holiday red velvet cookies
‘Twas two weeks before Christmas, and it was high time to add a cookie to my red velvet repertoire.
I generally fall onto some rung of hyped with all of my recipes, the highest being a prolonged squee session at how cute or how beautiful the result is. For these Holiday Red Velvet Cookies, I certainly reached Squee Status.
And I hope you do, too
Red velvet anything renders me helpless, and these chewy, vivid, simple treats are no exception. I’m often pretty skeptical of nontraditional cookies, with ingredients other than the expected ratio and proportions of wet and dry. Too often have I ventured into bold territory and come up with a pile of goo that I wouldn’t even feed to an opossum.
I also wouldn’t feed these beauties to an opossum, but because wasting them would be an actual sin punishable by flogging.
Let’s make a batch of these together, right now, and pile them into cookie boxes for sharing with our favorite people. What befits the holiday season more than saying Merry Christmas via baked good?
Red One
Red gel food dyes are not created equal. Buy a good professional-grade tube or else you will have to use much more than you bargained for to achieve a bright scarlet color so characteristic of the red velvet brand. I bought this one and absolutely recommend it for its affordability and strong pigmentation.
The rest of the cookie is pretty typical by way of assembly. Cream butter and brown sugar, then eggs, vanilla, and your food dye. Start with 1 teaspoon and, if it’s not looking sharp enough, drop in another teaspoon. Be VERY CAREFUL NOT TO STAIN YOUR CLOTHES. Most will come out of skin with a few hand washings and won’t absorb into the countertop (unless it’s marble, then you might be fucked), but clothes are most certainly fucked.
Mix in flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. The dough should be soft and slightly sticky, but pliable.
Roll into balls and set onto a parchment lined baking sheet. I fit 6 comfortably on mine, but err on the side of fewer if you’re not sure.
Bake at 350 degrees for 8 minutes. Pull the pan from the oven and smack dat against the counter a few times to flatten the cookies. Return to the oven and bake 3-4 minutes longer. The pan striking helps create a crinkly texture that amplifies the chew of the finished cookie. Delectable. I will never not slap my cookies from now forth.
Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet, baking in batches as needed (and you will need).
When the cookies are nice and solidified, melt some white chocolate chips in the microwave for about a minute or so. Drizzle each cookie with the melted choc, or dunk one half for a pretty half-moon effect akin to a black and white cookie. Except not. Set the chocolate for about 5-10 minutes or so, longer if you dunked since the layer is thicker.
Enjoy a cookie or two with a hot chocolate, a cup of tea, or some milk if you’re Santa. If you’re not Santa, I recommend placing a plate out for him on Christmas Eve. He’ll rethink that coal he was likely to put in your naughty ass’ stocking.
Trust me, I’ve got the intel on the bad list. How? You’ll never know.
Tried this recipe out? Leave a rating and comment below with your thoughts, and don’t forget to come say hi on Instagram and show me what you made!
(Cookie) boxed in:
Cranberry White Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies
Chocolate Dipped Bourbon Peanut Butter Cookies
Chewy Brown Sugar Ginger Cookies
Chewy Christmas Monster Cookie Bars
holiday red velvet cookies
Ingredients
- 2 sticks butter, softened
- 3/4 cup dark brown sugar
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1-2 tsp red gel food dye
- 2 1/4-2 1/3 cups all purpose flour
- 2 tbsp cocoa powder
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1 cup white chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a large baking sheet with parchment.
- In a bowl, cream the butter, brown sugar, and sugar until soft and fluffy. Whip in the eggs, one at a time, then the vanilla and 1 teaspoon red gel dye. If the color doesn't seem quite vibrant enough, add a second teaspoon.
- Add the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix until just combined.
- Scoop heaping 2 tablespoon sized mounds of dough and roll into a ball. Set onto the prepared baking sheet. Bake 8 minutes, then remove the pan from the oven and tap firmly against the counter a few times. Return to the oven for an additional 3-4 minutes. Remove and let cool on the baking sheet.
- Microwave the chocolate chips in a heat-safe bowl for 1 minute. Stir until melted, heating an additional 20-30 seconds if needed. When the cookies are cool, drizzle or dunk half of each into the chocolate. Set onto a wire rack placed overtop a piece of parchment. Let set 5-10 minutes, then DIG IN!
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