Neapolitan Cookies

As soon as I came across the recipe for these beautiful cookies, I knew I wanted to try to make them. I'm still a beginner baker, but I tried to not be intimidated by the idea of combining three different doughs into one coherent cookie. 

Turns out, it's pretty easy! The hardest part was sourcing the ingredients. I don't have a food processor so making my own freeze dried strawberry powder was out of the question, and I only have the average grocery store brand of cocoa powder. Kate's Naturals and King Arthur to my rescue! I was delightfully surprised by the rich taste of the strawberry powder. The black cocoa powder is quite dark, but provides the perfect color compliment. Next time I'd probably do half black cocoa and half regular.

Neapolitan Cookies

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups + 1 tbsp all-purpose flour

3/4 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup of freeze-dried strawberries

1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature (I used my typical salted butter here, and I can taste the added salt)

1 3/4 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg + 1 egg yolk

2 tsps pure vanilla extract

2 -3 drops red food coloring optional

2 tbsps Dutch-process black cocoa powder OR 1 tbsp Dutch-process black cocoa powder and 1 tbsp regular cocoa powder

Sprinkles or granulated sugar for rolling

Steps

1.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. 
2. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, and salt. In a different bowl, either attached to a stand mixer or using a hand mixer, beat the 1 cup of butter for ~1 minute until creamy. Add the 1 3/4 cups of sugar and beat for 2-3 minutes until well combined. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat on medium until combined. 
3. Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and beat on low speed. (I only have a hand mixer and I finished combining it with a rubber spatula. That seemed to work better.) Dump the dough onto a workspace and divide into 3 equal parts.
4. Put one third of the dough into the bowl with the mixer and add the powdered strawberries. Blend together before adding food coloring to achieve your perfect shade. Remove the strawberry dough from the bowl and wipe the bowl clean of any color. Repeat the same with the dark cocoa and another third of dough. Sprinkle finishing sugar or sprinkles on a piece of aluminum foil or in a shallow dish (opt). 
5. When you have your three balls of dough, pinch small portions from each and set to the side. This is how I combined my dough: I took 1-2 pinches of strawberry and pat into my palm. I did the same with the chocolate dough, and ended with the vanilla. I then pinched the stack together until I could roll them together into a regular-sized ball of cookie dough. This resulted in the beautiful blend of colors that I had. If you're using finishing sugar, roll the ball in the sugar before placing on the cookie sheet.
6. Bake for 10-11 minutes. 

The original recipe poster has great tips on how to combine the doughs, if my method isn't working for ya. 

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