posted and they looked delish! They didn’t have a recipe but I knew I had to give these bars a whirl! I used my favorite rainbow cookie recipe and topped it with the crumbs I use on my shortcut crumb cake. It was a score! I baked the crumbs in an 8×8 pan so they would solidify and then “applied” this crumb layer to the top of my rainbow layers adhered by dark chocolate! (You can also use milk chocolate!) I also switched up the jam in my cookie layers. Usually I use all raspberry but this time I added one layer of apricot like some bakeries do. I dare you to eat just one bite of this bar!
You will need:
8×8 pan
parchment paper
Rainbow Cookie Crumb Cake
Ingredients
Crumb Layer
- 1 stick butter room temp
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 cup flour
- 1 ½ tsp cinnamon
Rainbow Cookies
- 8 ounces almond paste
- ¾ C. sugar
- ½ tsp. almond extract
- ¾ c. butter
- 3 eggs
- 1 c. flour
- ¼ tsp. salt
- ¼ c. raspberry jam seedless
- ¼ c. apricot jam Or use all rasp jam which I prefer
- ½ bag approx 5 ounces Ghirardelli milk chocolate chips or bittersweet chocolate chips
Toppnig
- powdered sugar
- sprinkles
Instructions
Crumb Layer
- Beat butter, flour, sugar, cinnamon to form crumbs.
- Line 8x8 pan with nonstick foil.
- Sprinkle crumbs into pan, spread out. (You can also bake as one layer but through trial and error I found this to work best for cutting purposes.)
- Bake 15 minutes, stirring once at 350-let cool completely. Break up any large clumps.
Rainbow cookies
- Line 3 8x8 pans with nonstick foil.
- Preheat oven 350.
- In food processor, mix almond paste, sugar, extract and butter till creamy.
- Add one egg at a time.
- Add flour and salt.
- Divide into 3 bowls (approx 1 cup each)
- Tint each pink, yellow green and spread into pans smoothly.
- Bake approx 12 mins and let cool.
- Line cookie sheet with parchment and flip out green layer.
- Spread on apricot jam. (or rasp if only using rasp.)
- Place yellow layer on top.
- Spread with raspberry jam and top with pink layer.
- Lay parchment over pink layer and top with heavy books. Chill in fridge minimum an hour.
- Remove books and parchment.
- Cut into cookies.
- On each individual cooke, spread on melted chocolate across the top and carefully sprinkle on some crumbs.
- Let chocolate set up.
- (Can freeze if you want at this point)
- Top with tons of powdered sugar and add sprinkles!
If you prefer a ganache topping and loose crumbs like this picture follow this recipe…
ganache topping and loose crumb
Ingredients
Crumb
- ½ c. light brown sugar
- ½ c. granulated sugar
- ¾ c. flour
- 6 T. butter
- ⅛ tsp. cinnamon
- ⅛ tsp. salt
Ganache
- 1 T. butter
- ⅓ cup heavy cream
- 4 oz semisweet chocolate
Instructions
Crumbs
- Beat all until come together.
- Clump with hands and spread on baking sheet lined with nonstick foil. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes. Let cool.
Gananche
- Microwave cream and butter gently till almost at a boil.
- Add chocolate and cover 1 min.
- Stir smooth and let cool.
- Assembly:
- Assemble cake following recipe above.
- Once cake is chilled with the books on top, remove parchment and pour on ganache.
- Sprinkle on crumbs.
- Chill to set and cut.
Ganache and loose crumbs adapted from The Simply Delicious Kitchen
