This cookie has been a long time coming.
You may remember that last year I baked some red velvet cookies, but used a boxed mix. Those cookies are delicious, but it was my mission to find a recipe for red velvet cookies from scratch. And the kicker? I wanted the cookies to be chewy. The only other red velvet cookie recipes from scratch that I’ve tried have been cakey cookies – which are delicious in their own sense, but I wanted a dense, chewy cookie.
After many attempts (read: massive fails) at the cookies over the last 10 months, I gave it another go this weekend and came up with something delectable.
And by delectable, I mean I ate 3 cookies straight off the pan and scorched my tongue. It’s okay… it was all in the name of cookies.
Even though red velvet is technically just rich chocolate, there is something fun and exciting about eating it. Dare I say the cookies taste better then regular cookies? I may be in my twenties, but I’m really just 5 years old.
Red Velvet Chocolate Chip Cookies
makes 12-15 cookies
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon red food coloring
1/2 cup chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 375.
Cream butter and sugars together until fluffy in the bowl of an electric mixer. Add egg and vanilla and combine until smooth. Beat in red food coloring. Stir in cocoa, flour, baking soda and salt until just combined, scraping down the sides when needed. Fold in chocolate chips.
Using an ice cream scoop, scoop out 1-2 tablespoons of dough and set on baking sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes.
After eating a few cookies, I got a little delirious and did something wild.
Red velvet sandwich cookies stuffed with pumpkin spice cream cheese frosting. Best decision ever.
{ 228 comments… read them below or add one }
← Previous Comments
Next Comments →
HOLY YUM!
Totally worst the lost taste buds!
hehehe, meant “worth” not worst…maybe those burnt taste buds were connected to my brain…that could be bad…
Either way, these delicious beauties are coming with me on a girls weekend, no doubt about it!
I made the cookies today but the dough was very dry, so I put the dough in the fridge and I’m going to bake them tomorrow. I’ve made them in the past and they’ve turned out wonderful!
These look so fun!! I love that you made them from scratch too, very impressive.
I absolute love red velvet and was thrilled when I came across this recipe. When I made them today, they turned out with a chocolate color from the cocoa powder instead of red. Is there a trick or a specific kind of cocoa powder? They still tasted wonderful!!
Thank for this lovely recipe. They were deelish! I just have a slight problem. What kind of cocoa powder did you use? I had the same problem with above reply ( Christine).
You use red food coloring! :3
You probably shouldn’t use the liquid food colouring.
Add the cocoa first then the red food coloring.
I add double the food coloring when I make this recipe.
I just want you to know that my family does a cookie exchange at Christmastime every year. This year, I will be making these cookies, and they will be everybody’s favorite–I can tell.
I hope you guys love them!
I just made a dozen of these cookies. Simply amazing. <3
I just made these – not even into the oven yet – and the dough is too dry – it’s like a streusel texture. If I tried to scoop it into a disher, it’d just fall out like floour. What went wrong?
Are you sure you added all the wet ingredients in correct amounts? I can’t imagine why that would happen and have never heard that before!
I did! I even re-read it a few times to make sure I hadn’t missed anything.
I make a streusel topping for a shredded apple pie on occasion and I have to use cold butter for that. It got me thinking…I think the problem may actually have something to do with my thermostat. I keep my apartment pretty cool in the winter, favoring sweaters and fleece over a high heating bill. The temp in my kitchen is about 58 degrees. I wonder if it wasn’t enough to adequately soften the butter. I’d had it out the whole day, but maybe it just wasn’t enough. I’ll try it again tonight with a stick I kept on a plate on top of my gas stove all day; that butter is good and smooshy, so I think this should work out better.
That could be it! Let me know!
Mine was like that too…I just added more vanilla & small cubed pieces of butter which helped. The end result was nothing short of PERFECT!
I just made these the other day, they are awesome! I had a red velvet skookie from BJ’s restaurant and I’ve been trying to find the red velvet recipe and it taste just like it! I put white chocolate chips in them as the other one had. Yum!
