These Neapolitan Butter Cookies are fun, colorful and easier than you may think! Layers of chocolate, strawberry and vanilla just like the traditional ice cream version!
It’s almost Friday, and “almost Fridays” call for cookies! Fun, colorful Neapolitan Butter Cookies!
I know. I could call it what it is…Thursday. But “almost Friday” just sounds so much better. Sounds closer to the weekend. Don’t ya think?! And after a long, tough week for most folks, we need the weekend AND we need COOKIES! Are ya in?
Neapolitan anything will always remind me of my Gram. She loved neapolitan ice cream when I was growing up. I myself turned my nose up at anything that wasn’t just chocolate. Silly me! Oh how times have changed. Now neapolitan ice cream is one of my favorites.
So when I was at our local market a week or so ago and I spotted some neapolitan cookies, I thought, how fun are those?? Gotta make ’em happen, ASAP! It took a few times to get them right because I wanted them to taste just like the traditional ice cream with the flavors of chocolate, vanilla and strawberry.
The vanilla layer turned out perfect on the first try. Just some vanilla extract. No rocket science there. For the chocolate layer, I finally decided on melted bittersweet chocolate. Perfect. For the strawberry layer, for my first attempt I added one tablespoon of pulverized freeze-dried strawberries. Not strawberry enough. Upped it to two tablespoons. Perfect. I also added just a bit of pink gel food coloring to make the color pop. Start off with a little and mix it in until you get the shade of pink you’re looking for. It’s all personal preference.
These cookies are fun, deliciously buttery, and easier than you may think. No special expertise needed! You can make the dough a day or two ahead of time, layer it in a loaf pan, and let it chill in the fridge until you’re ready to slice and bake. So get ready guys. It’s almost the weekend. Time to get your bake on! Enjoy!
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 1 1/3 cups granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1 oz. bittersweet chocolate chopped, melted and cooled
- 1/2 cup freeze dried strawberries
- pink gel food coloring
Instructions
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream butter on medium high speed until light and fluffy. Add sugar and continue to beat until smooth. Add egg and vanilla extract and beat on low speed until well blended.
- In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. With mixer on low speed, slowly add flour mixture to butter mixture until well blended.
- Divide dough into three equal portions and place in three different bowls. Keep one portion plain. Add the cooled, melted chocolate to the second portion until evenly combined.
- Add the freeze dried strawberries to a small sandwich bag. Use a rolling pin to crush the berries into a fine powder. You can also use the bottom of a frying pan. Mixture should amount to about two tablespoons. Add to the third portion of dough along with a bit of gel food coloring until well combined. Start off with a small amount of gel food coloring and go from there until you reach desired color.
- Line a 9x5 loaf pan with wax paper overlapping edges. Press the vanilla dough into the bottom of the pan until flat and even. Top with pink dough, pressing until smooth and even. Top with the chocolate dough. Top with more wax paper and press down on all layers. Refrigerate overnight.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Lift the dough out of the loaf pan onto a flat surface. Cut the dough in half lengthwise to make two equal portions. Cut each portion crosswise into 1/4 inch slices. Place slices on prepared sheet 2 inches apart. (cookies will spread) Put remaining dough in fridge to stay cold while cookies are baking. Bake cookies for 13-15 minutes until just lightly browned. Cool on sheet for 5 minutes before removing to wire rack to cool completely. Repeat with remaining dough.
Slightly adapted from Williams Sonoma
Yes! We definitely need cookies AND the weekend! I do loves me some Neapolitan ice-cream, that’s for sure so these cookies are definitely calling my name! I just love the colours – you did such a great job with the layers! I could stare at them for, like, a solid 5 seconds before devouring a stack. Pinned! Cheers to the (almost) weekend ;)
Happy almost the weekend to you too Dawn! So glad you like these!
I like the sound of “almost Friday,” too, Mary Ann! And I love the way these cookies look… I can almost taste the layers now. Beautiful!
I can’t wait til Friday Michele! This has been a LONG week! These were the perfect perk up!
Awhh! Neapolitan reminds me of my grandparents, too! They always had two cartons of ice cream in their freezer – this and maple walnut! These cookies sure do remind me of fun times with them! So happy to read that they’re easy to make! They sure are pretty to look at! Pinned!
I think all grandparents had a stash in the freezer Annie! They honestly so easy and I love the look of them. I hope you give them a try!
Oh dear, my grandfather was Italian and I grew up with all of those beautiful flavours ! Thank you so much for reminding me of wonderful childhood I had :-)
Yay! So happy they bring back memories!
How gorgeous are these cookies! Lovely!
Thanks Alida! XO
These are so beautiful and the color possibilities are endless! You are the best cookie baker ever girl!
Awww! Thanks Karen! You’re so sweet! Hope all is well with the kids at school!
These are just so pretty! My mom loved the Neapolitan candies when I was little; I think I’ll make these for her at Christmas. She’ll love them!
She’ll love them Kelsie! You’ll get the Daughter of the Year Award!
