The Oldest Italian Bakery In America Makes 40,000 Rainbow Cookies A Day

Delish

Ferrara Bakery has been open for over 130 years and these Rainbow Cookies are their signature. They are made from 7 layers of cake, apricot jam and chocolate and sliced to look like the Italian flag.

Transcript

00:00 (upbeat music)

00:02 - Hi, I'm Ernest Lepore.

00:07 We're at Ferrara Bakery,

00:09 which is heaven in New York's heart of Little Italy.

00:12 And I'm fourth generation and the executive pastry chef.

00:16 - Hi, I'm Adeline Lepore Sessa.

00:18 I'm also part of the fourth generation.

00:20 We have five generations going.

00:22 Currently, it's my brother and myself.

00:25 My son runs our factory and my nephew

00:28 is the general manager of the store right now.

00:31 So Ferrara's is the oldest Italian pasticceria,

00:35 which means bakery pastry,

00:37 and expresso bar in the United States.

00:41 - Tricolore, rainbow cookies.

00:43 Tricolore in Italy means the flag.

00:46 So if you ask for a tricolore in Italy,

00:47 they're not gonna bring you cookies,

00:48 they're gonna bring you an Italian flag.

00:49 Here we understand it as this great cookie.

00:52 It's three cakes made to be one cookie,

00:56 which makes it so special.

00:58 (upbeat music)

01:00 Today we're gonna make tricolore rainbow cookies.

01:03 And we're gonna use macaroon paste.

01:06 And you can see, I like it smooth and at room temperature.

01:09 Macaroon paste is very interesting.

01:12 It comes from the apricot, which has a stone pit.

01:16 In the center of the apricot is a kernel.

01:19 And you know, the Italians, nothing go to waste.

01:21 So they crack this,

01:23 and then they put it through these pulverized granite wheels

01:26 and they make this paste.

01:28 And then this has so much almond paste in it.

01:31 But if you smell it, it's the real deal.

01:34 You can smell the apricot almond in it.

01:37 And as you see me working with it, it's soft.

01:40 And then the best quality butter we can buy,

01:42 shortening, sugar, fresh whole eggs, flour,

01:46 and then we have some green and red color.

01:50 So we're gonna mix and we're gonna cream

01:51 with our beautiful batter.

01:55 We're gonna mix them in that order.

01:57 So we're gonna cream the macaroon paste,

01:59 which has so much almond in it.

02:01 Then we're gonna add the butter.

02:03 Then we're gonna add the shortening.

02:04 And then the sugar is gonna make it nice and creamy.

02:09 Then we're gonna add our eggs.

02:11 And then our flour.

02:15 And it's gonna come together beautifully.

02:17 - And it's important that if you come here today,

02:21 you came here in five years or five years ago,

02:23 that it tastes exactly the same.

02:25 We do not compromise on the quality of our ingredients.

02:30 - Then we're gonna put it in three bowls

02:36 and we're gonna divide it equally.

02:37 Just has to be equal.

02:39 And then we're gonna put our green

02:40 and we're gonna put our red.

02:42 (upbeat music)

02:44 Getting the colors right.

02:57 My sister would tell me, guys are a little colorblind.

03:00 You gotta really be on the red and your green.

03:03 It's not pink.

03:04 It's not light green.

03:05 Bringing it all together,

03:06 creaming the macaroon paste and the almond paste

03:09 and the sugar.

03:11 And then you can all blow it on the color.

03:13 - My version of baby pink

03:15 and the baker's version of baby pink is always different.

03:19 So I use a Pantone chart

03:21 to show them the color pink I am talking about.

03:24 - And then you can make me a sample.

03:25 So we'll make sure we're on the same page.

03:28 So we're gonna have a green, a plain,

03:30 which is a white and a red.

03:32 And that's how we're gonna pan them and create our cookies.

03:36 (upbeat music)

03:38 So we're gonna put them in the oven for 350

04:01 for approximately 40 minutes

04:03 until they're golden, but not burnt.

04:05 No bubbles.

04:06 And then they're gonna come out

04:07 and they're gonna keep cooking in the pan

04:09 'cause the pan's warm.

