Viennese continentals

Yield: 72 servings

Measure Ingredient
8 \N Eggs; separated
2 cups Butter or margarine; softened
2 cups Granulated sugar
4 cups Sifted all-purpose flour
\N \N Red food coloring
\N \N Green food coloring
1 cup Apricot preserves
1 cup Red raspberry preserves
\N \N Chocolate Butter Cream; see recipe

Line three 9- by 13-inch baking pans with aluminum foil so that 3 inches of foil extends on two sides to form "handles." Grease foil. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. With an electric mixer, in a clean glass or metal bowl, beat egg whites until they form soft peaks. Set aside. In another bowl, beat together egg yolks, butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in flour on low speed of mixer. Fold in egg whites. (The mixture will be thick like cake better.) Divide batter into three equal portions. Tint one portion green, one pink and leave the other plain. Divide each color of dough into three equal portions. Spread one portion of the green dough in each of the 3 pans, to within ¼ inch of the edge. Bake, one pan at a time, about 8 minutes, or until the edges are just turning golden brown. Remove cake from pan, using foil handles. Remove foil from each cake layer after baking and let layers cool on flat surface. Cool and wash each pan, line again with greased foil and repeat process, baking the pink batter in three parts and the plain batter in three parts. Each of the nine baked layers will be very thin. Place one plain layer, top-side up, on a cookie sheet. Spread with ⅓ apricot preserves. Top with one pink layer; spread with ⅓ cup raspberry preserves. Add one green layer; spread with ⅓ of the chocolate butter cream. Repeat each later, but albeit the chocolate butter cream on the top of the last green layer. (Don't worry about matching the layers perfectly straight; the edges are trimmed later.) Cover top with plastic wrap; put a large cutting board or cookie sheet on top of the cake. Weigh the board down with two 5-pound sacks of flour or sugar; refrigerate overnight. Cover and refrigerate the remaining chocolate butter cream. The next day, trim away the crisp edges of the cake. Spread the remaining chocolate butter cream on top. Cut into 1- by 1½-inch pieces. Store, covered in refrigerator up to a week, or freeze for longer storage. Yields about 72 cookies.

Tester's notes: The recipe is time-consuming, but yields a large number of cookies for the effort. The flavor, appearance and taste are superior. Do not spread jam on too thin or too thick, but cover the baked layer completely. The jam helps hold the layers together. The refrigerated butter cream will be stiff the second day; set it out about 30 minutes before you want to frost the top layer. (I warmed my cold frosting on 50 percent power in the microwave oven for 30 seconds.) I cut my baked and frosted product into thirds. Wrap each portion in waxed paper, then put each in freezer bags. Later, thaw portion in refrigerator overnight and slice into serving pieces. I cut my serving pieces smaller than recommended.

Recipe Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch - 12-07-1998 Formatted for MasterCook by Susan Wolfe - vwmv81a@...

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