Soft and fudgy, high altitude red velvet cookies, sprinkled with sparkling sugar. This is a quick and easy cookie recipe for the holidays, with no chill time and no mixer required!
You might also love these recipes for red velvet chocolate chip cookies, red velvet cookie bars, and red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese buttercream.
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Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Super Quick and Easy. With no mixer and no chill time required, you can enjoy warm, soft chocolate chip cookies in under an hour.
Perfect for Gifting. These red velvet cookies look so beautiful and festive in a Christmas cookie box.
High Altitude Tested. I develop all the recipes on my site for Denver’s altitude of 5,280 feet. If you’re at a lower or higher elevation, please see my FAQs for guidance on adjusting recipes for your altitude.
See the recipe card at the end of the post for the full ingredients list and instructions.
Ingredients
- Butter. Unsalted butter keeps the cookies moist and flavorful, with crisp edges and soft, chewy centers.
- Sugar. Granulated sugar, as well as a little brown sugar, gives the cookies sweetness and moisture.
- Vanilla Extract. Flavor.
- Eggs. Eggs give cookies structure and strength so that they’re chewy, rather than crumbly. Since cocoa powder tends to absorb moisture and dry out cookies, an extra egg yolk provides added moisture and a chewy texture.
- Flour. All-purpose flour gives the cookies structure and strength. A perfect flour-sugar-liquid ratio ensures the cookies spread just enough as they bake, without spreading too much.
- Cocoa Powder. Use a good quality, Dutch-processed cocoa powder for the best flavor and a rich, dark color.
- Corn Starch. Gives the cookies a more chewy, tender texture.
- Baking Soda. Leavens the cookies so they aren’t too flat.
- Salt. Balances the sweetness of the white chocolate chips and enhances the flavor of the chocolate.
- Food Coloring. I use and recommend Americolor Super Red Gel Food Coloring.
Instructions
- In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat, then remove from the heat.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the melted butter with the granulated sugar and brown sugar, until smooth. Add the vanilla extract, egg, egg yolk and super red gel food coloring, until smooth. Don’t be alarmed at the bright red color; it will darken when you add the dry ingredients.
- In a separate bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, corn starch, baking soda and salt.
Add the dry ingredients to the liquid ingredients, using a wooden spoon to stir the dough together just until all the flour is incorporated.
- Use a cupcake/ice cream scoop with a release lever (with a 2 1/2 – 3 tbsp capacity) to portion the dough into 15 equal portions. Roll each portion of cookie dough into a smooth ball, then flatten slightly between your hands into round disks about 1/2-3/4 inch thick. Cover the dough with a piece of plastic wrap to keep it moist while waiting to bake.
Note: I coated the dough balls in sugar before baking my cookies, but found that this dulls the surface of the baked cookies. For a shinier finish (like what you see on my red velvet chocolate chip cookies), don’t roll the dough balls in sugar, just lightly sprinkle sugar over the top of the baked cookies instead.
- Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven. Line a large baking sheet with parchment baking paper.
- Bake 6-8 cookies at a time, leaving three inches between each on the baking sheet. Bake the cookies for 8-9 minutes. They should be just set around the edges, with the centers still underdone. Do not over-bake these cookies, as they can become very dry and crumbly when they’re over-baked. Cool on the pan for 2 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.
- Finish baking the remainder of the cookie dough. Cool the cookies completely, then store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days, or in the freezer for up to 3-6 months.
Recipe Variations
Red Velvet Chocolate Chip Cookies
- See instructions in this recipe for adding chocolate chips to the dough.
- You can also see that the chocolate chip version is shinier, simply because I didn’t roll the dough balls in sugar first, before baking. In today’s recipe, I coated the dough balls in sugar, which dulls their surface a bit as they bake.
Be sure to read all of my BAKING FAQs where I discuss ingredients, substitutions and common baking questions, so that you can be successful in your own baking!
Frequently Asked Questions
Leftover cookies should be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days, or frozen for up to 3-6 months.
Essentially, yes, this is a red chocolate cookie. I based today’s recipe on my double chocolate white chocolate chip cookies, but with a little less cocoa powder to allow the red color to shine.
For all of my red velvet recipes, I use and recommend Americolor “Super Red” Gel Food Coloring.
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High Altitude Red Velvet Cookies
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Equipment
- Large Cookie Scoop with Release Lever (2 1/2 – 3 tbsp capacity)
Ingredients
- ¾ cup unsalted butter
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 tbsp light or dark brown sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 1 large egg (both yolk and white)
- 1 large egg yolk (save the extra white for another use)
- 1 tsp "super red" gel food coloring
- 2 cups + 2 tbsp all-purpose flour, fluffed, spooned and leveled
- ¼ cup unsweetened Dutch-processed cocoa powder
- 1 ½ tsp corn starch
- ¾ tsp baking soda
- ¾ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
Instructions
- In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat, then remove from the heat.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the melted butter with the granulated sugar and brown sugar, until smooth. Add the vanilla extract, egg, egg yolk and super red gel food coloring, until smooth. Don't be alarmed at the bright red color; it will darken when you add the dry ingredients.
- In a separate bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, corn starch, baking soda and salt.
- Add the dry ingredients to the liquid ingredients, using a wooden spoon to stir the dough together just until all the flour is incorporated.
- Use a cupcake/ice cream scoop with a release lever (with a 2 1/2 – 3 tbsp capacity) to portion the dough into 15 equal portions. Roll each portion of cookie dough into a smooth ball, then flatten slightly between your hands into round disks about 1/2-3/4 inch thick. Cover the dough with a piece of plastic wrap to keep it moist while waiting to bake.Note: I coated the dough balls in sugar before baking my cookies, but found that this dulls the surface of the baked cookies. For a shinier finish (like what you see on my red velvet chocolate chip cookies), don't roll the dough balls in sugar, just lightly sprinkle sugar over the top of the baked cookies instead.
- Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven. Line a large baking sheet with parchment baking paper.
- Bake 6-8 cookies at a time, leaving three inches between each on the baking sheet. Bake the cookies for 8-9 minutes. They should be just set around the edges, with the centers still underdone. Do not over-bake these cookies, as they can become very dry and crumbly when they're over-baked. Cool on the pan for 2 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.TIP: For perfectly round cookies, immediately after taking the pan of cookies out of the oven, use a round cookie cutter (one that's larger than circumference of the baked cookies), and "scoot" it around the hot cookies. This pulls in the uneven edges for a beautifully round cookie. You have to do this quickly, before the edges fully set.
- Finish baking the remainder of the cookie dough. Cool the cookies completely, then store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days, or in the freezer for up to 3-6 months.
Video
Notes
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