04:11 When we took it out of the oven,

04:12 we're gonna put a very, very thin coat,

04:14 a skim coat of apricot marmalade.

04:18 And then we're gonna fold one onto the other.

04:20 (upbeat music)

04:23 (upbeat music)

04:25 So after we fill the cookie,

04:44 we're gonna put a weight on it,

04:45 compress it and let it rest for 24 hours.

04:48 Then we're gonna pour chocolate over it

04:51 and spread it out, let it set.

04:53 Really, we do a first foundational coat of chocolate

04:57 and a second coat of pretty chocolate.

04:59 So we get rid of the craters.

05:01 (upbeat music)

05:03 Chocolate on the top, chocolate on the bottom, seven layers.

05:19 (upbeat music)

05:22 After it's all built and it's all chocolate

05:28 and we space it so we can cut logs,

05:31 we're gonna turn it 90 degrees

05:32 and then cut each individual cookie.

05:35 And this is our famous Ferrara tri-calori cookies,

05:39 seven layer cookies.

05:41 - So Ferrara was incorporated in 1892,

05:48 although we were incorporated even before New York City,

05:51 because back then you didn't have to be incorporated.

05:54 It was our great, great uncle, Antonio Ferrara

05:57 and our great grandfather, Enrico Scoppa,

06:00 they were partners.

06:01 So Ferrara's has been here the whole 131 years

06:05 in the same building.

06:07 At one time, our factory was part of this whole entire block

06:11 but obviously New York real estate is just so expensive

06:15 that we have another 36,000 square foot facility

06:20 in New Jersey.

06:21 - Our memories really start when we get up in the morning.

06:24 We'd have to wait for our father on the steps

06:27 to come to work.

06:28 And if we weren't ready for my dad,

06:30 he left without us and we would cry.

06:32 That was the wrap Sunday packages.

06:34 - And it's a place where our family always met

06:38 and all different Italians would come to Little Italy

06:41 'cause they would have country men that they could speak to

06:44 and they would feel like they were in part of their country.

06:47 - Going into October, November, December,

06:54 we have the fall lineup,

06:57 which is the harvest of the planet.

06:59 So the Panettone, the struffoli.

07:02 - People love the struffoli so much.

07:05 We only used to make it at Christmas

07:07 'cause it was a Christmas item.

07:08 Now we make it for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter.

07:12 Just because people desire it so much.

07:16 Ferrara's is magical during the holidays.

07:20 Our room is dressed up.

07:22 And right after Thanksgiving,

07:23 our whole ceiling is decorated.

07:25 - It's really special.

07:27 But I really like to keep Christmas

07:29 through to January 6th, the Epiphany.

07:32 That's when the Italians give their gifts.

07:33 And then we discuss how do we make it more special?

07:36 - You know, and people come here for Christmas.

07:39 There's Christmas season for the Panettone.

07:42 The struffoli, the tricolor cookie.

07:45 - The Tironi.

07:46 - The Tironi, that's very specific to the holiday.

07:50 Though they're always here for the Lapsatile,

07:53 the cannoli, the New York cheesecake, our gelato.

07:57 - We ship on average 4,000 packages a day.

08:02 We're not happy unless there's 50,000 packages

08:05 for Christmas, 75,000 packages.

08:08 I keep saying, "Build another shipping table."

08:10 So I love this time of year because there's spice cookies,

08:14 there's sesame cookies, there's almond cookies,

08:17 fig cookies.

08:18 300 pans a day, 'cause it's three layers,

08:22 make 100 finished, which is 18 and a half pounds.

08:27 So on a good day, if I get to make 2,000 pounds

08:30 of rainbow for the day, but it takes another day

08:33 to cut them and such, I'm happy.

08:38 - Every day, we try to figure out

08:40 how can we even have more fun with this?

08:42 We're the real deal.

08:44 For the authentic Ferrara recipe,

08:47 which dates more than 130 years,

08:50 we're not satisfied until all the world

08:53 eats a Ferrara tricolor.

08:54 - Today was a good day when every customer

08:56 leaves here happy.

08:58 (upbeat music)

09:00 (upbeat music)

09:03 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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