Thanks for the recipe! =)
hi
THANK YOU for this wonderful cokie. I have hunted for 2 days for a chewy red velvet cake that can be mailed to my Fiance’ (who is in the Navy) for a mail drop. I am so excited that I found your site and this recipe.
Just made these, sooo good! I had to hide them because my father loves…well everything and leaving these near him would be a disaster. The only thing is that I couldn’t achieve the red-ish color. They’re the color of brownies. I’m wondering if it was because I used gel food coloring rather than liquid? Or too much (I know, no such thing) cocoa powder?
A few others have said this – I used the liquid coloring and not the gel, so that definitely could have been it! I also think the brands just differ. Next time you can add a little more if you like, but it obviously doesn’t change the taste. Glad you liked them!
I made these a few weeks ago and express mailed them to my boyfriend, he said they were the best cookies he’s ever had! [Thanks to you!:)] And I’m making them again,right now as I type, for a birthday party. However, they haven’t turned out very red like yours:/ i used plenty of food coloring, but when I put in the cocoa powder, the pretty reddness is covered up! any suggestions? thanks again for the delicious recipe!
Next time u leave them out and they get hard out them in a platic container with a peice if bread the cookies absorb the moisture and they will be nice and soft again
These cookies were AMAZING right out of the oven… I’m surprised i didnt eat all of them in one sitting.. But had to save some for my Valentine
With that said, i ate one this morning (made them last night) adn they were hard as a rock! Any suggestions on how to avoid this next time?
Did you keep them sealed or wrapped up over night? The only thing I can think of is to bake them a little less time… All overs differ. Never heard of that happening!
Thanks Jessica- I had them wrapped in tinfoil on a plate over night but apparently that wasn’t good enough, UGH I knew I should have put them in a tin! Next time I will put in tin and cook for less time bc I will DEF be making these again. They were INCREDIBLE tasting right out of the oven and so pretty!
These were amazing! Thanks for sharing the recipe!
These cookies are addicting!!
Hey!
So, I entered a cookie baking contest, and I used a varied recipe of this.
I intended on making Red Velvet Cheesecake cookies, and when I thought of the idea, I googled a red velvet recipe to use as a base, and your blog came up! I chose your recipe to test my idea because every other recipe you post makes my mouth water.
I omitted the chocolate chips, and ended up omitting the red food coloring too. I also baked cheesecake into them. They were amazingly awesome.
I am writing a mini-series about the bake off to post today – I’ve already got parts one and two up, and I totally mention you in part one! The rest will be up later today.
http://www.omgawesome.net/2011/03/extreme-baking-i-entered-cookie-baking.html
Just wanted to pass that along =)
I’d like to inquire if I’m doing something wrong because I’ve tried this recipe twice and both times the bottoms burned, even though the tops baked well.. Is there something I can do to fix this?
Hi Nini! It could be a few different things – first, where is your oven rack? If it is low in the oven, the bottoms may burn because the heat is so close. Move the oven rack to the middle if that’s the case. Second, it could be the age/quality of your baking sheet. You can try doubling up and setting one baking sheet on another and see if it helps!
These looked amazing so I was dying to try them! I followed your directions exactly, but my cookies are black, and I used way more than 1 t of red food coloring!! You think maybe because I used dark chocolate cocoa? That’s the only kind I use because I think it gives it more of a rich cocoa flavor. They’re delish…but not red!! What do you reccomend for Round 2????
PS — LOVEEEEEE your site!!
Hi Binny!! That is definitely why. I just started using the dark cocoa powder a few weeks ago and used it to make my red velvet brownies I posted on Thursday. You do have to use a lot more red food coloring, but you also have to be careful because too much coloring can change the taste of the cookies. I would try adding a little more at a time (I haven’t made these cookies with the dark cocoa yet) and take it from there!
Thanks.
Exactly what I thought…thanx! I’ll try it again!
i made mine with dark cocoa and they came out a rich red color when i added the food coloring, so i think it depends on what kind of food coloring or cocoa you’re using.
