These chewy Red Velvet Cookies are delicious, beautiful, and full of white chocolate chips, which stand out against their classic, striking red color.
If you love the look and flavor of red velvet cake, you probably won't need much convincing to fall in love with this red velvet cookie recipe. They are the perfect treat for Valentine's Day or as a gorgeous gift-wrapped bag of Christmas cookies, But really, these easy red velvet cookies can (and should) be enjoyed at any time of year.
I am a big fan of red velvet desserts, one of the most popular recipes on my whole site is my Red Velvet Brownies with cream cheese frosting recipe. If you're more into classic red velvet recipes you may like my Red Velvet Cupcakes. I can tell you though that this delicious cookie recipe is quick, easy, and absolutely scrumptious. So whether it's the holiday season or you just feel like a pretty snack, give them a try!
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Ingredients
This red velvet cookies recipe uses simple ingredients, similar to what you would see in a classic red velvet cake.
- Butter - Use unsalted butter and make sure it is at room temperature before beginning.
- White Sugar - We'll use two types of sugar in the cookies, the first is regular white sugar, make sure you get superfine sugar (caster sugar in the UK).
- Light Brown Sugar - The other sugar in the recipe is light brown sugar, this helps to add some depth to the flavor and helps to make the texture of these cookies nice and chewy.
- Egg - Use one large egg, always free range if you can.
- Buttermilk - Even though we only use a small amount, the buttermilk contributes that delicious tangy flavor we love in red velvet cake.
- Vanilla - Vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste will work well. Try to avoid vanilla essence.
- Red Food Coloring - Make sure you use gel food coloring. The liquid food coloring that you find in grocery stores will not be powerful enough to add the lovely festive red color we are looking for.
- Flour - Use all-purpose flour in these cookies for the right texture and structure.
- Cocoa Powder - Red velvet needs to have a hint of chocolate flavor so don't skip the cocoa powder! My recipe uses Dutch-processed cocoa powder, rather than natural cocoa powder. Natural will still work but the cookie will be more dense and the flavor will not be quite the same.
- White Chocolate Chips - I find the red velvet cookies work really well with white chocolate chips, both for flavor and style - but you could also make them more like regular chocolate chip cookies and use milk chocolate if you prefer.
Make sure the butter, egg, and buttermilk are all at room temperature before baking.
See recipe card for quantities.
How to Make Red Velvet Cookies
- Step 1: Preheat your oven to 350°F / 180°C and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Step 2: Beat the butter and both sugars together until combined. They won't 'cream' together like some other recipes, but will just come together almost like a dough. I used a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, but you could also just use a large bowl and a wooden spoon, or an electric mixer - whatever you prefer.
- Step 3: Add the egg and cream together at medium speed until smooth. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
Cream the butter with both sugars.
Add the egg and beat it in.
- Step 4: In a small bowl, mix together the wet ingredients including the buttermilk, vanilla, and red food coloring using a teaspoon. This is to make it easier for the food coloring to mix into the cookie dough without getting clumps of gel color.
Once combined, pour them into the cookie dough and beat until the color is even across the mixture.
Note: You may want to start with just ¼ teaspoon of the red color and add more if needed - every brand of food coloring is different. Keep in mind that although the dough will look bright red at first, once you add the dry ingredients with the cocoa powder, it will turn into a deep red color instead.
The mixture will look smooth once the egg is incorporated.
Mix the wet ingredients in a separate bowl before adding to the cookie dough.
- Step 5: In a medium bowl, sift together the dry ingredients, including the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt. Mix together briefly to make sure everything is well dispersed. Pour the flour mixture into the cookie dough and mix on low speed until a dough forms and there are no more lumps of flour.
The mixture will look very bright red before the dry ingredients are added.
Sift together the dry ingredients in a separate bowl to make sure they are well-mixed.
Add the dry ingredients to the bowl and mix into a dough.
The cookie dough will be a deep red color once the cocoa powder is mixed in.
- Step 6: Scrape down the sides of the bowl again to make sure everything is well incorporated, then add the white chocolate chips and mix them through the red velvet cookie dough evenly.
- Step 7: Use a cookie scoop or tablespoon to scoop medium cookie dough balls onto the prepared cookie sheet. My scoop makes balls the size of about 3-4 tablespoons of dough. Make sure the cookies are well spaced out as they will spread in the oven.
