Neapolitan Cookies

I have wanted to make these cookies for a while, they look so pretty and what fun to make cookies that resemble Neapolitan ice cream! While the dough for these cookies isn’t complex, I knew it would be more involved than some of the cookies I make since you divide the dough to make three flavors. My friend sent me a video of a similar recipe, so when she came over to bake I knew we were likely to make these!

The unusual ingredient of these cookies is freeze-dried strawberries, but those are fairly easy to find these days. I got mine at Trader Joe’s, but I can also get them at the grocery store or large stores like Target. For cocoa powder, I could have used my standard but I wanted to use dark cocoa powder for a darker color. I like the look with the dark cocoa, but it’s up to you to decide what you want to use.

With the two of us working on these, we had a good system going and it didn’t take too long. We made little balls of dough and then put three together in a triangle shape, rolled and flattened it a bit, and they were ready to bake. Mine baked for about 12 minutes, and I will say they are quite flat, which is fine. They are huge though, and I think the “baby” cookie we made with 7-8 grams of each dough that was left over was a better size. These cookies have wonderful flavor and you clearly can tell the difference between the strawberry, chocolate, and vanilla parts of the cookie. Maybe a little puffier would have been ok, but these are wonderful any way you look at it.

Neapolitan Cookies
2½ cups flour
¾ teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, room temperature
1¾ cups sugar
1 egg plus 1 yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla
½ cup freeze-dried strawberries
Red food coloring (optional)
2 tablespoons cocoa powder

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside. In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter until creamy. Add the sugar and beat on medium until light. Add the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla, and stir to combine. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour mixture.

Divide the dough into three equal pieces. Leave one piece as is; this will be the vanilla portion of your cookies.

Place another piece of the dough in a mixer bowl or medium bowl. In a food processor, crush the freeze-dried strawberries until powder. Add the powder to the piece of dough and mix. If desired, add red food color to enhance the color. This will be the strawberry portion of your cookies.

Place the last piece of dough into a mixer bowl or medium bowl. Add the cocoa powder to the dough and mix to combine. This will be the chocolate portion of your cookies.

Shape each section of dough into 15-gram balls. Take one vanilla, one strawberry, and one chocolate portion (45 grams total) and press together. Shape the dough into a ball and then flatten the ball somewhat on the baking sheet. Place no more than 6 cookies on a sheet.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, until the cookies are barley browned on the bottom. They will puff up and then flatten as they cool. Cool on the baking sheets for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.  

Recipe from Minnesota Monthly