Vegan Neapolitan Cookies

Vegan Neapolitan Cookies

It’s June. It’s getting hot outside. I’ve only got one thing on my mind. Ice-cream. Okay, two things, because I’m also thinking about cookies, almost constantly.

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I was never a fan of Neapolitan ice-cream as a child. I hated (and I mean HATED) strawberry ice-cream. And because of that, I never got on board with the vanilla-chocolate-strawberry Neapolitan trio. Luckily, as a 25-year-old, I have come to my senses and now realise that combining three flavours of ice-cream into one is genius. But I still kinda think if they swapped strawberry for mint-choc-chip they’d be on to a real winner, just saying.

But I’m not just here for ice-cream, oh no. I’m here for the sweet intersection between the OG ice-cream trio we all know and love and the basic ‘crispy-round-the-edges-chewy-in-the-middle’ cookie that has seen me through so many mid-afternoon slumps. Sometimes there really is nothing more gratifying than closing my laptop for half an hour and gazing into space with a cup of coffee in one hand a cookie (or two) in the other.

These babies have got it all. All the flavour of summer and all the cosy comfort of a freshly baked batch of salty cookies. And if you’re feeling really fancy, why not sandwich some actual ice-cream between these ice-cream-inspired cookies? That’s the kinda goal I want to achieve this month.

Vegan Neapolitan Cookies

Ingredients (makes approx. 24 small cookies):

• 150g vegan spread/butter
• 125g soft light brown sugar
• 50g golden caster sugar
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 tbsp soya milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 300g + 2 tbsp plain flour (or GF plain)
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1/2 tsp cornflour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 tsp cacao/cocoa powder (I used Naturya)
• 8 – 10 frozen raspberries

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 190C (375F, Gas Mark 5) and line 2 baking trays with baking paper.
2. Cream together the butter and sugars in a large bowl using an electric hand mixer.
3. Add the vegetable oil, soya milk and vanilla extract and mix until smooth – this may take a few minutes.
4. In a separate bowl, combine 300g flour with the baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, cornflour and salt and mix.
5. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and mix until it just comes together.
6. Divide the dough into thirds. Set one third aside – this will be your vanilla portion.
7. For the chocolate portion, add the cacao/cocoa powder to one of your thirds and mix until well incorporated. Set aside.
8. For the raspberry portion, defrost the frozen raspberries in the microwave for a few minutes and then break them up with a fork so you it forms a smooth paste. Add the raspberry paste to the remining dough along with the extra 2 tbsp of flour and mix until well incorporated.
9. Place all the dough thirds into a bowl and chill in the fridge for 30 mins.
10. Once chilled, scoop approximately 3 tbsp of dough per cookie from the bowl, making sure you scrape up a bit of each flavour, and roll into a ball. Place on the lined baking tray and flatten slightly. Make sure you leave some space between each cookie as they will spread a little as they bake.
11. Bake for 14 – 16 mins or until the vanilla portion is golden brown. They’ll still be a little soft in the middle when first removed from the oven – allow them to cool for 5 – 10 mins on the baking tray before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling. Store in an airtight container.

Notes:

1. I have a gas oven, which meant I left these in a little longer than the recipe states to make sure they got a nice golden colour. I’d just keep an eye on them and check on them every few minutes once you hit 14 mins baking time to be on the safe side. They will still feel soft in the oven but they firm up while they cool – as soon as the vanilla portion starts to turn golden brown, you’re good to pull them out.
2. I weighed out each dough-ball before putting it on the baking tray so my cookies were all roughly the same size. I used 30g dough for each cookie (about 10g of each colour).

If you make these, or any other recipes on my website, feel free to tag me on Instagram @charlotteemmma