Red Velvet Cookies
Soft chewy famous Red Velvet Cookies with sweet white chocolate chips.
People love themselves some Red Velvet. I think it just feels like home. I have had so many requests to create a red velvet cookie recipe! I already shared my RED VELVET CAKE RECIPE so now it was time to create a decadent red velvet cookie. I went to work and created a soft, chewy, decadent white chocolate chip red velvet cookie. I think you will love this recipe and it is perfect for the 4th of July.
What is Red Velvet?
It is a light chocolate cake with a touch of red food coloring to make it a vibrant red color. There is only a small amount of cocoa used to the chocolate notes are very subtle. It is usually paired with a silky cream cheese frosting.
I remember the first time I tried Red Velvet Cake. We were in Savannah, Georgia on a road trip to see as many Southern cities as possible. If you haven’t been to the South, you have to visit! There is so much charm, history, and beautiful architecture. Plus the people are truly the nicest — Southern charm is still alive and well. They also know how to make all things red velvet and I enjoyed trying everything I could get my hands on.
Since red velvet pairs so well with cream cheese frosting, you can always frost these red velvet cookies. If you do frost them, I suggest reducing the amount of white chocolate chips so the cookies aren’t too sweet.
I absolutely love the combination of white chocolate and red velvet. It pairs beautifully together and definitely compliments each other. My favorite brand is Ghirardelli white chocolate chips. There are many brands that are not real white chocolate so check the ingredients!
These Red Velvet White Chocolate Chip Cookies stay super-soft because of one special ingredient — cornstarch. Whenever I make cookies with cornstarch like my LEVAIN BAKERY CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES, they stay soft and chewy for days.
These would be one beautiful and festive Christmas cookie to add to your Christmas goodie plate. It would definitely be Santa’s favorite!
How to make the Best Red Velvet Cookies:
- Cream butter and sugars together for at least 4 minutes. This is an important step for several reasons. It allows the sugars to dissolve and wrap around the butter and also whip some air into the cookie dough.
- Add red food coloring and vanilla. The cookies can be a deeper red or a brighter red depending on how much food coloring added to the cookie dough.
- Use a mixture of leavening agents — baking soda and cornstarch. The cornstarch gives it a softness and the baking soda gives it a rise.
- Add white chocolate chips. Try to use high-quality white chocolate chips such as Ghirardelli because it makes a difference!
- Bake on light-colored baking sheets. Here are my favorite baking sheets — Nordicware Baking Sheets and I love to use these parchment paper liners.
Red Velvet Cookies. Soft chewy famous Red Velvet Cookies with sweet white chocolate chips.
- 1 cup Butter (cold) (cut into small cubes)
- 1 cup Brown Sugar
- 1/2 cup Sugar
- 2 large Eggs
- 2 teaspoons Vanilla
- 2 teaspoons Red Food Coloring
- 2 Tablespoons Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
- 3 cups Flour (or 1 1/2 cups of cake flour plus 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour. Do NOT pack down the flour)
- 1 teaspoon Cornstarch
- 3/4 teaspoon Baking Soda
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- 1 1/2 cups White Chocolate Chips
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a large bowl, cream together butter, brown sugar, and sugar for 4 minutes, or until light and fluffy. Add eggs, vanilla, and red food coloring. Scrape the sides of the bowl.
Fold in cocoa, flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt. Fold in white chocolate chips.
Line a light-colored baking sheet with parchment paper or Silpat. Scoop 3 to 4 ounces of cookie dough onto baking sheet. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes before eating to allow time to set-up.
I don’t have a digital kitchen scale yet to weigh the dough = how much would 3-4 ozs. of dough per cookie be in Tablespoons if I used a cookie scoop? Thank you! Can’t wait to try these.
This looks amazing. Haven’t made them yet, but I give it 5 stars just for the recipe. 😀
These are sooo good! Only thing is when I made them they ended up being really flat. I even let them chill in the fridge for several hours. Thoughts? I feel I may have over beaten the flour, but not sure if that would have such a big impact?
Because they use butter, it has a lower melting temperature and tends to flatten out, the recipe tries to accommodate this by using chilled butter. Use parchment paper instead of greased cookie sheets, and if you like to tinker, you could use shortening instead but this will alter the flavor. Adding a touch more flour can help, or removing just a touch of the white sugar, sugar = liquid when melted.
These sound terrific – but, before I start, I’m concerned about one step. Is the 3-4 ounce cookie measurement accurate? 1 ounce = 6 tablespoons. 18 tablespoons is a r-e-a-l-l-y big cookie!
Please advise! Thanks so much!
Hi there! Great question! They are a pretty big cookie, for sure. I make some Levain Bakery chocolate chip cookies and they are 6 ounces so the red velvet cookies are about half that size. So they aren’t abnormally large at all — maybe just a little bigger than a traditional cookie. Do you have a kitchen scale? If so that’s super helpful. If not, I’d suggest golf ball size.
Thank you, thank you, thank you! I’m going to make these this afternoon now!
I don’t have a kitchen scale … I suppose I should break down and buy one – but living in a city I always dread another thing that needs storage space LOL.
However! ‘Golf ball size’ is visual enough to get me started.
Thanks, again – from New Haven, CT!
Well, these are absolutely fantastic! Recipe is amazing – it tastes and SEEMS to even have the texture of Red Velvet cake – yet, is unquestionably a delectable cookie texture. I made a cream cheese buttercream to put on top (because I just can’t fathom Red Velvet without cream cheese – call me a fussbudget LOL) and the cookie is delicious.
Mine aren’t as beautiful as yours – but they taste incredible. I now have to kick off one of my top ten favorite cookies to add this one1
Thanks so much for the recipe!
I just got through making this cookie dough. I won’t bake it until tomorrow morning. I will have something for Christmas, my family has eaten everything I have baked so far. Melissa you do have the best recipes. I love baking or cooking from them. Merry Christmas to all the great bakers out there.
What red food colouring do you suggest we use? Is this different than colouring gel?
These are delicious! I used all 3 cups of all purpose flour and they turned out fine. Held their shape nicely. I am wondering when you say 2 tsp of red food coloring what kind you use? Liquid or gel?