Three flavors in one delicious cookie. This old fashioned recipe was a Christmas treat every year, although I love them year round. The center is green and flavored with your favorite nut, like pistachio or pecan. The red layer has rum extract, and the chocolate layer speaks for itself. Not only festive and pretty, every bite of Italian Spumoni Cookies melts in your mouth.
Italian Spumoni Cookies remind me of Neapolitan Ice Cream with the 3 colors and flavors, only this is a munchable cookie. Plus, they’re colorful, festive, and the recipe is tried and true.
Other Italian Spumoni Cookie recipes call for the red layer to be flavored with cherry, but this recipe is way better with the rum. I don’t know what they were thinking.
Making Italian Spumoni Cookies
Basic Dough
Start by making the basic dough. Mix the butter, powdered sugar, egg, and vanilla extract together.
Next, stir in the flour until thoroughly blended.
As best you can, divide the dough into 3 equal parts.
Three layers
To the first part, stir in the melted chocolate, then set aside. Ghirardelli chocolate is my favorite.
To the second part, stir in the chopped nuts and green food coloring. For nuts, use pecans, walnuts, or pistachios.
Lastly, the third part gets the rum extract and red food coloring.
Shaping the 3 parts into layers
Waxed paper works great for this next part.
Shape each part into a rectangle, 8 x 3″ on a sheet of waxed paper. Now, as shown above, layer the rectangles with green in the center to form a brick. A cookie brick.
Press the layers together, and smooth the edges. Then, wrap the brick with the waxed paper, and place in the refrigerator to chill for 2 hours.
Chilling it allows you to make clean cuts on the cookies. The dough is too soft, otherwise.
Baking Italian Spumoni Cookies
Preheat the oven to 375°. Slice each cookie 1/4″ thick from the end of the brick, and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 9 – 11 minutes.
My mom’s notes say to bake until, “no imprint remains when lightly touched with finger.” And you know what? She was right again.
Me Like Cookies
Quick recipes are my favorite, but only if they taste amazing. Check these out (the chocolate with peanut butter chips is my favorite):
- Chocolate Cake Mix Cookies
- White Cake Mix Cookies — great if you want to add a specific color, like red and green for Christmas, or pink for a baby girl.
- Strawberry Cake Mix Cookies
Italian Spumoni Cookies
Materials
Basic Dough:
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
Chocolate Layer:
- 2 oz. unsweetened chocolate, melted
Green Layer:
- 1/2 cup nuts (pecans, walnuts, pistachio), chopped
- few drops green food coloring
Red Layer:
- 2 tsp. rum extract
- few drops red food coloring
Instructions
Basic Dough:
- Mix together butter, sugar, egg, and vanilla. Add flour, mix thoroughly. Divide dough into 3 equal parts.
Chocolate Layer:
- To first part, mix in melted chocolate.
Green Layer:
- To second part, mix in nuts and green food coloring.
Red Layer:
- To third part, mix in rum extract and red food coloring.
Shape each part into 8 x 3" rectangle. (use waxed paper)
- Layer rectangles, green in the center. Press together, wrap, and chill for 2 hours in refrigerator.
- Preheat oven to 375°. Cut cookies from end 1/4" thick. Bake on ungreased baking sheet for 9 - 11 minutes. Enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
Italian Spumoni Cookies
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Are they best served the day of baking or is there a way to store them so I can make them a day in advance? Thank you.
As long as you put them in a sealed container, they’ll be good for several days. I’ve even frozen them before I needed them, and they freeze great. Just defrost on the counter in a sealed container. Thanks for the question.