Name: Filipino Neapolitan Sugar Cookies Filled with Yema
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 14 min
Ingredients: 20 Small Teaspoon Balls of Yema; 1 Cup Unsalted butter, at room temperature; 1 1/4 Cups Granulated sugar (and more for rolling); 1 Large egg (at room temperature); 2 Teaspoons Vanilla extract; 2 1/4 Cups All-purpose flour (270 g all-purpose flour); 1/2 Teaspoon Baking powder; 1/4 Teaspoon Baking soda; 1/2 Teaspoon alt; 2 Tablespoons Ube Powder; 2 Tablespoons Pandan Powder; 2 Tablespoons Langka (Jackfruit) Powder

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These Neapolitan Sugar Cookies are flavored with 3 different Filipino flavors. Ube, Langka and Pandan. It's also filled with yema, which gives the cookies a nice gooey surprise.

Neapolitan Sugar Cookies Filled with Yema

Ever since Constellation Inspiration posted her Neapolitan sugar cookies, I just had to do a Filipino version. For my flavors I went with Ube, Langka and Pandan. 3 very distinct flavors. I then went another step and filled it with Yema.

I have made Yema before and thought it would be a great surprise when biting into it. Adding the yema makes this cookie a trifecta of Filipino snack memories. To me it's like having a bite of pastillias, polvoron and yema in one. The cookies are coated in sugar so that is where the pastillas comes in and it's a sugar cookie so when you bite into it, it flakes just like a polvoron. And with the yema center. It just heaven.

What Ingredients Do You Need?

To make these Neapolitan Sugar Cookies you will need these core ingredients:
1 cup (227 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
11⁄4 cups (250 g) granulated sugar (and more for rolling)
1 large egg, at room temperature
2 teaspoons (10 ml) vanilla extract
2 1⁄4 cups (270 g) all-purpose flour
1⁄2 teaspoon baking powder
1⁄4 teaspoon baking soda
1⁄2 teaspoon salt

For the powders you will need:

2 tablespoons Ube Powder
2 tablespoons Pandan Powder
2 tablespoons Langka Powder (Jackfruit)

You can't purchase langka (jackfruit) powder as far as I know. To make the powder you will need to turn freeze dried langka into powder. To do that just put some in a mortar and pestle and grind away. It doesn't take long.

How Do You Make the Neapolitan Sugar Cookies?

The first thing you need to do is make the yema recipe. Just follow this recipe and omit the pandan powder. Leave it to cool and roll out 1 teaspoon balls. I made 20 cookies and you can choose to fill all 20 or just half. Rest the balls on a greased platter while you make the dough.

Next mix together the flour, baking powder, soda and salt in a bowl. Then make the cookie dough by creaming together the sugar and butter until nice and smooth. Then add in the egg and vanilla and mix well to incorporate. Add in the flour mixture until you no longer see any flour flecks. Don't over mix.

Now divide the the cookie dough into 3 equal portions. Add each of the powders to each bowl and mix until combined. The ube dough will look not looks so purple when you first mix it in, but after a few minutes it starts hydrating to become a light purple.

Using a mini cookie scooper or a tablespoon scoop the individual flavors together.

Then use your hands to combine the dough into a ball.

To fill with the yema, flatten a cookie and place a yema ball in the middle and pinch the cookie dough around the yema and use your hands to make it into a smooth ball again.