Red Velvet Sugar Cookies
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Red Velvet Sugar Cookies are chewy and delicious, whether it’s Christmas, Valentine’s Day, or just a random Tuesday. A perfect sugar cookie recipe gets a fun twist with the deeper flavor of red velvet, topped with a sweet and tangy cream cheese frosting. Add a dash of your favorite sprinkles for a more festive touch and VOILA! You have the favorite dessert at the party!
Holiday Desserts
I know, I know, I get crazy with red velvet when Christmas or Valentines rolls around. I just can’t help it. It’s so festive and it tastes so good. My list of red velvet baked goods will be never-ending.
The one that I’ve yet to try making is red velvet ice cream. I’ve bought it before but haven’t made it at home yet. One of these days. There’s no rush though, now that I’ve added these Red Velvet Sugar Cookies to my list of red velvet treats.
Chewy Red Velvet Cookies
There are a lot of red velvet cookie recipes out there, but for this one, I used my favorite sugar cookie recipe and tweaked it slightly to give it those traditional red velvet flavors we all love.
It didn’t take much, all I did was swap out some of the cake flour with cocoa powder, replace the almond extract with lemon juice (to imitate the light tang of buttermilk in red velvet) then of course add some red color, and replaced the vanilla frosting with a cream cheese frosting.
These soft and decadent cookies should definitely make your holiday baking list this year. Enjoy!
Red Velvet Sugar Cookies Tips
- Use room temperature cream cheese and butter in the bowl of a stand mixer
- Scrape the sides of the bowl frequently while mixing
- A cookie scoop will help you get consistently sized cookie dough balls
- I prefer a silicone mat on my baking sheets
- Try a drizzle of melted white chocolate chips instead of frosting
Follow Cooking Classy
Red Velvet Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
Cookies
- 2 1/4 cups cake flour
- 3 Tbsp unsweetned cocoa powder
- 2 tsp cornstarch
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter
- 1/4 cup vegetable shortening
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 large egg white
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp lemon juice or vinegar
- Red food coloring*
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 4 oz cream cheese , softened
- 1/4 cup butter , softened (I used salted)
- 3/4 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
Instructions
- In a mixing bowl, whisk together cake flour, cocoa powder, cornstarch, baking powder and salt until well blended, set aside.
- In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment whip butter, shortening and sugar until pale and fluffy.
- Mix in egg, then mix in egg white, vanilla, lemon juice and food coloring. With mixer set on low speed, slowly add in dry ingredients and mix just until combined.
- Cover bowl with plastic wrap and chill 2 hours. Preheat oven to 375 degrees during last 10 minutes of chilling.
- Shape dough into about 3 Tbsp balls and transfer to parchment paper lined baking sheets. Evenly flatten balls with greased hands to about 1/2-inch.
- Bake in preheated oven 9 - 11 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool on baking sheet 2 minutes then transfer to a wire rack.
- Cool completely then frost with cream cheese frosting.
- For the frosting:
- In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, whip cream cheese and butter until pale and fluffy.
- Mix in vanilla extract followed by powdered sugar and blend until well combined and fluffy.