Weekend baking is the best! These cookies are so pretty, Mary Ann! I’ve gotta get my hands on some freeze dried strawberries. Can you imagine serving these sweet, buttery cookies with neapolitan ice cream? What fun!
I get mine at the local Target store. They have all kinds of freeze dried fruit! The possibilities are endless! Happy almost the weekend Traci!
OMGeeeee! These cookies are SO fun, Mare!!! My dad loved neapolitan ice cream, so these cookies are totally making me think of him! Too bad he is no longer with us, because I know he would just love these!! I’ll just have to make them for Boy and we can eat them in memory of him. ;) These are seriously just genius, my friend! Pinned of course!
P.s. I’ve been thinking about you and your family!! I hope all is well! XOXO
They are fun Chey! And honestly quite easy to make! Glad they bring back some memories of your Dad.
I’m on my way to Naples tomorrow to help out. My sister’s house still has no power. But they are staying somewhere for the time being that does. Hope your family is doing ok! Have a great weekend! XO
So in love with these!!!!
Thanks Jennifer!
I am a huge neopolitan fan, so these look so good!
Yay! Bet the boys would love them too Matt!
These are the most fun cookies I’ve ever seen! Bravo, great job!
Thanks so much Chris! They were fun to make! I’m already thinking of other colors and flavors!
Love neopolitan! These cookies remind me of battenburg cake in cookie form. Love ’em!
Thanks Debs! It’s 3 flavor treats in one!
How fun are these cookies! My Mom used to make a similar looking cookie for Christmas (red, white and green), but they were only coloured and not individually flavoured. These are so much more with the 3 flavours, too. Love these :)
I definitely wanted the three flavors, not just the colors Jennifer! Hope you give them a try!
You had me at butter!! Ha! These look amazing! So happy for Friday!
Thanks Leigh Ann! Me too! Happy weekend!
These are just so cheerful! How creative.
I think they’re cheerful too Natasha! These and pinwheel cookies always make me smile. So many different colors and flavor options!
The cookies are having unique with the tricolor. Like one for choclate, one strawberry, and one vanilla. Thanks for sharing I think it’s good to have in breakfast time. Thank you.
Thanks Supriya!
Neopolitan ice cream always reminds me of my Memaw (my grandma) too! She never fails to have it at every birthday. It’s always been a favorite of mine as well so naturally, I’m going to have to make these cookies, perhaps I can even make them for Memaw’s 95th birthday that’s coming up!
I think it’s a grandparent kind of flavor Aimee! I hope you make these for her big birthday! Send me photo!
These are so pretty and bring me back to childhood, we always had Neapolitan ice cream in the freezer!
Yay! So glad they bring back memories Gina!
i LOVE the colours of these! so pretty! and the way they look together in the pastry is amazing! i haven’t had anything neopolitcan in ages! bringing back childhood memories right here!
So glad they bring back sweet memories Georgie! I love that name! I always thought if I had a little girl I would name her Georgia, and call her Georgie for short!
What great cookies Mary Ann, I wish I could make them right away but I am trying to loose some weight . I’ll pin them for later.
Good plan! They’ll be an awesome little treat for when you lose a few pounds and deserve a reward!
Neapolitan reminds me of my gram too, Mary Ann. These cookies are such a fun idea! And pretty too!
Thanks Rachelle! I think it’s all grandma’s favorites!
These are so gorgeous!
Thanks Jennifer!
You make the best desserts, Mary Ann – these are so cute! Love the pink color and that you used a natural ingredient to create that beautiful color.
Thanks Geraldine!
These cookies are so pretty!! Buttery cookies with classic flavors of chocolate and vanilla! And some strawberry thrown in too! Fabulous!
I just love these Deepika!
We call Thursday “Friday Eve” in my house! And all that we need to make it perfect is a plate full of these pretty cookies! Pinned. :)
Lol! Thanks for pinning Kate!
Such adorable cookies, I love the Neapolitan layers!
Thanks Laura!
I have tried these beautiful tri-color cookies at home. The outcome was so beautiful as well. Thanks a lot for sharing this colorful recipe with all of us. Much love and Regards.
So happy you enjoy them Nehal! You’re quite welcome!
I made these cookies and they turned out nice, but there is one thing that I am a bit unsure of…
For the 1/2 cup freeze dried strawberries, we are measuring before grinding, right? That is what I did, but I wanted to make sure I was correct.
I added a bit of cocoa powder to the chocolate portion to bump up the chocolate flavor. I didn’t have a loaf pan with straight sides, so I doubled the recipe and put the dough in a rectangular mousse cake mold. Once it was firm, I cut into 2in wide logs and put the logs through my tabletop cheese slicer. That got me sliced cookies that were pretty much the same thickness all around. I’ve always been scared of slice and bake cookies because I can’t cut straight to save my life, so doing it this way really helped.
Thanks for sharing this recipe! I will be making these every holiday season now to include in cookie boxes.
Hi Kay! Yes, you are measuring before the grinding. Great tips too! So happy you enjoyed the recipe and that’ll you’ll be making them every season! Happy New Year!