Neapolitan Cookie Recipe | Best Cookie Recipes (2024)

Pink, White, and Brown Cookie treat

Neapolitan Cookies a Soft Sugar Cookie Recipe flavored Strawberry, Vanilla, and Chocolate makes for a fun and tasty cookie recipe.

From a young age I have loved the color combination of Neapolitan, and was always a favorite when choosing Ice Cream. Somehow I felt like I was getting the better end of the stick by having a little bit of 3 different flavors.

Decades later and I still believe it, so why not a soft Neapolitan Cookie Recipe. It will make you smile with every bite.

The flavor combination of Strawberries to Chocolate and a Vanilla in between for a smooth transition of flavors is a welcome treat.

Ingredients

Fats. Softened Butter and Vegetable Oil

Sugar. Granulated Sugar and Powdered Sugar or added softness to the cookie

Egg and Vanilla. The egg gives lift and helps bind the ingredients together

Dry Ingredients. All Purpose Flour, Salt, Baking Soda, and Cream of Tarter

Flavoring. Black Cocoa Powder and Freeze Dried Strawberries (Freeze Dried Strawberries can also be found at Walmart)

How to make Neapolitan or Neopolitan Cookies

Using room temperature Butter makes all the difference on the cookie dough. Allow butter to sit on counter for an hour before beginning making cookies.

Also allow the egg to come to room temperature as well.

In a mixing bowl using a hand mixer cream butter and sugar for 2-3 minutes scraping sides of bowl as needed.

Beat on low speed and gradually increase speed as ingredients are mixed together.

Carefully add Vegetable Oil to creamed butter mixture and continue creaming. Mixture will be runny. Add powdered sugar and continue creaming for 1-3 minutes

Add Egg and Vanilla Extract and cream for another minute or two. The butter mixture will be light and fluffy.

In a separate bowl combine dry ingredients of All Purpose Flour, Baking Soda, Cream of Tarter and Salt together and carefully add dry ingredients a little at a time to butter mixture making sure it's fully mixed together before adding more.

Scrape sides of bowl down as needed mixing cookie dough.

Once dough is mixed together divide the dough into 3 equal portions.

Use ⅓ cup Freeze Dried Strawberries and pulse in a food processor and add to one portion of cookie dough. Hand mix into dough. Add 2-3 drops of red food coloring (optional) to make more pink.

Add 1 tablespoon Black Cocoa powder or Dutch Process Cocoa and mix into one portion of cookie dough.

Leave remaining cookie dough portion alone.

I find it best to portion each dough ball out into 1 teaspoon size portions. Then it becomes easy to grab one tiny cookie dough portion and press together forming the Neapolitan stripe look you are going for.

Place cookie dough on baking pan with parchment paper and bake in a preheated oven to 350 degrees.

Bake for 7-9 minutes or until edges are set and tops are no longer glossy. Remove from oven and allow to cool on baking sheet for a minute or two before removing to a cooling wire rack to cool completely.

Storing and Freezing

Always store cookies in an airtight container or ZipLoc bag at room temperature for up to 7 days. Cookies are best if enjoyed in 2-4 days.

Freezing. Wrap cooled cookies in plastic and store in a sealed container. Cookies can be frozen for up to 3 months.

Supplies Used

• Kitchen Scale. I use this for accuracy in measuring and it's a life saver when it comes to consistent baking
• Wire Rack for cooling cookies. I like to have at least 2 cooling racks
• Mixing Bowls. A Large Mixing Bowl for mixing ingredients and small and medium mixing bowls for other ingredients
• Cookie Sheet. Most recipes will take 2 batches to bake. It's great to have multiple baking sheets available
• Parchment Paper or Silicone Baking Mat. Line Cookie Sheet with parchment paper for easy clean up and to prevent sticking.
• Cookie Scoop. A small #60 Cookie Scoop or a Medium Cookie Scoop #50 are great choices for uniform drops of cookie dough.
• Storage Container. An Airtight Container to store cookies or ZipLoc Bags work great too.
• Additional supplies. Measuring Cups and Measuring Spoons along with silicone spatula are all helpful

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Quick Tips

Black Cocoa Powder give a rich darker color brown which truly makes the recipe pop with color

Freeze Dried Strawberries should be measured before pulsing.

Parchment Paper not only helps with clean up but also makes lifting baked cookies off baking sheet easier.

Room Temperature Ingredients. It's important to use Room temperature Butter and Eggs when baking. The temperature plays a roll in how ingredients are creamed together and will affect the end result for baking.

Cookie Scoop. I used a medium size #50 cookie scoop to place the 3 small cookie dough into. This helped to press the individual pieces together and form the uniform sizes.

Why so many names?

Neapolitan Cookies or Napoleon Cookies are just a couple of the many ways people spell Neapolitan.

It's not a typo but thanks for pointing it out! I like to include the many ways people spell (correctly or incorrectly) recipe titles so everyone is able to find and search for what they are looking for! It's just that simple.

Holiday Variations

There are so many ways to enjoy these cookies. For Christmas use a Peppermint Extract and color one portion green, one red, and one leave white. Reminds me a little like Santa's Elfs.

For Easter these will be fun using pastel colors like a purple, yellow, and even green. The color combinations are endless. And you can always use almond extract too.

More Fantastic Cookie Recipes you must try!

• Frosted Oatmeal
• Grinch Cookies
• Unicorn Poop Cookies
• Gideon's Chocolate Chip Cookies