Red Velvet Cookies and bundles of chocolatey fluffy goodness with a bright sparkle of white chocolate.
I have always been fascinated by Red Velvet desserts. Why is it called red velvet? Who decided to dye chocolate red? Does that really change anything? In terms of taste, no. Red velvet is not different from chocolate. Food dye shouldn’t have a flavor, if it does that there is too much food dye. But it does bring a vibrant color to the dessert and makes it unique in look even if taste is still chocolate.
One thing I love about Red Velvet cookies is the contrast in chocolate flavor between the cookie dough and the white chocolate chips. The chocolate chips really add a bright secondary dimension to the cookie. And all together, it’s one giant bit of chocolate happiness.
Check out the Make section of MCG for more fun recipes like desserts and savory dishes.
Ingredients
This recipe contains most of the classic cookie staples. I did use both baking powder and baking soda as leavening agents to get some extra fluffiness into the Red Velvet cookies. There is also some brown sugar to help enhance the chocolate flavor. But otherwise, typically baking ingredients. Although I do recommend using a nicer cocoa powder but that is not necessary.
Process
Making the Dough
The first step of the process to make Red Velvet cookies is putting together the dough! There are two mixtures that come together to make the cookie dough: one of dry ingredients and one of not so dry ingredients. I know that it’s sometimes called wet ingredients, but I always felt weird calling it that because sugar is a powder.
The process to put together the dry ingredients is simple. Whisk together all-purpose flour, cocoa, powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Seems simple enough. I really like having cocoa powder in my dry mixture because the color change makes it evident when all the ingredients have been thoroughly mixed.
The not so dry ingredients have a few more steps to their process. First, I put butter and sugar into a stand mixer and began to beat them together. This can be done by hand or with a hand mixer, but the stand mixer and paddle is the best tool (that won’t exhaust you). The main goal of this step is trying to get air into the butter / sugar mixture.
Then I added the egg, milk, vanilla extract, and food coloring to get the mixture to take on more of a liquid form. The red dye proved to be a little tricky because just a little will result in a pink color. Not red. Red is one of the most difficult colors to achieve. I just got it red enough, the cocoa powder will also help darken the color.
Finally, I added the flour mixture into the bowl and mixed it together. This is one step where I feel that the stand-mixer is a disadvantage. The mixer tends to fling flour everywhere. Not only is this creating a mess but it’s also messing up my ratios! I have found that getting the flour slightly damp but hand mixing the two together will help with this problem/ Wet flour is less likely to scatter.
After the two mixtures were just combined, I added in the white chocolate chips. I did this by hand since the big chunks can also prove to be difficult for a stand mixer to handle. Or, at least, my stand mixer struggles with them.
Chill and Bake
This dough does require chilling in the fridge. This lets the butter reset and also lets the flavor really distribute evenly throughout the dough. Chilling helps intensify the flavor. I just left the dough in the mixing bowl because I saw no reason to transfer it to another container. Although, I do recommend scraping down the sides of the bowl before chilling.
I typically leave cookie dough in the fridge overnight because I feel that gives me the best, and most consistent, results. When I removed the dough from the fridge, it was ready to shape! Sometimes, the dough needs to slightly thaw if it becomes too stiff.
The dough was scooped into balls and placed on a baking rack. I typically end up putting 12 cookies per baking tray (this is truer for larger cookies). Having a silicone mat that has 12 spots also encourages this… I see the circle, I put dough ball in the circle.
All that’s left to do is bake! I love how cookies don’t take long to bake, and their scent can just fill a kitchen. This is true of these Red Velvet cookies as well. And the smell was absolutely irresistible.
Reflections
I really enjoyed making these Red Velvet cookies. They have a great, crispy outside with a soft and rich texture throughout the rest of the cookie. The while chocolate chips also provided an extra crunch to the cookie. This cookie is a story of textures as well as flavor.
The chocolate flavor came through just as I hoped it would. And the white chocolate chips brightened the whole cookie from feeling too much. Which is odd since I thought white chocolate would only intensify that overwhelming chocolate. But it didn’t. At least, not for me!
Lessons
Playing with Color
When baking with food coloring, it’s important to think about where you are starting. While dough or batter might feel like a clean start, it is not. White is the majority color that you are working with (or potentially yellow depending on the egg count0. Just like paint, white will lighten any color and coming back from white to a “true” color can be quite the challenge. One way to offset this is to use a dark hue than you are aiming for as the white is able to balance it out.wa
recipe
Red Velvet Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 ⅔ Cup All-Purpose Flour
- ¼ Cup Cocoa Powder
- 1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
- ½ Teaspoon Baking Powder
- ¼ Teaspoon Salt
- ½ Cup Unsalted Butter softened
- ¾ Cup Brown Sugar
- ¼ Cup Granulated Sugar
- 1 Egg
- 1 Tablespoon Milk
- 2 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- ½ Teaspoon Red Food Coloring
- 1 Cup White Chocolate Chips
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, whisk together all-purpose flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set it aside.
- In a large bowl, beat the butter for about one minute. Then add in the brown sugar and granulated sugar. Whisk until light and fluffy (about 5 minutes).
- Add the egg, milk, vanilla extract, and food coloring. Continue mixing until fully combined. Scrape the side occasionally to prevent butter build up.
- Add the set aside flour mixture and mix on low speed until just combine. Add more food coloring if desired.
- Stir in the white chocolate chips until evenly distributed.
- Let chill for at least an hour but preferably overnight. If the dough is too hard to work with when removing from the fridge, let thaw for 15 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 350° Fahrenheit.
- Scoop dough and shape into 1 ½ Tablespoon balls. Place a maximum of 12 on the rack and bake for approximately 13-15 minutes.
- Let cool for 5 minutes on the pan before transferring to a cooling rack. Let cool completely and enjoy.
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