Can u use dark drown sugar?
I’ve been obsessingly following your blog (stalking would be more like it) because you not only have the BEST recipes, but because you type like one of my best friends talks, and it makes me laugh more than should be legal.
Anyway.
Said best friend had her birthday yesterday, and she is a complete fan of red velvet cake with cream cheese icing. I didn’t have time to do a whole huge layer cake, so I opted to do these cookies instead!
So I whipped up the wet ingredients and then mixed the dry ones… and had a thought.
Said best friend’s favorite coffee drink is a mexican mocha (a mocha with cayenne pepper and cinnamon added to it so you have that whole sweet/spicy thing going on). So I put a 1/2 tsp of cayenne and a 1/2 tsp of cinnamon to the dry ingredients before mixing them with the wet. I baked them for ten minutes and then moved them to a cooling rack while I whipped up the cream cheese frosting you have mentioned on one of your red velvet cake recipes (I won’t lie, I totally licked the mixing bowl clean of it when I was done frosting the cookies).
OMG, they are HEAVENLY!! Sweet, chocolaty, chewy, spicy… nomnomnomnomnom. The cream cheese icing is a welcome cool respite after the warm spiciness of the cookies!
I just wanted to share that tip with anyone who might be interested
Lizzy,
I think you are BRILLIANT!
I am thinking of tinkering with putting instant espresso powder in them also, to give them just a hint of coffee flavor to go with the other flavors. Then they would truly be a mexican mocha cookie! We’ll know tomorrow probably, since I’m craving them as we speak but I am out of flour until tomorrow.
Gigi’s Goodies
OMG! This is my first time making them…here goes!
How many degrees to heat the oven
375.
Hello Miss Jessica!
My daughter came home after having a *gasp* store bought red velvet cookie. She assured her friends that her mom could make much better cookies. So I went online and searched for a tasty recipe. I found your blog and decided to make these cookies today. My five year old, who absolutely loves corn, said that they were almost better than corn. My 13 year old said they were “bomb”. My husband never likes anything because he is the most food basic person you’ll ever meet, so I didn’t even attempt to persuade him to try them.
So my only comment/concern is the amount of cocoa powder used. While measuring I thought that 1/3 cup was a bit much but I went ahead and dumped it in anyway. It turned the cookies waaaay too brown and the dough was a bit dry, but definitely not too dry as mentioned in other comments. I added some more food coloring, but not too much as I didn’t want the flavor to suffer. I rolled them into balls and baked them in the oven for 10 minutes. To me I thought they could have used less cocoa powder, so I’ll a bit less next time.
I topped them with pink cream cheese frosting and red sprinkles purely for aesthetics. Thanks for the recipe, definitely a keeper!
Thanks Melissa! SO glad they were a hit.
They sound pretty too! Let me know if you decrease the cocoa and how the end result is. 
Hey Jessica
) but Ive always had a massive passion for baking and carried on cooking things for my ma regularly just not trying the products of my kitchen trials personally. Today I rustled up a batch of these and for the first time in…a very long time…I tried something I made and they came out really lovely thank you 
I dont normally comment on peoples blogs but this time its a little different. I have had a bit of a time of it recently after developing an eating disorder a while back and some other things (i wont go into details, noone likes a sob story! haha
They did not turn out like yours i have to say, brown and more poofy!, but delightful none the less and they mark a little victory for me so hold a special little place in my heart
So yes, thank you for having the best and most entertaining blogging style that always makes me smile and for coming up with such wonderful recipes, keep up the fab work!
Much love, Sasha x
Hi there
I just got through making a batch of these little marvels and I am beyond pleased.
I’m half way through my first one now! I was so enthralled after my first bite that I felt compelled to tell you about it, but only after prancing over to my housemates to demand they try them too. [they're all loving them by the way.]
