Need a delicious dessert recipe for Valentine’s Day? These Red Velvet Cookies are absolutely perfect to share with your loved ones! These come out amazingly tender and are topped with a dreamy cream cheese frosting.
In the mood for something sweet? Be sure to check out my other popular dessert recipes like Carrot Cake Cookies, Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars, and Red Velvet Sugar Cookies.
Why This Recipe Works
Super Flavorful: My red velvet cookie recipe is perfectly balanced with the right flavors. These cookies are chocolatey with a hint of vanilla, and go well with the tangy, sweet cream cheese frosting. Not only are they so delicious, but the deep red color is so beautiful!
Simple to Make: Red velvet cookies are straight forward to make, with most of the time spent chilling and baking the dough. When you have a craving for red velvet and don’t want to make a full on red velvet cake, you can whip up these red velvet cookies instead!
Ingredients
For the Red Velvet Cookies
- Butter & Brown Sugar: Butter and brown sugar are mixed together to create a light, fluffy and sweet base for the cookies.
- Egg: One egg is all you need for this recipe! Egg helps to add structure and a bit of aeration.
- Red Food Coloring: Red food coloring is what gives red velvet cookies that deep red color.
- Vanilla: Vanilla is added for extra flavor!
- Cocoa Powder: Cocoa powder makes these cookies perfectly chocolatey. It also helps deepen the color of the cookies.
- Baking Soda: Baking soda helps lift the cookies in the oven. Don’t add Dutch process cocoa since that will throw off the amount of baking soda going in!
- Flour: I used all purpose flour here.
- Salt: (Not pictured)
For the Cream Cheese Frosting:
- Light Cream Cheese: I like using light cream cheese to cut back on the fat a little bit. Since we are adding butter as well, the flavor is not that different.
- Butter: A bit of butter is added for texture and flavor.
- Vanilla: Vanilla adds a really nice flavor to the cream cheese frosting.
- Powdered Sugar: I like to sift my powdered sugar before adding it gradually so that there are no chunks.
Here’s How to Make It
Step by Step Instructions
Red velvet cookies are easy to make in just a few simple steps! Here’s how to make them:
- Cream the Butter & Sugar: In a large bowl or stand mixer, cream together the butter and brown sugar until pale. Beat in the egg, followed by the red food coloring and the vanilla extract. (photos 1-3)
- Mix in Dry Ingredients: Mix in the cocoa powder, followed by the baking soda and flour. Mix until combined. (photos 4-5)
- Chill & Prep: Chill the mixture for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 355 degrees and line two large baking sheets with baking parchment. (not pictured)
- Roll into Cookie Balls & Bake: Roll the mixture into 1 1/2 inch balls and space them at least 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets. Bake for 12 minutes until the cookies are smooth on top and set in the middle. Transfer to a wire rack to cook while you make the frosting. (photo 6-7)
- Make the Frosting: In a large bowl or stand mixer, beat together the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Beat in the vanilla. Gradually mix in the powdered sugar until completely incorporated. (photos 8-10)
- Decorate & Enjoy: Use a teaspoon to frost the top of each cooled cookie with cream cheese frosting. Enjoy!
Expert Tips
- Don’t over mix! Avoid over mixing the cookie dough once you add the flour. Mix in the dry ingredients until just combined. If you over mix, the cookie could end up being tough instead of tender.
- Top with sprinkles! You can make these red velvet cookies festive for any holiday by adding some different colored sprinkles on top of the cream cheese frosting. Top with white and pink sprinkles for Valentine’s day or red and green sprinkles for Christmas!
- Don’t like frosting on your cookies? If you prefer not to make a cream cheese frosting, you can sprinkle some powdered sugar on the tops instead!
- Avoid over baking! Try not to over bake the cookies or they might come out a bit crunchy. Since these cookies have cocoa powder and food coloring, you can’t tell if these are done by the color. They should be set but still soft in the middle. Generally, I take cookies out of the oven a little bit before I think they are actually done since they will set as they cool!
Frequently Asked Questions
Chilling the cookie dough allows the dough to set and will be less likely to spread too much in the oven. If you skip the chilling time, you will still end up with delicious cookies. They might just be less fluffy and more flat!
You can use either gel or liquid food coloring in this recipe. The gel food coloring is higher quality and has a stronger color, but the liquid food coloring found at the local grocery store would work as well. You can also try a natural option like beet root coloring but the color won’t be as vibrant!
More Dessert Recipes to Try
- Cinnamon Roll Cheesecake Bars
- Red Velvet Cheesecake Bites
- White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies
- Carrot Cake Cookies
- Red Velvet Pancakes
Red Velvet Cookies
Ingredients
For the Red Velvet Cookies
- 1 stick of butter - 8 tablespoons, room temperature
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 tbsp red food coloring
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- 1 ⅓ cups all purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon salt
For the Cream Cheese Frosting
- 3 oz light cream cheese - at room temperature
- 3 tbsp butter - at room temperature
- ¼ tsp vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups powdered sugar - sifted
- pinch of salt
Instructions
- In a large bowl or stand mixer, cream together the butter and brown sugar until pale. Beat in the egg, followed by the red food coloring and the vanilla extract.
- Mix in the cocoa powder, followed by the baking soda, flour and salt. Mix until combined.
- Chill the mixture for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 355 degrees and line 2 large baking sheets with baking parchment.
- Roll the mixture into 1 1/2 inch balls and space them at least 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets. Bake for 12 minutes until the cookies are smooth on top and set in the middle. Transfer to a wire rack to cool while you make the frosting.
- In a large bowl or stand mixer, beat together the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Beat in the vanilla. Gradually mix in the powdered sugar until completely incorporated. Stir in a pinch of salt.
- Use a teaspoon to frost the top of each cooled cookie with cream cheese frosting.
Notes
- Use regular American butter rather than European-style butter as the lower butterfat content helps give these cookies their texture.
- Do not substitute Dutch Process cocoa powder as it will react with the baking soda in this recipe.
- The dough for these cookies freezes well; freeze the rolled dough on a lined baking sheet until solid before transferring to a ziplock bag. Bake from frozen, adding an extra 3-5 minutes onto the baking time.
- Store at room temperature in airtight containers for up to three days.
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