Colorful and very tasty Italian-style cookies, wonderful all year round but especially nice during the holidays! :) Prep time includes chilling for the dough.
With an electric mixer combine flour, sugar, butter, egg, baking powder, vanilla, and salt; beat for 3 minutes.
Divide the cookie dough into 3 equal parts.
Part 1: mix in the almond or hazelnut extract and 5 drops red food coloring (this is the pink/red dough).
Part 2: mix in the chopped walnuts or pistachios (this is the white dough).
Part 3: mix in the cocoa (this is the brown dough).
Preheat the oven to 350°.
In the loaf pan, spread each part of the dough one on top of the other, pink, white, and chocolate; cover the pan and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.
After chilling, turn out the dough from the pan and cut loaf lengthwise in half, then crosswise, then cut pieces of dough to make about 15 cookies from each piece.