There is no need to chill the dough first or to flatten the balls of cookie dough, they will magically form into the perfect cookie shape as they bake. You may need to do more than one batch of cookies, I find I can comfortably fit about 6 cookies on a sheet, so I make this recipe in two batches.
Mix the white chocolate chips until they are evenly distributed.
Scoop out medium-sized balls of cookie dough onto the cookie sheet.
- Step 8: Bake cookies for 12-14 minutes. They will still feel slightly soft on top but they will set up more as they cool. Let the cookies sit on the baking sheet on the worktop for at least 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool.
- Step 9: Once the cookies are cooled, you may want to decorate by just melting some white chocolate and drizzling it on top of the cooled cookies. This step is totally optional though!
Note: For best results, I always recommend weighing your ingredients with a kitchen scale rather than a measuring cup. It's very difficult to get accurate measurements with cups which can often lead to disappointing results in baking. All my recipes provide the measurements in both cups and grams so you can choose what works best for you.
Substitutions
- Buttermilk - If you don't have buttermilk, you can make a quick and easy buttermilk substitute by mixing 1 cup of regular whole milk with 1 tablespoon of white vinegar and letting it sit for 5 minutes. You won't need this much in your recipe, so you can save the rest for something else.
- Brown Sugar - If you don't have or don't want to use brown sugar, you can just substitute the whole amount for white sugar.
Variations
- Other Chocolate - If you aren't a fan of white chocolate, you could use milk or dark chocolate chips instead, or just skip the chocolate chips entirely.
- Red Velvet Sandwich Cookies - To make these cookies extra special, try sandwiching two of the cookies together with a delicious cream cheese filling.
- Red Velvet Cheesecake Cookies - If stuffed cookies are your thing, try using this red velvet cookie dough with the filling and method in my Pumpkin Cheesecake Cookies for a delicious cream cheese center.
Equipment
- Stand Mixer - or hand mixer, or a wooden spoon.
- Large Bowl
- Cookie Sheet
- Cookie Scoop
Storage
Store your baked cookies in an airtight container at room temperature. They will be good like this for 5 days.
You can make cookie dough ahead of time and freeze it in pre-scooped balls to bake later. Just add 1-2 minutes to the baking time when baking from frozen. You can keep the cookie dough in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Top tip
These red velvet cookies spread quite evenly and come out of the oven pretty round, but if you want to make sure they are absolutely perfect, take a circle cookie cutter that is just slightly larger than your cookies and use it to 'scoot' around the edges of the hot cookies in a circular motion as soon as they come out of the oven. Then you will have absolutely picture-perfect round cookies!
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Recipe
Red Velvet Cookies
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 stick Unsalted Butter 114g
- ½ cup White Sugar 100g
- ½ cup Light Brown Sugar 110g
- 1 Large Egg
- 2 tablespoon Buttermilk
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla
- ½ teaspoon Red Gel Food Color
- 1 ½ cups All-purpose Flour 180g
- ¼ cup Cocoa Powder 25g (Dutch-processed)
- 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
- ¼ teaspoon Salt
- 1 cup White Chocolate Chips 165g
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F / 180°C and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- Cream the butter and both sugars together until combined.1 stick Unsalted Butter, ½ cup White Sugar, ½ cup Light Brown Sugar
- Add the egg and beat until smooth.1 Large Egg
- In a small bowl, mix together the buttermilk, vanilla, and red food color until well combined. Pour into the cookie dough and mix until combined.2 tablespoon Buttermilk, 1 teaspoon Vanilla, ½ teaspoon Red Gel Food Color
- In a large bowl, sift the dry ingredients and mix together. Add to the cookie dough and mix until a dough forms and there are no lumps of flour.1 ½ cups All-purpose Flour, ¼ cup Cocoa Powder, 1 teaspoon Baking Powder, ¼ teaspoon Salt
- Add the chocolate chips and stir until evenly distributed.1 cup White Chocolate Chips
- Using a medium cookie scoop, or a tablespoon, roll balls of cookie dough onto the prepared cookie sheet. Make sure they are well spaced out to allow room for spreading.
- Bake for 12-14 minutes, then remove from the oven and let them sit on the cookie sheet for at least 10 minutes before attempting to move them to a cooling rack.
- Optional: Once cooled, drizzle a little melted white chocolate on top for decoration.
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