Italian Rainbow Cookie Martini Recipe

I absolutely love a cocktail before dinner, but the truth is, there is nothing I love more than a cocktail at the end of the night. The sweet combination of liquors satisfies my sweet tooth without being overly filling, making for a perfect dessert even after a heavy meal. Some of my favorite dessert-y drinks are martinis (such as the ever-popular espresso), largely because the martini is such a versatile cocktail. Made with gin or vodka and mixed with virtually any liquor, cream, or juice, a martini can replicate virtually any dessert you can think of. That's why it makes a perfect vessel to pay tribute to one of my favorite desserts: The Italian rainbow cookie.

Italian rainbow cookies aren't exactly rainbow — they're actually the colors of the Italian flag's red white, and green, though the color doesn't matter quite as much as the flavor, which is a completely unique blend of almond, raspberry, and chocolate. The cookie is also unique because of its texture, which is spongey, jammy, and chocolatey all at once. Decadent but also a little demure, the cookie is the perfect bite-sized way to end a night. In martini form, it's even better: the almond, chocolate, and raspberry are each different liquors that add a sharp bite to the classic flavor, with a creamy base that emphasizes its dessert-y nature. 

The cookie itself is made up of several layers of almond sponge cake sandwiched with raspberry jam and coated in a hard layer of chocolate. To replicate each of these layers, grab amaretto, crème de cacao, and Chambord. To make it a martini, grab your favorite vodka, and to make it creamy, pick up a small container of heavy whipping cream. For garnishing, grab chocolate syrup and sprinkles — though you can skip this step, it adds the exact flavor and texture of the Italian rainbow cookie to every sip. From there, you only need one last thing — an actual Italian rainbow cookie for garnishing.

Spread the chocolate sauce and sprinkles on a plate. Roll the rim of a martini glass in the syrup, then roll the syrup into the sprinkles to adhere

Set the glass aside.

Fill a cocktail shaker with ice.

Add the vodka, amaretto, crème de cacao, heavy cream, and Chambord.

Shake until chilled, about 15 seconds.

Strain the cocktail into a martini glass.

Garnish with an Italian rainbow cookie to serve.

• Italian Rainbow Cookie Recipe
• Classic Italian Pignoli Cookies Recipe
• White Chocolate Lemon Truffles Recipe
• Dark Chocolate Raspberry Truffles Recipe
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Italian rainbow cookies can be hard to find. If you're lucky enough to have Italian bakeries nearby, that's likely where you'll find them — but if you don't have a store in your area that sells specialty treats, you might have a hard time finding anything similar. Since the cocktail itself tastes just like the cookie, you don't necessarily need the actual dessert; though it is super cute with the cookie, you can garnish the drink with other treats instead.

If you don't have Italian rainbow cookies, try garnishing the cocktail with a few raspberries on a cocktail pick to match the Chambord. You can also coat the entire rim with chocolate and use rainbow sprinkles instead of chocolate for more color. To keep the cookie theme, you could also use another Italian cookie, like a pizzelle, which may be easier to find than the layered rainbow cookie. You could also shave chocolate directly onto the martini for a classy, indulgent garnish option that emphasizes chocolate.

The short answer is that you can make this Italian rainbow cookie martini without the cream, but you might not want to. The cream is more than a visual effect: It mutes the flavor of the alcohol in each liquor, bringing out the sweet flavors instead and emphasizing the martini's richness. Shaken, it adds a silky body to the cocktail, contributing to its dessert-like, creamy mouthfeel. Without it, the mouthfeel is thin and astringent, and may not be as pleasant.

You can make this without heavy cream by using half and half or by substituting with Bailey's Irish Cream. Making this dairy-free is harder, but doable: You could use an oatmilk creamer or one of the dairy-free versions of Bailey's that uses oatmilk or almond milk instead of cow's milk. I don't recommend skipping the cream element entirely, though, because it changes the flavor of the drink and loses its dessert-like quality.

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