Red Velvet Sugar Cookies
These red velvet sugar cookies will make your day! Soft & tender, fun & brightly colored, with a hint of cocoa & a slight cream cheese tang.
Hi friend! It’s Valentine’s week! Are you excited?
I love making Valentine’s Day treats, and I’ve got tons of recipes on this site to prove it!
Yesterday I shared a sinfully decadent chocolate cheesecake that would be PERFECT for a sexy date night in. And today I’m here with a cute and fun idea for the kiddos!
These red velvet sugar cookies are the perfect thing to send in for your kids’ class parties. They’re colorful and festive, and they have a wonderfully soft texture and that signature red velvet flavor that everyone goes crazy for!
HOW TO MAKE RED VELVET SUGAR COOKIES
You’re going to love how easy and straightforward this recipe is. And the dough is super-simple to roll out, with no messy flour on your countertops! I love that because not only does it make the cleanup a snap, it allows you to re-roll your dough scraps without them becoming tough or dry.
Start by beating butter, cream cheese, and sugar together until smooth. You don’t need to spend a lot of time creaming and whipping air in, like you would with a lot of recipes. In fact, it’s better if you DON’T with this kind of cookie, because it could cause it to spread as it bakes, and you will lose your pretty shapes and sharp edges and corners. So, just as soon as everything looks smooth, you’re good to go on to the next step.
Add the egg yolk, vanilla, and food coloring and mix that in until just combined.
The final step is to mix in the flour, cornstarch, cocoa powder, and salt. Cornstarch is a fine powder that is white and flavorless. It’s a pure starch and it helps to keep your cookies soft and tender. Please make sure to use “cornstarch,” not “cornmeal.” They are two very different things!
Mix the dry ingredients in just until barely combined, then roll out the dough between two sheets of parchment. I like my red velvet sugar cookies nice and chubby, so I rolled out to a thickness of 3/16-inch. You can be sure your cookies are the right thickness by using rolling pin rings.
The bake time listed below is approximate. Depending on the size of the cutter you use, your cookies may need more or less time to bake. Smaller cookies will bake faster, whereas larger cookies will need a bit more time. Use this as a rough guide, and know that your cookies are done when they feel firm and set around the edges, but are still a bit soft towards the center. If you like a softer cookie, it’s best to err on the side of underbaking, because they will continue to cook and firm up as they cool.
HOW TO DECORATE RED VELVET COOKIES
Because it’s Valentine’s Day, I was inspired by the conversation heart look. I used royal icing, tinted with soft pastel colors, to mimic those iconic candies I remember from all the elementary school class parties. Here are some of the tools you’ll see me using in the video below:
- Rose pink icing color
- Orange icing color
- Leaf green icing color
- 12-inch disposable piping bags
- Couplers
- Number 3 round decorating tips
You could even use rubber stamps to imprint cute messages on them. Brush a little tulip red gel paste color on some alphabet stamps, and press onto the dried icing. It’s really cute!
- They’d be awesome with a swirl of sour cream icing.
- You could also use a simple American-style buttercream.
- Make it easy on yourself and just dust them with powdered sugar. This is especially pretty if you use a doily as a stencil!
- Or dip them in melted white chocolate.
- You could use the same royal icing, but give them more of a Christmas-y treatment.
- They’d also work really great for the fourth of July!
CAN THESE RED VELVET SUGAR COOKIES BE MADE AHEAD
These cookies can totally be made ahead! Kept in an airtight container, they’ll stay soft and fresh for days.
They can also be frozen. They’ll keep in the freezer (tightly wrapped) for at least a month or two.
The dough DOES NOT require any chilling. But if you’d like to make it ahead, you can. Just be aware that it will become drier as it sits (even when wrapped tightly; the flour just absorbs moisture over time). Because of this, I’d recommend using a bit less flour if you aren’t planning on rolling, cutting, and baking right away. Keep it in the fridge for no more than a few days.
Here’s wishing you a fun and special Valentine’s Day! Hopefully this red velvet sugar cookie recipe will make it extra memorable for you!
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Red Velvet Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup (227 g) unsalted butter, (2 sticks)
- 4 ounces (113.4 g) cream cheese, (half a brick)
- 1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar
- 1 (1) egg yolk, , large
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon (1 tablespoon) red food coloring , (liquid)
- 3 cups (375 g) all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup (32 g) cornstarch
- 1/4 cup (21.5 g) unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/2 teaspoon (0.5 teaspoon ) kosher salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F and line baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Place the butter, cream cheese, and sugar in a large mixing bowl and beat on medium-low speed until smooth (about 1 minute).
- Add the egg yolk, vanilla, and food coloring and mix on medium speed until combined.
- Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl with a silicone spatula, then add the flour, cocoa, cornstarch, and salt.
