Red Velvet Sugar Cookies
As an amazon associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
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!
As an amazon associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
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
- ¼ cup (32 g) cornstarch
- ¼ cup (21.5 g) unsweetened cocoa powder
- ½ 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.
I just made these today as a Christmas Eve activity and they were so easy to out together and delicious!!! I was a bit worried they were going to spread because my dough was very moist, but they held their shape beautifully. No spread at all and I didn't even chill them before baking.
The taste is so good as well. It just elevates regular cut out sugar cookies. They're the perfect amount of sweet, so I just decided not to add frosting and left them plain.
We're so happy to hear that you loved these for Christmas! Thanks for making the recipe!
I made this early last month for the women's retreat our church had. Great comments for these great tasting cookies! Cookies stayed soft for at least a week or least 4 days. My gel food coloring was from Target and was poorly saturated even though I used up all of the 2/3 of the stuff left in the tube. I supplemented with 2 tablespoons of the raspberry syrup we had. I think it's a Day Vinci brand. Anyway, thank God everything worked out well! No spreading hardly! Planning to use this recipe again for candy canes cookies. But I don't have any cream cheese. What can I use instead??? Thank you for sharing this recipe! It's obviously a keeper!
Hey Michelle! So happy you liked them! You could probably sub the same amount of butter for the cream cheese. Good luck!
Hi Allie! Thank you for your prompt response! I Googled and used a combination of cottage cheese and sour cream ? Turned out well! I added the coloring after everything else. I had to divide the dough into 2. I used my green gel food coloring and it's the one with the red one from Target so also poorly saturated. I had to use the entire tube to get the color I wanted! Also omitted the salt because my butter was salted. I love this recipe! I made 12 candy cane cookies and 14 pinwheel cookies from the same dough! Thank you again!
Oh right. I also omitted the 1/4 cup of cocoa powder and used 1/4 cup of all purpose flour inst.
Allie, I am in need of your expertise! I love that these cookies don't spread and I was able to adapt it to make candy cane cookies which turned out really cute! The ropes stayed rounded!!
I want to adapt this recipe for thin mint cookies. How would you say that I do that with this? For the candy cane cookies, I did 1 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract and 1/2 teaspoon of mint extract so I was able to keep the extract the 2 teaspoons you listed here. For the thin mints, I will have to leave the cocoa powder as is! But that cream cheese. It's not a bad flavor but probably not for Thin Mints. Omit and use butter in place??
Hey Michelle! I'm so happy you like this recipe and I think I understand what it is you are looking to do. I actually already have another recipe on this site from which this one originated. It's here: https://bakingamoment.com/iced-chocolate-peppermint-cookies/. If you wouldn't mind taking a quick peek? Let me know if you think this would suit your purposes and if not I'll do my best to advise you in some other way!
Oh thank you so much, Allie! I had forgotten that I had requested information on how to adapt this recipe for Thin Mints. Your link to the other recipe is perfect and since it's your recipe, I am confident that it'll be good! Thank you again so much!
My pleasure dear! So happy I could help!
How many cookies does this make?
About 2 dozen, depending how thick you roll them and the size of the cutter you use. Just for future reference, this info can be found at the top of the recipe card. Good luck!
Can I substitute gel food coloring for the liquid?
Yes, you'd need a lot less in that case. Good luck!
Can I leave out the cream cheese in this recipe? I'm not sure that my cottage law allows this ingredient. Thank you!
Unfortunately no, the cream cheese is an ingredient that is needed in the recipe. You could try Mascarpone or Neufchatel since they have almost a similar texture, but we can't guarantee the results.
I love red velvet cake. I can not wait to try the cookie version.
Delish
Came out perfectly! I had some concerns since it took me quite a bit of kneading to get all of the flour in (doubled the recipe), but they baked well. Going to ice them with royal icing later. Thank you for the recipe!
You bet! Thanks for the great feedback!
I love red velvet cake so I made these cookies for Valentine's Day. The cookies came out perfectly, and they have a great red velvety taste! I even iced the cookies with royal icing as the recipe suggested to add that special touch. These cookies just became my Valentine's Day baking tradition!
Can salted butter be used?
Of course but you will want to reduce the amount of salt in the recipe then, to compensate. I'm not able to say by exactly how much because every butter brand is different.
Perfect. Did not spread at all. Rolled cookies to 4 mm
Hi! Do these cookies stay soft after they cool, or do they get hard the next day? Thank you!
From the head notes:
"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."
Good luck & enjoy!
How long can these cookies be stored for and can they be frozen?
Please read the info given under the heading "Can these Cookies Be Made Ahead."
Se ven hermosas e exquisitas
Muchas gracias!
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. Do you think soft cream cheese could be used instead? 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. 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! They were fun and easy to make and were so delicious! 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