Neopolitan Icebox Cookies

Neopolitan Slice and Bake Cookies

I've wanted to make Neapolitan ice cream cookies for a while. So I did.

Ingredients

600 grams all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 Chobani cup
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
1/2 cup margarine (1 Stick)
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 egg
200 grams granulated sugar

1 extra egg for assembly

For the chocolate
2 Tbsp cocoa powder
dark chocolate bar
2 Tbsp milk

For the strawberry
6 Tbsp Strawberry Fruit Spread
Extra Flour
Red or Pink food coloring

For the vanilla
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Instruction

Step 1: Beat the butter, margarine, oil and sugar until light.

Step 2: Beat in the salt, baking powder and the egg. My theory about adding the baking powder very early in the recipe is it's such a small quantity of powder and I want it evenly distributed through the dough.

Step 3: Beat in the yogurt.

Step 4: Slowly add the flour (Go too fast and it will cover your counter).

Step 5: Split the dough into 3 bowls.

Step 6: Vanilla - Mix about 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract into the dough. Vanilla is such a ubiquitous flavor in baking that it can be hard to pick out. I've heard the wisdom that vanilla should be added to chocolate recipes (I don't see the purpose in this). There are other ways to bump up the vanilla flavor with other supporting flavorants like vanilla bean or vanilla sugar. This is a matter of preference. Also, I have vanilla extract in my kitchen, I don't have vanilla beans.

Step 7: Chocolate - Chop up about 8 squares of a chocolate bar into fairly small pieces. Otherwise you'll have trouble slicing your cookies later. Mix in 2 Tbsp of milk and cocoa powder.

Step 8: Strawberry - Mix in 6 Tbsp of strawberry fruit spread and a little pink or red food coloring to complete that strawberry ice cream aesthetic. Add extra flour to get the dough back to a similar texture as the vanilla and the chocolate. Doing this now will save you the trouble of rescuing your strawberry dough later.

Digression into my Learning Experience

I'm sharing this in the spirit of full disclosure. Things go weird sometimes. I gave my fridge too much credit so even after sitting in my fridge over night, the strawberry dough was too soft and sticky. So I wound up kneading in about 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup flour to get the dough to a workable texture. The flavor was exactly what I wanted it to be so it still worked. It was just sticky and messy and took a little extra effort.

Step 9: Refrigerate the doughs overnight.

Step 10: Roll out each dough and freeze them for a little bit on parchment paper. You don't want them hard. You just want them to stay as cold as possible while you work.

Step 11: Beat an egg. This is your glue and your spackle.

Step 12: Paint with egg and stack the three layers of dough. Freezer.

Step 13: Trim the edges. You're not trying to make it perfectly square. You're just trying to even up a bit. You can fill in the smaller gaps.with pieces from the off cuts and use the egg to seal the edges. Freezer.

Step 14: Using a ruler (or a T-Square. T-Squares are awesome for this.) to square the dough. Then cut it in half the long way. Paint with egg and stack. Then paint the edges with egg to further seal the edges. Freezer.

Digression

If you have a secret method of rolling out dough in a square and not an amoeba shape, please share it.

Step 15: Take the off cuts and mash them all together into a ball. Knead the ball a few times to mix everything together. Roll out evenly. Paint with egg. Roll up into a log. Roll the roll in chocolate sprinkles (Must appeal to that critical 3 and 5 year old demographic). Wrap that up and throw it in the freezer.

Step 16: Slice the logs. About a half centimeter per cookie. There will always be junk looking ends but they'll still taste good. Only slice as many cookies as you're going to bake.

Step 17: Bake in an oven at 375 degrees. This took me about 15 minutes. Just watch your cookies and pull them when the tops are set and the bottoms start to get golden.