Red velvet cookies
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Red velvet cookies

By Anna Glover

Turn the popular cake into chewy cookies, complete with cream cheese icing. Box them up to give as a gift, or make a batch of dough to keep in the freezer

  • Prep:20 mins
    Cook:15 mins
    plus chilling
  • Easy

Nutrition per serving

  • kcal 268
  • fat 12g
  • saturates 7g
  • carbs 36g
  • sugars 26g
  • fibre 1g
  • protein 3g
  • salt 0.3g

Ingredients

  • 175g soft salted butter
  • 200g light brown soft sugar
  • 100g caster sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • ½-1 tbsp red food colouring gel, depending on strength
  • 225g plain flour
  • 25g cocoa powder
  • ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 150g white chocolate chips or chunks
  • 2 tbsp soft cheese
  • 6 tbsp icing sugar

Tip

Choc chips

Chocolate chips can be cheaper than bars, but check for special offers. 

Soft cheese

You only need a small amount of soft cheese for these cookies, but if you don’t have any, a simple icing of milk or water mixed with sugar would work.

Gel food colourings

Gel food colourings are best when baking, as they keep their colour when baked and less is needed to achieve a good result.

Vanilla extract

Vanilla extract is cheaper than bean pastes or pods, but use whatever you have to hand.

Freeze the dough

This dough keeps for a long time, so bake as many as you need and chill or freeze the rest so there’s no waste.

Method

  1. Beat the butter and sugars together with an electric whisk until pale and fluffy. Beat in the egg, vanilla and food colouring until you have a bright red batter. Sieve over the flour, cocoa and bicarb. Fold everything together to make a stiff evenly-coloured dough, then fold in the chocolate chips.

  2. Put the dough on a sheet of baking parchment, fold the parchment over the dough and mould into a sausage shape about 6cm wide. Chill until ready to bake. Will keep for a week in the fridge or one month in the freezer. 

  3. Heat the oven to 190C/170C fan/gas 5. Cut the cookie dough into 1cm thick slices using a sharp knife and arrange on two large baking sheets lined with baking parchment well-spaced apart so they have room to spread in the oven. Bake in batches, keeping the unbaked cookies on the sheet in the fridge while the rest are baking.

  4. Bake in the middle of the oven for 13-15 mins until the cookies are crisp at the edges, but still soft in the centre. Leave to cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Beat the soft cheese in a small bowl to a loose consistency, then stir in the icing sugar. Use a piping bag or spoon to drizzle the icing over the cookies. Un-iced cookies keep for five days in an airtight container, or two days iced.

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