- Mix on medium-low speed until a stiff dough forms (about 30 seconds to 1 minute). The dough should gather itself into a ball and come cleanly away from the sides of the bowl. If the dough seems too sticky, try mixing in a little more flour.
- Roll the dough to 3/16-inch thick (rolling pin rings ensure an even and exact thickness) between 2 sheets of parchment paper.
- Remove the top sheet of parchment, and cut shapes with a 3-inch heart cookie cutter.
- Peel the shapes from the bottom layer of parchment, and transfer to the prepared baking sheets.
- Bake for 12 to 16 minutes, or until set around the edges but still a little soft towards the center.
- Cool completely, then frost with royal icing.
Looks inviting, will give it a try, want to ask can yoghurt or Greek be substitute for the cream cheese
I’m afraid I haven’t tried that so I can’t say for sure.
I live in the UK where we can’t can’t get the brick cream cheese. Â Do you think soft cream cheese could be used instead? Â When making cream cheese buttercream I whip the butter and [drained] cream cheese together and then fold in the icing sugar very carefully in order to prevent the mixture from becoming loose. Â Do you think this method would work at stage 2?
I’d definitely give it a try and see! Good luck I hope it works well for you!
Great recipe, taste good, keep the shape when baking. Perfect for royal icing.
These were a huge hit with everyone! Â They were fun and easy to make and were so delicious! Â I topped them with buttercream frosting and sprinkle and they were adorable!
I tried the Red Velvet cookies but it was overpowered by the taste of cocoa. I put 1/4 cup as directed. Just curious if anyone else has had this problem, or perhaps you know what it could be. Would not using Kosher salt be the problem? I used regular salt
I made this tonight hoping to use Christmas cookie cutter shapes but the dough turned out super sticky so much that it wouldn’t come off the parchment paper. Eek, where did I go wrong?
I’m so sorry to hear that! Maybe you need to add a little more flour. You could also pop the dough into the fridge to stiffen it up a bit. I hope that’s helpful!
Hi,
Can I double this recipe?
Yes!
Hey there! I was wondering, can I use table salt instead of Koshers? Thanks!
Salt type is almost alway interchangeable. When replacing kosher salt with table salt, you should half the quantity.
Hi Allie, why is this recipe only use yolks but not whole egg? What is the pros and cons of just egg yolks?
I leave out the white because it makes the cookie a little too tough for my taste. The yolk provides richness and allows the cookie to be soft, but the white serves to provide structure and I don’t feel like that is needed with this particular recipe.
They look good!! Are they soft-baked or hard-baked? Like are they chewy and soft or hard?
Can you use Dutch processed cocoa in these
You can but you’d get a different kind of flavor. It won’t be like a classic red velvet flavor. Good luck!
What’s the best cocoa powder to use for the recipe?Â
Hey Kayla! Just regular unsweetened cocoa powder. You don’t have to buy anything special. I like the Ghirardelli brand but any kind will work! Good luck.
Simply delicious!! I will certainly be making these again. The cookie holds it shape perfectly during baking.
Thank you for sharing!!
My pleasure Teresa! I’m so happy you enjoyed!
Simply delicious!! I will certainly makes them again. Thank you for sharing.
What is the shelf life of them after baked and decorated?
Hi! It’s pretty consistent with any other homemade cookie. Probably a few weeks in an airtight container at room temp. Hope that’s helpful!
Please how much butter in grams? Thank you
Just click the “Metric” button below the list of ingredients.
Can you make the dough ahead and freeze? Or freeze after cookies are cut? Thanks!
Hello, that should work fine but you may want to have a look at the info I gave under the heading “Can these Red Velvet Sugar Cookies be Made Ahead.” The same considerations would apply for freezing as well.
These look wonderful! Thank you for posting.
Can you please tell me an approximate batch yield?
I realize it would depend on the size of the cookie cutter used.
Thank You
Yes that info can be found in the recipe card right where it says “servings.” I got approximately 2 dozen cookies from the batch.
Do you use dark chocolate cocoa powder or regular? I have dark chocolate on hand but will buy regular if needed.Â
Also- do you use full fat cream cheese?Â
I’m making these in a couple days!
Thank you!
Regular cocoa and full-fat cream cheese. Good luck and enjoy!
Thank you so very much!!
Hi Allie, thanks for this. I have been scouring the net for a red velvet cookie recipe. Can this dough be used to make cream tart cookie cake?
You’re welcome! I’m not familiar with cream tart cookie cake, but if it’s something that uses cut-out sugar cookies then I think it would work well!
This recipe looks so yummy, I cant wait to try it! Is it okay if I use gel food coloring instead of the liquid version? I don’t have that on hand right now. Thanks in advance!
Hey Janice! That should work just fine- I’m sure you already know but for gel you’ll want to use a lot less. 2 to 3 drops should do the trick!
Are these soft or crunchy?Â