Neapolitan Ice Cream Cone Cookies

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We traded ice cream scoops for cookie scoops! These Neapolitan ice cream cone cookies are a baked version of a beloved classic. Chocolate, strawberry and vanilla dough, swirled into each cookie and topped with crushed bits of waffle cone. 

Neapolitan Ice Cream and Cookies: an unexpectedly delicious duo!! Neapolitan ice cream is a beloved classic flavor that combines chocolate, vanilla and strawberry flavored icecream in one dessert. Because when you can’t decide on one flavor? Why not try all three?!

Why You’ll Love these Neapolitan Ice cream Cone Cookies

• A fun twist on classic flavors. Vanilla, strawberry, and chocolate will always be a classic trio of flavors. Which makes it the perfect excuse to make a cookie inspired by the iconic ice cream flavors.
• Perfect and fun for parties! These cookies are super fun, unexpected, and a perfect conversation piece, which makes them perfect for serving at a party or larger gathering. They also make a large batch, so you’ll have lots to share!
• They’re perfectly soft and chewy. There is nothing like a soft, chewy cookie straight from the oven. These Neapolitan cookies have slightly crunchy edges and a soft, chewy center, making them irresistible!

How to make Neapolitan Cookies, Step by Step

Step 1: Cream butter and sugars.

The first step in making cookies is to always cream butter and sugar together. This step is very important because it whips air into the cookies, making them fluffy, so you don’t end up with a flat cookie. You will whip the butter and sugar together until it is smooth and creamy.

After your butter is creamy, mix in eggs and vanilla until you have a smooth mixture. 

Step 2. Mix in dry ingredients.

Before you mix in your dry ingredients, whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a separate bowl. This will allow each ingredient to blend more evenly into the creamed butter.

Pour the flour mixture into the creamed butter and mix until incorporated. If you see any loose flour, make sure to scrape the sides of the bowl to mix it into the dough. 

Tip! Make sure you don’t over-mix the batter. This is a thicker dough, so stop mixing once the dough is evenly mixed.

Step 3. Third the dough and mix in strawberry powder and the chocolate powder.

Form the dough into a ball and cut into three even chunks. One will stay vanilla, the other two will be mixed with either strawberry or chocolate powder to create the rest of the Neapolitan flavors.

Take one of the dough sections and put it back into the electric mixing bowl. Blend half a cup of freeze-dried strawberries in a food processor or high-powered blender until it is a fine powder. Pour that into the mixer and blend on low until the strawberry powder is evenly blended into the dough. 

Tip: Using freeze-dried strawberries is going to create a very potent strawberry flavor!

Quickly clean out the bowl and mixing paddle, and place the other chunk of dough in the mixer. Blend the cocoa powder into the dough the same way until all the cocoa powder is evenly incorporated. 

Now you should have three dough flavors – vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry! Time to form the dough balls!

Step 4. Scoop, roll and chill dough for 10 minutes.

Using a spoon, scoop small dough balls of each flavor and roll them together. Place them onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. 

Press several pieces of crushed waffle cone into the top of each dough ball. That way, when they cook, they will look like melted scoops of Neapolitan ice cream.

Once all the cookies have been scooped and rolled, chill for at least 10-15 minutes. Chilling the dough will help the dough solidify so it doesn’t spread too much while baking.

Step 5. Bake until edges are slightly golden brown, cool and enjoy!

After the dough balls have chilled, place 4-6 cookie dough balls on a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake in a preheated oven at 350ºF for 12-15 minutes. 

Make sure each cookie is spaced a couple of inches apart from one another. When the cookies are nice and golden on the edges, they are done!

Take the cookies out of the oven and let them cool on a cooling rack for 5-10 minutes before enjoying. Repeat this step for the rest of the cookies and enjoy!

Tips for making the best cookies?

• Cold butter! This is essential. If your butter is too warm, the cookies can spread too much when baking.
• Room temperature eggs. Make sure to set your eggs out ahead of time to get to room temperature. They will blend more easily into your batter.
• Chill the cookie dough. A little extra chill of the cookie dough is an extra step we never skip! Even if it is just chilling for 10 minutes, it helps to solidify the dough. Chilled dough helps to reduce the spread of the cookies. If your dough is too warm, the butter will melt, and your cookies will spread.
• Blend freeze-dried strawberries into a powder for strawberry flavor. Just half a cup of freeze-dried strawberries gives the strawberry portion of this dough a delicious, tart strawberry flavor.
• Mix in the strawberry and chocolate powders after you make the dough. To make this recipe easier, make your vanilla batter, separate it into three even chunks, and blend the strawberry and chocolate powders into the other two dough sections with your electric mixer. 

How can you make these without a food processor?

If you don’t have a food processor to blend the freeze-dried strawberries into a powder, try one of these ways instead. 

• Rolling pin: Pour freeze-dried strawberries in a plastic bag, seal the bag, and roll over the strawberries to crush into a powder.
• Small high-powered blender: You may also have success blending the strawberries with a small high-powered blender, like a Nutribullet, Ninja Nuti-Blender or a Beast Blender.
• Mortar and Pestle: This may take a bit of time, but it works great for blending into a powder.

How to get perfectly round cookies every time!

If your cookies spread out in the oven and look a bit wonky, try this!! Use this tried-and-true trick to make sure all our cookies look perfectly rounded every time.

1. Using a large circle cookie cutter or a small bowl. Place the cookie cutter around the shape of the cookie. It may take some gentle molding to fit.
2. Gently move the cookie cutter in a circular motion until the abstract edges become more rounded. 
3. Lift the cookie cutter from the pan and repeat for the rest of the odd-shaped cookies.

Tip! It’s important to do this immediately when you pull them out of the oven, or else they will cool and won’t be pliable.  

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