Neapolitan Butter Cookie Recipe (2024)

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If you love Neapolitan ice cream, you’ll adore this Neapolitan butter cookie recipe. Featuring a pair of piped butter cookies and swirls of vanilla chocolate strawberry buttercream sandwiched in between, these Neapolitan cookies taste just like ice cream!

What Inspired This Neapolitan Butter Cookie Recipe?

I’ve always loved Neapolitan ice cream. Although its three flavors—vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry—are simple and classic, they come together to create one next-level bite.

Similar to spumoni and presumably originating in the Italian city of Naples, Italian immigrants introduced this frozen treat to the United States in the mid-1800s, and the trend soon spread worldwide. Classic Neapolitan ice cream features the three flavors frozen into one block, but these days, you can buy it in tubs, cups, and popsicles. There is even Neapolitan Astronaut Ice Cream.

I especially like Neapolitan ice cream sandwiches, or a slab of Neapolitan ice cream sandwiched between a pair of crisp, still-warm waffles. As a kid, I also remember loving the individual portions of Neapolitan ice cream which came wrapped in parchment paper and were frequently served at birthday parties and other kid-centric celebrations.

A Twist on the Classic Danish Butter Cookie Recipe

For this butter cookie recipe, I’ve drawn inspiration from both Neapolitan ice cream and another favorite: Danish butter cookies.

Crispy, buttery, vanilla-y, and coated in crunchy sugar, Danish butter cookies are a popular treat in the US around the Christmas holidays. (Although these days they’re probably best known for their ubiquitous blue tin, which more often than not holds something other than cookies—I think every wardrobe workroom and home sewing studio in the world contains at least one blue cookie tin filled with needles and thread. In fact, this storage phenomenon is so common it’s even become a meme.)

Danish butter cookies, shortbread cookies, and spritz cookies all contain similar ingredients, namely butter (of course!), sugar, and flour. According to The Kitchn, it’s the addition of an egg which separates shortbread from spritz.

These Neapolitan cookies contain egg, so they’re closer to spritz or butter cookies than shortbread. They feature a pretty pink, brown, and white color palette reminiscent of Neapolitan ice cream, with swirls of vanilla chocolate strawberry buttercream (which I swear tastes just like Neapolitan ice cream) sandwiched in between!

Neapolitan Cookie Recipe Tips and Tricks

I strongly suggest using silicone baking mats for this butter cookie recipe. If you don’t have silicone mats on hand, line the trays with parchment instead. Do not use greased or buttered trays.

Don’t skip the chilling step in this butter cookie recipe. If desired, you can increase the chilling time (up to two hours), but don’t omit it. Chilling helps the Neapolitan cookies to retain their piped shapes as they bake.

I chose not to flavor the cookie batter (beyond a bit of cocoa powder, which lends color to the chocolate portion) to allow the Neapolitan buttercream to shine. However, you can add a bit of strawberry extract or vanilla bean paste to the pink and white portions if desired.

These Neapolitan cookies are best enjoyed on the day they are made. Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container for up to three days. The cookies will be a bit soft on day two, but they’re still delicious.

Notes on Piped Butter Cookies

If your piping bag is smaller than the plastic-wrapped tube of batter (or buttercream), cut the tube in half and pipe in two batches. This will also make the piping step more manageable.

When piping the cookie batter, keep a sharp knife or a pair of kitchen scissors on hand, and use these as necessary to separate the batter from the piping tip.

The cookie batter in this recipe will be very difficult to pipe. There simply isn’t any way around it. Adding more butter or milk makes piping easier, but it also creates cookies that spread too much in the oven. Resist the urge to add extra milk unless absolutely necessary.

I used a star piping tip with a 5/8-inch opening. You can use a larger piping tip (this will make the piping less challenging) but I wouldn’t go smaller. You can also substitute another shape (round, open star, etc.) if desired.

Choose sturdy piping bags for this recipe, especially for the cookie batter. (I like these blue piping bags, which are both strong and large in size.) Cheap or thin piping bags have a tendency to split, and you’ll end up with a mess.

When piping the Neapolitan cookies onto the trays, you’ll need both hands to control the piping bag. To prevent the tray from spinning and sliding, place a damp dishrag or j-cloth between the tray and the countertop to hold it in place as you pipe.

Making the Strawberry Buttercream

I used powdered freeze-dried strawberries to flavor and color the pink buttercream. Not only are freeze-dried berries more natural than an extract, but they make the buttercream taste just like strawberry ice cream, complete with little flecks of strawberry.