One thing I did differently from your recipe when making the dough, though, was I added about 1/3 a cup of buttermilk along with the red food coloring. I thought it would add to the red-velvetiness of the cookies. These cookies are quite moist and gooey in their centers, so I think the addition took care of whatever dryness I saw being discussed in previous comments.
Thanks a ton and a half for the decadent inspiration!
Hi, I like to say that my family really liled thise cookies, but they did keep asking why there not that sweey. I was wondering is there any way I could make them sweete, because my family is big on sweets. And when I say big on sweets I mean they will devower 3 doesen no bake cookies I less then a day. Lol. But if you could help me with that I would be so thankful.
Sorry that was liked
try putting a frosting on these to sweeten them up =)
Okay thank you
i am trying these right as we speak….not sure i left enough cookie dough for cookies though =) i am going to try making sandwiches out of them and do just a plain cream cheese (with vanilla and sugar) in teh middle =) so far, the cookies are delish!!!
Hi :] I’m glad I found this website! I’ve been trying to find chewy red velvet cookies
I haven’t made them yet and was wondering if the brown sugar is a must or can regular sugar be used instead?
Please and thank you
hello
these looked great, so i wanted to try them out
usually i dnt have much luck with cookies, but these turned out somehow good, although i had some problems
i did put all the right ingredients, with all the right measurements, all followed the instructions, but
1- the color was more brownish than pinkish
2- the dough was a little hard, so i added some butter
3- i got 36 cookies, instead of 12
4- in the end they turned out a little hard, rather than smooth
but after all they tasted good
i just wanna know wht was the problem
I’ve been looking all over the internet for a red velvet cookie recipe from scratch and I was so happy to come across this post! Thank you so much, they were delicious!
I can’t wait to try these @ Manda I was looking for this recipe cause a friend of mine was talking about BJ’s and it sounded so good. wish me luck, I might make them tonight.
I found this recipe on fakeginger.com and saw that she had adapted the recipe from you! I made them and they were SOOOOO delicious! I even created a post about them on my blog! Thanks for the awesome recipe
hey how did you make your pumpkin frosting mmmm sounds so good and want to try it all thanks for sharing love it
Ohmygosh this looks amazing. I absolutely can’t wait to try these! Thank you!
-Miriam
I accidentally forgot the salt, but OHHHHHHHH WOW these are amazing!!! (I couldn’t stop eating the cookie batter!) I’ve been married for 3 years and my hubby’s sisters and mom spoiled him in yummy cookies before we were married. I have yet to meet their match!! UNTIL NOW! Thank you for helping me win my hunny’s heart, or should I say belly, in cookies ;D hehehe. SO DELISH!!!
One more thing… the color did not end up red, but next time (WILL make again!) I’ll add more red food coloring
I also added both white and chocolate chips… mmmm.
Just made these today and they were AWESOME! Esp if you use one of those cookie scoopers, they turn out nice and thick – crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside. Fantastic. I also used white chocolate chips, and in order to ensure the red coloring, I used 2 tsps and they turned out great! Thanks for the great recipe!
I was excited to find this recipe, because I wanted to make red velvet cookies, but kept running into recipes that start with a cake mix. My cookies seemed to experience some of the same issues I see noted in other comments — the dough was fairly dry, so the cookies didn’t spread out much when baking. I kept baking all the way to 12 min, thinking maybe they were still going to spread out, but once I took them out of the oven, I could see they were starting to burn on the bottom. So they ended up pretty thick and puffy, but overcooked. When they cooled, they were hard as rocks. Before I put the next batch in the oven, I added milk. That is probably not the right thing to do to thin the batter, but it did seem to help a little. I also took them out of the oven after 9 minutes.
I did use white chocolate chips instead of regular chocolate — they don’t have quite as much flavor, in my opinion, but they do make the cookies look pretty! Oh, and my cookies looked fairly red, because my 4-year-old daughter bumped my hand when I was adding the food coloring, and I ended up adding MUCH more than the amount called for! So maybe that’s the key. Other red velvet recipes I’ve made have called for what seems like a ridiculous amount of red coloring in order to get a true red.
