Raspberry Neapolitan Cookies combine raspberry, chocolate, and vanilla cookie doughs to make a chewy and flavorful cookie. They start with one base vanilla dough that gets flavored with freeze dried raspberries and cocoa powder.
I was inspired by Sarah Kieffer’s strawberry Neapolitan cookies to make a raspberry version of them, especially since I found freeze dried raspberries for BOGO at the store and felt the need to take advantage of the deal. These cookie combine raspberry, chocolate, and vanilla doughs to essentially make three cookies in one.
These Neapolitan cookies are chewy in the middle and crisp along the edges. Using egg yolk and corn syrup in the dough keeps them fudgy and smooth, even after a day or two after baking. Freeze dried raspberries create the deep pink color and raspberry flavor while dark cocoa powder creates the chocolate dough. You only need to make one base cookie dough that will turn into the three different flavors.
Ingredients for Raspberry Neapolitan Cookies
Here are some important notes regarding some of the ingredients you’ll need to make these cookies. A full ingredient list is at the bottom in the recipe card.
- All-Purpose Flour: I recommend measuring flour using a digital scale for accuracy. You and I could both measure flour from the same bag, using the same measuring up, and end up with slightly different amounts depending how much we pack or fluff it.
- A scale is most accurate, but if you do not have one then use the spoon-and-level method.
- Clear Corn Syrup: Corn syrup prevents sugar from crystallizing, which leads to a smooth and tender texture. Important here since the freeze dried raspberries can add quite a bit of texture with the seeds.
- Freeze Dried Raspberries: I usually buy from Target or Trader Joe’s.
- Dark Cocoa Powder: Dark or dutch cocoa powder gives a deeper color to the cookies, but you could use regular cocoa as well.
- Cream of Tartar: A bit unconventional here since I’m sure you typically associate this ingredient with snickerdoodles. However, I love cream of tartar here since it does the same thing as the corn syrup — prevent sugar crystallization which keeps them soft and chewy.
- Egg and Egg Yolk: Egg yolk + all those ingredients that prevent sugar crystallization = tender, fudgy, and chewy cookies. Make sure your eggs are at room temperature. You can quickly do this by soaking eggs in a bowl of hot water for 5-10 minutes.
- Granulated Sugar: For sweetness as well as the roll the cookies in before baking to give them that sparkling, textured appearance.
How to Make Neapolitan Cookies
The first thing I would think when looking at Neapolitan cookies is how the heck do you get those colors and put the doughs together? There are a few tricks to do doing so.
First, make sure to use freeze dried raspberries and finely pulse them into a powder. It is best to use a food processor to do this.
Next, portion out all of the dough before combining. It’s easier to focus on one thing at a time compared to multiple. So portioning each dough into little pieces first will make putting them together a lot easier, so that you don’t have to switch between the two tasks. I used a scale to measure out 0.5 oz pieces but you don’t have to be as precise as I was. After doing a few you’ll get the sense of how large each should be.
Last, press the dough into a cookie scoop to shape it. I used a 1.5 oz scoop, which perfectly held the three doughs. I prefer this over rolling with my hands since I like the look and even-ness you get with a cookie scoop.
Rolling the dough in sugar before baking is optional, but it certainly does make them look nice!
Recipe Tips
- Strain out raspberry seeds if you want a smoother texture. Raspberries are fruits. They have seeds. This means that even after you freeze dry them and pulverize them into a powder, there will still be bits of seed in there. If you hate that texture, then strain them out before adding the raspberry to the dough.
- Go gentle when mixing dough. When making the initial base dough, it is super important to not over mix the dough and stop when the flour is just combined. This is especially critical for these Neapolitan cookies because you go and further mix ⅔ of the dough with raspberry powder and cocoa.
- Don’t over bake the cookies. Cookies will be done when they start to turn golden along the edges and are puffed up in the middle. The middles do not have to be completely cooked through before you pull them out of the oven. As long as the tops aren’t shiny and raw-looking, you are good to remove the cookies.
Modification Ideas
- Use less freeze dried raspberry powder for a milder flavor (and color).
- Substitute the raspberries for freeze dried strawberries, blueberries, or mango.
- Try using matcha powder instead of cocoa powder to change up the flavor. Use no more than 1 tbsp of matcha per batch of cookies.
Pin & Save for Later
Are you interested in baking these cookies but aren’t ready yet? You can hover (or tap on mobile/tablet) over any image in this post to save it to Pinterest.
Happy baking my friends and hope you love your raspberry Neapolitan cookies!
Raspberry Neapolitan Cookies
These fun marble cookies are a combination of vanilla, chocolate, and raspberry cookie doughs (all of which use the same base for ease). They're chewy in the middle, crisp along the edges, and full of flavor.
Ingredients
- 1 cup (215g) unsalted butter, softened
- 1 ½ cup (300g) granulated sugar + more for rolling
- 2 tbsp corn syrup
- 1 egg + 1 egg yolk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
- 2 ½ cups (300g) all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp cream of tartar
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ¾ tsp salt
- .75 to 1 oz freeze dried raspberries
- 1-2 tbsp dutch processed cocoa powder
Instructions
- Make vanilla dough: In a mixer, beat the butter, sugar, and corn syrup together for 2-3 minutes until they are light and fluffy.
- Add the egg, followed the egg yolk and vanilla extract. Scrape down the sides of the bowl between each addition. Beat in the eggs and vanilla for around 45 seconds to 1 minute, until they're fully combined.
- Combine the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt in a separate bowl, and then fold them into the dough just until there are no streaks of white left. Do not over mix.
- Divide the dough into three portions.
- Make raspberry dough: in a food processor, pulse the freeze dried raspberries until they turn into a fine powder. Option to strain out the seeds or leave them in. Fold the raspberry powder into one portion of the cookie dough until combined.
- Make chocolate dough: mix 1-2 tbsp of dutch processed cocoa with another portion of the dough. If the dough seems dry you can add a teaspoon of milk.
- Assemble cookies: Preheat oven to 350°F and line two large cookie sheets with parchment. Portion out 0.5 oz pieces (a little under 1 tbsp) of each of the three doughs. Take one piece of each dough and either roll them together or press them into a cookie scoop to shape.
- Repeat until all cookies are assembled. You might find yourself with a little extra raspberry dough at the end, so some cookies will be more raspberry-forward.
- Roll each cookie in sugar (if desired) and space them two inches apart on the cookie sheets. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until the edges are crisp and middles puffed up. It's okay if the middles are not 100% done as long as the tops don't look completely raw.
- Allow the cookies cool for 10 minutes on the sheets before transferring them to racks to cool completely.
Notes
Cocoa Powder: I recommend dutch processed or dark cocoa powder (it should say on the bag/box). This cocoa has a less acidic, deeper flavor compared to natural cocoa that works really well in cookies.
Raspberry and Chocolate Doughs: When adding the flavorings to the dough, make sure to avoid overworking the dough. The easiest way evenly distribute flavoring is with a mixer's paddle attachment. I use the same bowl for each dough, no need to clean since they're all getting combined together at the end anyways!
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