icebox cookies

Neapolitan cookies are butter cookies with chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry. These easy cookies are shaped in a loaf pan and made from 1 cookie dough. Read my recipe notes before beginning.

1 Dough Neapolitan Cookies

(310 grams) all-purpose flour (spoon & leveled)

baking powder

salt

(230 grams; 2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature

(200 grams) granulated sugar

egg egg

vanilla extract

Tablespoon water and coarse sugar

1 and 1/2 Tablespoons (12 grams) all-purpose flour

Tablespoon (20 grams) strawberry jam

almond extract*

pink or red food coloring*

strawberry extract

(28 grams) semi-sweet chocolate, melted and slightly cooled

Make the dough

Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a medium bowl. Set aside.

In a large bowl using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter and granulated sugar together on medium-high speed until creamed, about 2 minutes. Add the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla extract and beat on high speed until combined, about 1 minute. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl and beat again as needed to combine.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix on low until combined. Dough will be thick and sticky. Remove from the mixing bowl. No need to rinse out the mixing bowl.

Divide the dough into 3: 

There&#8217;s about 30 ounces of dough (1 lb, 14 ounces). Divide into three equal portions, about 10 ounces each. One portion is your vanilla dough. Nothing will be added to it. Set vanilla dough aside. The other two portions will be your strawberry dough and chocolate dough.

Make the strawberry dough

Place one portion of dough back into the mixing bowl. Add all of the strawberry dough ingredients. I recommend starting with 1 drop of red or pink food coloring. Beat on low speed until dough is combined. Add another drop or 2 of food coloring until you reach the pink color desired. For the pictured cookies, I only used 1 drop of dusty rose gel food coloring. Remove from the mixing bowl. No need to rinse out the mixing bowl.

Make the chocolate dough

Place last portion of dough back into the mixing bowl. Add all of the chocolate dough ingredients. Beat on low speed until dough is combined.

Shape and chill cookie dough

 See step-by-step photos above showing this following step so you have a better understanding. Line a 9&#215;5 inch loaf pan with aluminum foil or parchment paper, leaving an overhang on the sides to lift the chilled cookie dough out. I recommend layering the cookie dough into the pan in the following order: strawberry dough on the bottom, vanilla dough in the middle, chocolate dough on top. Using your hands, press each dough layer firmly and evenly into prepared loaf pan.

Cover loaf pan tightly and chill dough in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours (and up to 4 days) or 1 hour in the freezer. (See make ahead tip if you wish to freeze longer.)

Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set aside.

Slice and bake

 Lift dough out of the pan using the overhang of parchment paper on the sides. You&#8217;ll have a 9&#215;5 inch block of dough. Slice in half lengthwise so you have two 2.5 x 9 inch rectangles. Use a sharp knife to trim off the ends so the rectangles are 8 inches long. Slice each into 16 cookies. Each cookie is 1/2 inch thick. Trim the cookie edges to make neat rectangles, if desired.*

Arrange cookies 2-3 inches apart on the baking sheets. If desired, brush each lightly with egg wash (see recipe note) and sprinkle with coarse sugar. Bake for 11-13 minutes or until lightly browned around the edges.

Remove from the oven and allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Once cool, enjoy cookies or dip in melted chocolate. See recipe note.

Cookies without chocolate coating will stay fresh covered at room temperature for 1 week. Cookies with chocolate coating will stay fresh covered at room temperature for 3 days or in the refrigerator for 1 week.

Maggie Mae, if you didn't already do this, try freezing the dough (in the pan) before baking. This really cut down on the "spread" and my cookies turned out very uniform and neat.

These tasted great!! Thanks sally! I did add the espresso powder which tasted amazing. I used Americolor gel colour for the pink but my dough didn’t look as nice and pink as yours even after mixing thoroughly. I’ll have to practice that :) agree with the others that the strawberry flavor wasn’t strong enough- I’ll add more of the extract next time. The shape did turn out well for me - it did puff up but still remained rectangular and tasted great. I didn’t add the egg wash but they were still pretty

We absolutely love these cookies and have made them several times in various flavors. I was curious if you’ve ever thought of adding a little freeze dried strawberry powder to these like you do for strawberry cake?

Hi Marla, Yes that works! Happy baking :)

Delicious cookie and so fun to make. Since the pink dough has almond extract,  I wonder if I can cut up jarred cherries to add and leave out the strawberry extract(which I didn’t have). I’m going to have to try next time.

These took me back to my childhood and neopolitan ice cream on the patio at my Nana's in the summer! The flavors are perfect and made me think of my Nana. They are a new favorite of mine and, as a surprise to me, my husband as well. He's a chocolate chip and date cookie only guy. Thanks Sally for another new favorite!

A simple recipe for old-fashioned Icebox Cookies (AKA Refrigerator Cookies). This recipe uses only a few basic ingredients but must be chilled for at least 4 hours before baking. Adapted from Good Housekeeping.

Icebox Cookies (Refrigerator Cookies)

unsalted butter (softened (226 grams))

sugar

egg (room temperature preferred)

all purpose flour ((315 grams))

Optional add-ins (sprinkles, non pareils, chopped nuts, chopped chocolate)

Cream together butter, sugar, egg and vanilla. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl with a spatula to make sure all ingredients are well-combined.

