Matcha Neapolitan Cookies
a medley of flavors in one cookie (Sarah Kieffer’s recipe)I make a cookie box to give out to friends and family every Christmas and every year, I always find myself making this one! I usually make it classically with the chocolate flavor but this time, I replaced it with some delicious matcha to make one of my favorite combinations: strawberry matcha! I love this cookie. :)
I found that the matcha powder makes the cookie a lot harder than the vanilla and strawberry ones. This can make it a lot more crinkly just in the green section. I didn’t notice this much of a drastic difference when I made the chocolate version. Is matcha more dry compared to cocoa powder?
You can make these cookies by hand or with a hand mixer, but I find that using a stand mixer makes it sooo much easier.
Another thing: this cookie takes a long time because you need to portion each flavor and combine them together.
Ingredients
makes around 40 cookies
I used Sarah Kieffer’s Neapolitan cookies recipe found here: https://www.thevanillabeanblog.com/neapolitan-cookies/
728 grams (5 cups + 2 tablespoons) all-purpose flour
1.5 teaspoons baking soda
1.5 teaspoons salt
16 grams (1 cup) freeze-dried strawberries
4 sticks (2 cups/454 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
700 grams (3.5 cups) sugar
2 large eggs and 2 large yolks
4 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 tablespoons matcha powder
Directions
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
Add 728 g flour, 1.5 tsp baking soda, and 1/5 tsp salt to a bowl and whisk it all together. In a different bowl, grind 16 g freeze-dried strawberries into a powder. I use a mortar and pestle but you can use a food processor.
Add 4 sticks room temperature unsalted butter to the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment. Beat the butter on medium for around one minute.
Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl with a spatula. Then add 700 g sugar to the butter. Continue mixing on medium until it get light and fluffy, around 2-3 minutes.
Scrape the bottoms and sides once again. Add 2 eggs and 2 egg yolks, along with 4 tsp vanilla extract. Mix on medium until combined. Scrape the sides and bottom again.
Add all of the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and mix on low just until combined.
Now split your dough exactly into thirds. I had around 1959 g of dough so I split each third to be around 653 g each. Put a third of the cookie dough back into the bowl of the stand mixer. Add your freeze-dried strawberries (you can also add some red food coloring here if you want it to be more red). Mix on low just until the dough is all pink/red. Remove the dough from the bow.
Now add another third of the regular dough to the bowl. Add 4 tbs matcha powder to the cookie dough and mix on low until combined. Remove from the bowl.
Pinch small portions of each dough (around 15 g of each flavor) and combine them together to form one ball. Place them on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. I space mine apart so that there are 6 cookies on each sheet.
Bake your cookies for around 10-11 minutes rotating halfway through baking. You want the edges to be set while the cookies are puffed. Transfer to a wire rack and cool for 5-10 minutes. Repeat with all of the cookies. Enjoy!
These cookies always remind me of the flag of Italy. haha
