Red velvet cookies can take many forms, and this recipe is one of the best. The cookies turn out cakey and delicious, and topping them with frosting increases the rich flavor and texture. These freeze well, and you can use different frostings and decorations to customize the cookies for holidays and other celebrations. These are terrific cookies to bring into work; don’t be surprised if people want the recipe or keep requesting more of the cookies.
Red Velvet Cookies Ingredients
- Unsweetened chocolate: This adds chocolate flavor and color without adding more sugar in amounts you can’t control.
- Butter: This adds richness as well as allowing air into the batter.
- Brown sugar: Brown sugar adds more flavor while helping make the creamed butter-sugar mixture smoother.
- Sugar: White sugar helps the butter incorporate air into the batter.
- Large egg: An egg acts as a binder for the ingredients.
- Red food coloring: If you want to make these cookies red, you’ll need red food coloring.
- Vanilla extract: Vanilla extract provides a subtle flavor that makes the chocolate taste a little fuller, like there’s more depth to the flavor.
- All-purpose flour: This has enough protein to provide good structure for the cookies as they bake.
- Baking soda: This helps the cookie batter rise during baking. It needs an acidic ingredient to activate.
- Sour cream: Here’s your acidic ingredient. Sour cream also adds richness to the batter.
- Semisweet chocolate chips: These add more chocolatey goodness to the cookies; when you bite into a cookie, you’ll get pops of concentrated chocolate flavor.
- Canned cream-cheese frosting: Make frosting the cookies easy with some canned frosting.
- Sprinkles: These are optional but make the cookies look really cute.
Directions
Step 1: Melt the chocolate
Melt the unsweetened chocolate in a microwave. Stir the chocolate until it’s smooth. Let cool.
Step 2: Mix the batter
Cream the butter and both sugars for 5 to 7 minutes until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add the egg, food coloring and vanilla and blend those into the mixture. Add in the cooled chocolate and beat the mixture to blend it all together.
Mix the flour, baking soda and salt in another bowl. Add some of the dry mix to the wet mix and blend; then add some of the sour cream to the wet mix and blend. Keep alternating additions, beating to blend after each one. Mix in the chocolate chips.
Step 3: Bake, cool and frost
Drop a tablespoon full of batter onto a baking sheet that’s lined with parchment paper. Keep adding tablespoons of dough, with 2 inches of space in between each one. Bake the cookies at 375°F for 6 to 9 minutes until set. Place the cookies on wire racks to cool down completely. Spread frosting on the cookies, and add sprinkles if you’d like.
Red Velvet Cookies Variations
- Decorate the cookie after frosting it: This red velvet cookie recipe suggests using sprinkles to decorate the cookies after frosting, but you can use whatever sweet toppings you want. Look for heart-shaped sprinkles if making these for Valentine’s Day, or top with mini-chocolate chips. Decorating sugars are also an option.
- Make your own frosting: Using canned frosting is easy, but if you like to control the ingredients in the foods you prepare, then make your own cream-cheese frosting. You can try using buttercream, too, if you prefer that.
How to Store Red Velvet Cookies
Frosted cookies need to be stored in the refrigerator. The cream cheese in the frosting should be treated like any perishable food and put in the refrigerator within two hours of you opening the can or making the frosting. Place the cookies in a single layer in flat, airtight containers. Store them in the refrigerator, and eat them within one week.
Can you freeze these red velvet cookies?
You can freeze these, but it’s imperative that you ensure the cookies are individually frozen first. Place each frosted cookie on a flat baking sheet that fits in your freezer. Freeze the cookies in a single layer for up to an hour. You just want to get that frosting frozen solid. Then, place the cookies in an airtight freezer container. Put one layer of cookies in, then a layer of parchment or wax paper, and then another layer of cookies. Repeat until the container is full, and repeat with other containers as necessary.
Red Velvet Cookies Tips
How can you make the batter less runny?
If you’re trying to make these on a humid day or the interior of your home is somewhat humid, the batter can be extra runny. That’s because the dry ingredients absorb some of that environmental moisture and make the batter more liquid. As you mix the cookie ingredients together, hold back some of the moist ingredients, like some of the sour cream. Add the reserved sour cream in bit by bit to ensure the batter doesn’t become runny.
Do you really need the red food coloring?
If you want the cookies to be unmistakably red, you’ll need the food coloring. There are naturally derived food colorings sold in some stores, so you can try those if you’re concerned about the dyes in conventional food coloring. But if you just don’t want to use coloring, be prepared for the cookies to have at most a reddish or pinkish sheen if you use the right combination of ingredients. That said, the cookie taste and texture should be the same. The food coloring is just a cosmetic issue.
What other red velvet cookie recipes can you make?
Red velvet is very popular, so there are a bunch of other red velvet recipes you can try. One is this recipe for red velvet cheesecake cookies; another is this red velvet crinkle cookies recipe. Try these red velvet white chip cookies or some red velvet thumbprint cookies. These red velvet spritz cookies are worth a try, too.