In a separate, medium-sized bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. With mixer on low speed, gradually add to butter mixture until completely combined. Be sure to pause and scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed.

If stirring in any add-ins, mix them in here.

Divide dough into two halves and lightly flour your hands. Form each half into a log about 1 ½&quot; - 2” in diameter. To roll in sprinkles (as seen in the photos), pour several tablespoons of non pareils into a pie plate and roll the dough through the sprinkles until the outside is completely covered.

Wrap dough logs in plastic wrap and refrigerate. To prevent the dough from getting a severely flat edge I like to place it on a plush folded hand towel while it chills. Chill dough for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight and up to one week.

When you are ready to bake, preheat oven to 350F (175C). Remove dough from the refrigerator and slice into ¼” slices.

Transfer to a parchment-lined baking sheet, spacing cookies at least 2 inches apart.

Bake on 350F for 10-12 minutes or until edges are just beginning to turn a light golden brown.

Enjoy!

https://embed.mediavine.com/videos/cpapj2wvokgynsda85ov

A simple recipe for old-fashioned Icebox Cookies (AKA Refrigerator Cookies). This recipe uses only a few basic ingredients but must be chilled for at least 4 hours before baking.

Icebox Cookies

Developed from the same cookie dough used for my neapolitan cookies, these mint chocolate checkerboard cookies are styled and shaped to resemble a checkerboard pattern. It all starts from 1 basic cookie dough! For best success, read through the recipe and notes before beginning because there are a couple chilling and shaping steps.

Mint Chocolate Checkerboard Cookies

peppermint extract

drop green food dye

Tablespoons (10 grams) unsweetened natural or dutch-process cocoa powder

Tablespoon (15 milliliters) milk

espresso powder

Divide the dough in half

There&#8217;s almost 4 cups of dough. Divide in half, a bit less than 2 cups each.

Make the mint dough

Place half of the dough back into the mixing bowl. Add the mint dough ingredients. I recommend starting with 1 small drop of green food coloring. Beat on low speed until dough is combined. Add another small drop of food coloring if desired. For the pictured cookies, I used 1 drop of leaf green gel food coloring. Remove from the mixing bowl. No need to rinse out the mixing bowl, but feel free to wipe clean.

Place other half of dough back into the mixing bowl. Add all of the chocolate dough ingredients. Beat on low speed until dough is combined.

Shape &amp; chill cookie dough for just 1 hour

Place doughs on a lightly floured work surface. It&#8217;s sticky, so do your best in this step. With lightly floured hands, carefully form both doughs into a 6 inch long rectangle block, 2 inches tall and 2 inches wide. Wrap both dough blocks up in plastic wrap or place on a plate and cover with aluminum foil. Refrigerate for just 1 hour. The *key* is to only refrigerate until the dough is less sticky, but still pliable enough to bend and shape. Chilling any longer will make it difficult to form a neat checkerboard pattern. If you need to chill it for longer than 1 hour, make sure you let it sit at room temperature for 15-30 minutes before continuing with the next step.

Shape the dough

See photos in the blog post above for visuals of this step. Remove doughs from refrigerator and unwrap. Using a sharp knife, cut each block lengthways into 3 even strips. Then cut each strip into thirds again. You&#8217;ll have 9 thin strips from each dough block. My strips are usually a little uneven and messy, so for a neat checkerboard pattern, I always trim off* any rounded edges. Place 1 mint dough strip on your work surface. Line up a chocolate dough strip next to it. Line up a mint dough strip next to that. Top each with a row of alternating flavored dough strips, then top that with another row of alternating dough strips. Repeat with 2nd block, starting with a chocolate dough strip this time. As you&#8217;re working, press the strips tightly together to rid any gaps. (This is why it&#8217;s important the doughs are still a bit soft and pliable.) If desired to keep the checkerboard pattern neat, trim off* any rounded edges of your blocks.

Chill for 2 more hours: 

Wrap each block of dough back up or cover and refrigerate for 2 more hours and up to 4 days.

Slice each block into 12 1/2-inch thick cookies. For thinner cookies, slice each block into 18 cookies, about 1/3-inch thick. (Bake time will be about 1 minute shorter.) Trim the cookie edges* to make neat squares, if desired.

Arrange cookies 2-3 inches apart on the baking sheets. If desired, brush each lightly with egg wash (see recipe note) and sprinkle with coarse sugar. Bake for 12-14 minutes or until very lightly browned around the edges.

Cookies stay fresh covered at room temperature for 1 week.

This was a good one! A challenge for me as part of the October Baking Challenge. A good learning experience with tasty results. I learned by doing on this one! Got better as I went along.

Hi! My name is Eliza and I  loved these cookies! They were super soft and they had the perfect amount of sweetness. My mom said these were the best cookies she's ever tasted! Thank you for posting these wonderful recipes!

What a great cookie! I made the dough up in advance and froze the two checkerboard logs to bake later with my granddaughter. This was a favorite with the entire family. I didn’t have peppermint extract, but did have peppermint oil, so substituted a scant 1/4 tsp and I thought it was just the right amount. We sliced the cookies slightly thicker, as you suggested, and it created a nice soft cookie. I’m looking forward to trying the Neapolitan style cookie!

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