Italian Wedding Cookies II

This recipe is an old time favorite of ours. All the kids love these and so do we! Hope you get all the nice compliments as I do when you make them.

• Ready In: 12 mins
• Yields: 36 cookies

Ingredients

• 8  ounces almond paste
• 1 1⁄2 cups butter
• 1  cup white sugar
• 4  large eggs
• 1  teaspoon  almond extract
• 2  cups all-purpose flour
• 1⁄4 teaspoon salt
• 1 (12 ounce) jar  seedless raspberry jam
• 1 (12 ounce) package  semisweet chocolate morsels, melted
•  food coloring (green, yellow and red)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).
2. In a large bowl break up the almond paste. Add the softened butter, sugar, eggs and almond extract. Beat batter until light and fluffy.
3. Beat in the flour and the salt. Split the batter into thirds and add enough of the three different food colorings to each third to color the batter nicely.
4. Spread the batters into three 9 x 13 and 1/4-inch deep aluminum baking pans. Be sure the batter is only about 1/8-inch thick or it will rise to high.
5. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 12 minutes.
6. Cool. Remove baked and cooled cakes from pans and place on a cookie sheet or cutting board.
7. Heat the jam and spread between the layers as you stack them.
8. Spread the melted chocolate over the top layer and refrigerate. When stiff remove cookies from the refrigerator and let chocolate soften slightly before cutting into small rectangles.