Cookies for Santa

I've been meaning to tell you guys about these cookies for a while now but I've just never gotten around to it. Susan from Food Blogga has given me the perfect excuse with her event, Eat Christmas Cookies, Season 2. I make these cookies every year during the Holidays and a few of them always find their way onto Santa's plate.

The cookies are made up of three flavors of dough, vanilla, cherry and chocolate. They're meant to mirror the traditional look of Neapolitan ice cream. I know that usually, Neapolitan ice cream's pink is strawberry flavored but the candied cherries in this recipe give the cookies such a nice color and they taste good too! The recipe comes from the same Robin Hood booklet in which I found my recipe for Pouding Chômeur. I love that little booklet so much, I might have to "borrow" it next time I see my mom.

Being refrigerator cookies, once the dough is made they fall into the "I'll bake these when I have time" category, which I find really useful during the Holidays. The cookies do call for a little more prep than usual refrigerator cookies but they're so cute and fun, they're worth the extra work.

Part of the round-up for Eat Christmas Cookies is already up over on Food Blogga but you still have a few days to submit an entry. So go on and bake Christmas cookies! Hope you like these, Susan!

Neapolitan Cookies

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 cup of candied cherries, finely chopped

5 to 10 drops red food coloring

1 (1 ounce) square unsweetened chocolate, melted

1/4 cup toasted, finely chopped pecans

In a small bowl, mix together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

With your mixer of choice, in a large bowl cream together butter and sugar. Add the egg and the vanilla, beating well. Add the dry ingredients and mix until blended.

Divide the dough into thirds. Keep one part as is. To one part add the candied cherries and the red food coloring. To the third part, add the chocolate and chopped pecans. Wrap each piece with plastic wrap and refrigerate for one hour.

After one hour, shape each piece of dough into a 12" X 2" X 1/2" rectangle. Place each rectangle one on top of the other, keeping the pink one in the middle.* Refrigerate the dough log for at least 4 hours, until firm.

When ready to bake, preheat your oven to 350F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Slice the log into 1/8" slices and place them 1/2" apart onto the prepared baking sheet.

Bake the cookies for 10 to 12 minutes. Let them rest for one minute on the cookie sheet before transferring them to racks to cool completely.

* The original recipe stated to keep the pink slice in the middle but after a little research, I think the traditional Neapolitan ice cream had the white part in the middle. Either way, still good! :)