Thanks for posting!
I know why my dough was so dry. I stirred in the dry ingredients instead of using the hand mixer and my next batch of cookies turned out wonderful!
Hi,
I made these cookies last night and although they’re very delicious, I must’ve done something wrong. When I scooped out the dough into balls, they stayed as balls even after baking. They didn’t flatten out. Was I supposed to flatten it out myself or did I do something wrong?
Followed the recipe exactly.
thanks!
I was so excited to find this recipe as all the recipes I found were make with cake mix! But just a few questions, when I scooped out 1-2 tbps of the dough into balls, they didn’t flatten out (same as comment before me) they stayed as balls.. do you know what could be the reason? Also, are you supposed to stir the the dry ingredients with a wooden spoon or hand blender? I used a hand blender, but I’m just trying to figure out what I did wrong.. they also werent that chewy.. Your pics look soo much better! I’m going to try this recipe again tomorrow until I get it perfect!
There’s something fishy about this recipe…especially with all the comments being pretty much the same about how dry the dough is (producing rounded cookies rather than flat ones) and how the red food coloring doesn’t come out…yet yours are perfectly flat and a nice red velvet color.
I followed this recipe exactly, and even added a touch of buttermilk and more red food coloring and it they still did not flatten out and they definitely do not have the same color. What are we missing here?? Please help!
I just made these and I would definitely say that next time I will make sure my butter is super soft before I start. I would also decrease the cocoa powder from 1/3 to 1/4 cup. I think that would help with the dryness and color issue. Living in Colorado I adjust my recipes for high altitude and removed some sugar and added some flour, which probably made them a touch more dry. I think next time I won’t worry about the adjustments or actually do the opposite, add sugar and decrease flour. Oh and I like the suggestion of using white chocolate chips instead of regular.
Love the cookie recipe, thank you!
I made a couple of changes to the recipe whihc made the cookies a little softer/chewier with more of a red color:
For a double recipe:
Reduce the cocoa to 6T
Mix 1) 1-ounce bottle of liquid red food coloring into to the cocoa, adding it to the butter/sugar mixture after the eggs and vanilla
Use 2 1/2 cups of flour instead of 3 cups
Add one-12 ounce bag of Ghiardelli white chocolate chips instead of milk chocolate chips
Male the cookies into 1 inch balls and roll them in powdered sugar before baking.
Bake them for 9 minutes at 375.
I was just curious how this turned out with white chocolate chips…I was wanting to try that for a more Christmasy look!
They are great with white chocolate chips!
After reading the comments and all I do have a few suggestions. Try reducing the cocoa to 1/4 cup and adding 1 tsp apple cider vinegar. In a traditional Red Velvet it is the acidic reaction between the cocoa powder and the vinegar that produces the red color. Hopefully this will help some of you – I’m trying these tonight at my bakery
Mandy, I’ve been wondering if vinegar could successfully be added. Please, do tell how yours turned out!
Thank you so much for posting this recipe. These cookies are exactly what I realized I needed at 11:09pm tonight – and thanks to your perseverence (read: massive fails) it’s all become possible. Yippee!!
I’m such a red velvet addict that I have made these many, many times. Along with red velvet cupcakes, these have become my “signature dessert”. They are absolutely delicious, and the cocoa powder I have been using is Hershey’s, and it works just fine for me. Thank you for the recipe… These are wonderful!
P.S. I tried out the cream cheese frosting as filling! So good!
These are amazing!! We went for 9-10 mins of baking and flattened slightly. We added Hershey’s kisses after baked and they are so amazing!!!!!
These cookies are fantastic! Will make great gifts to my brothers this Christmas! Thanks for sharing!
just made these. OH MAN. they taste fantastic. mine came out a little cakey but who cares right? they are ridiculous. and i got two dozen out of this recipe! nice. will def be making them again.
← Previous Comments
Next Comments →
{ 35 trackbacks }