Powdered freeze-dried strawberries can be easily purchased on Amazon, but in a pinch you can substitute pink gel food coloring and strawberry flavor extract to taste.

More whimsical cookie recipes you might enjoy:

Sunny Lemon Daisy Cookies
Geometric Rainbow Cookies
Rainbow Piñata Cookies
Sushi Cookies

And if do you make these, or any of my recipes, don’t forget to tag me @bastecutfold or use the hashtag #bastecutfold on Instagram. I always love to see what you’re making!

Neapolitan Butter Cookies

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Author: becky
Total Time: 2 hours and 15 minutes, including chilling time
Yield: 12 2-inch sandwich cookies 1x

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Description

Piped butter cookies inspired by Neapolitan ice cream, with swirls of vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry buttercream sandwiched in between.

Ingredients

Scale

Cookies:
170 grams unsalted butter, softened (3/4 cup)
50 grams granulated sugar (1/2 cup)
4 tablespoons whole milk, plus more to adjust consistency
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 egg
260 grams all-purpose flour (2 cups)
2 teaspoons cocoa powder
1–2 drops pink gel food coloring (I used Chefmaster Neon Brite Pink)

Buttercream:
113 grams unsalted butter, softened (1/2 cup)
300 grams confectioner’s sugar (2 1/2 cups)
1 tablespoon whole milk
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
2 teaspoons cocoa powder
2 teaspoons powdered freeze-dried strawberries
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

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Instructions

Cookies:

In a large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, whip the butter until smooth and creamy.

Add the granulated sugar and mix on medium-high speed until well-combined.

Add the milk, vanilla extract, kosher salt, and egg, and mix until well-combined.

Sift in the flour. Use a rubber spatula to gently fold the flour into the butter mixture, periodically scraping the sides of the bowl until all flour has been incorporated. Do not overmix. The mixture will resemble a thick, sticky paste.

Divide the batter into three equal portions, placing each in a separate bowl. To one bowl, add the pink gel food coloring and stir until evenly distributed. Stir the cocoa powder into the second bowl, along with a teaspoon of milk if the mixture seems too dry.

Transfer each color batter to a separate piping bag.

Unroll about 18 inches of plastic wrap/clingfilm on a flat surface. Pipe stripes of batter up and down, continuing until all of the batter has been piped. When done, you should have thick columns of white, brown, and pink batter. (Don’t worry if these arent pretty or perfectly even, you won’t see them anyway!)

Gently roll the plastic wrap from one side to the other, wrapping the colors around each other and creating a tube of batter. For sturdiness, wrap 2-3 additional layers of plastic around the tube.

Place the tube inside a piping bag fitted with a large star tip. (If the tube is longer than the piping bag, you can cut it in half and pipe the cookies in two separate batches.)

Pipe 1 1/2-inch rosettes (or other shape of choice) onto trays lined with silicone baking mats, allowing space in between for the cookies to spread slightly as they bake.

Transfer trays to the refrigerator to chill for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350° F / 175° C.

Bake cookies in preheated oven for 13-15 minutes, or until white cookie dough starts to brown lightly around the edges. Cool on trays for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before filling with buttercream.

Buttercream:

In a large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, whip butter until creamy.

Gradually add the confectioner’s sugar, alternating with the whole milk. Continue mixing on medium-high speed until sugar is fully incorporated, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed. Mix in the kosher salt.

Divide the buttercream into three bowls.

Add the cocoa powder to one bowl, the freeze-dried strawberries to the second, and the vanilla bean paste to the third, stirring each until fully incorporated.

Transfer each of the buttercreams into a separate piping bag.

Just as you did with the batter, unroll about 18 inches of plastic wrap/clingfilm on a flat surface. Pipe stripes of buttercream up and down, continuing until all of the buttercream has been piped. When done, you should have thick columns of white, brown, and pink buttercream.

Gently roll the plastic wrap from one side to the other, wrapping the colors around each other and creating a tube of buttercream. For sturdiness, wrap 2-3 additional layers of plastic wrap around the tube.

Place the tube inside a piping bag fitted with a large star tip. (If the tube is longer than the piping bag, you can cut it in half and pipe the buttercream in two separate batches.)

Assembly:

Pair the cookies by size. You should have a total of 12 pairs.

To one half of each pair, pipe a generous swirl of buttercream on the flat side.

Sandwich with the remaining cookies.

Neapolitan buttercream cookies are best enjoyed on the day they are made. Store leftovers in an airtight container at room temperature for up to three days. Leftover cookies can also be frozen in an airtight container.