Red velvet cake meets chocolate chip cookies today. A blissful marriage of two classic desserts!
I am stoked to tell you that… (I just said stoked)… this cookie recipe only took me one try to get right. Usually it takes me at least 3 tries and sometimes even 11 months to perfect a recipe like cake batter chocolate chip cookies. You learn through mistakes, right? All I did was play around with my go-to chocolate cookies dough and transformed it into a red velvet cookie dough.
There’s a little bit of cocoa powder, flour, egg, milk, vanilla, brown sugar, and regular sugar. Typical chocolate cookie ingredients. However, I reduced the cocoa powder and replaced it with flour. I added a touch of milk to bring moisture to the dough, as well as used more brown sugar than white sugar. I also slightly increased the vanilla extract so the vanilla flavor is as prominent as the chocolate flavor. The chocolate chips make the cookies even chocolate-ier.
Is chocolate-ier a word? Today it is.
The cookie dough needs to chill. Trust me on this. The cookie dough is much too sticky to bake right after mixing. Do you want thick cookies that don’t spread all over your cookie sheet? Chill your cookie dough. There’s no shortcut!
Once chilled, roll the cookie dough into balls. Make sure there aren’t a lot of chocolate chips right on top of your cookie dough balls. You’ll need to press the cookies down slightly after baking and you don’t want a chocolate mess everywhere. Here is what my cookie dough balls looked like before going into the oven:
The cookies will slightly spread in the oven. Mine sort of looked like cookie mounds after 10-11 minutes. So, I simply pressed them down with my fingers (or you can use a spoon) so they became a bit flatter and had crinkle tops. Then, after I pressed them down slightly, I stuck a few chocolate chips into the tops of each. The chocolate chips melted down into the warm cookie. Let the cookies cool for about 5 minutes on the baking sheet before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
The best part is that you have complete control over how red you want your cookies. I added about 1 Tablespoon of red food coloring to my cookie dough. If you want less, add less – if you want more, add more. If you’re not a fan of food coloring, leave it out. Skip the chocolate chips and give them a dunk in melted chocolate (or not!) like we do with White Chocolate Red Velvet Cookies. Again, you have all the control over it!
So this recipe sounds pretty easy, right? It is! Just your basic chocolate cookie recipe with a bit less cocoa, a bit more flour, some vanilla, and a sprinkling of chocolate chips. A quick cookie dough chill and boom! You’ll have red velvet cookies from scratch in only 90 minutes.
Red Velvet Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Prep Time: 1 hour, 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 12 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour, 45 minutes
- Yield: 20 cookies
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
These are soft-baked red velvet chocolate chip cookie recipe made from scratch.
Ingredients
- 1 and 2/3 cups (210g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1/4 cup (21g) unsweetened natural cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup (115g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 3/4 cup (150g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 1/4 cup (50g) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg, at room temperature*
- 1 Tablespoon milk (I use buttermilk)
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon gel red food coloring (or alternative)*
- 1 cup (180g) semi-sweet chocolate chips (plus a few extra for after baking)
Instructions
- Whisk the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt together in a large bowl. Set aside.
- Using a handheld or stand mixer with a paddle attachment, beat the butter on high speed until creamy, about 1 minute. Scrape down the sides and the bottom of the bowl as needed. Beat in the brown sugar and granulated sugar until combined and creamy, about 1 minute. Beat in the egg, milk, and vanilla extract, scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed. Once mixed, add the food coloring and beat until combined. Turn the mixer off and pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Turn the mixer on low and slowly beat until a very soft dough is formed. Beat in more food coloring if you’d like the dough to be brighter red. On low speed, beat in the chocolate chips. The dough will be sticky.
- Cover and chill the dough in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours (and up to 3 days). If chilling for longer than a few hours, allow dough to sit at room temperature for at least 15 minutes before rolling and baking because the dough will be quite hard.
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set aside.
- Scoop 1.5 Tablespoons of dough and roll into a ball, as pictured above. Place 9 balls onto each baking sheet. Bake each batch for 13 minutes. The cookies may have only spread slightly, that’s ok. Simply press down on the warm cookies to slightly flatten, which helps form crinkles. If desired for looks, stick a few chocolate chips into the tops of the warm cookies.
- Cool cookies on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: Cookies stay fresh covered at room temperature for up to 1 week. You can make the cookie dough and chill it in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. (See step 3.) Baked cookies freeze well for up to 3 months. Unbaked cookie dough balls freeze well for up to 3 months. Bake frozen cookie dough balls for an extra minute, no need to thaw. Read my tips and tricks on how to freeze cookie dough.
- Egg: Room temperature egg is preferred. To bring egg to room temperature quickly, simply place in a cup of warm water for 5 minutes. I usually set out my egg when I set out my butter to soften about 1 hour before beginning.
- Red Coloring: I’ve successfully made these cookies using beet powder instead of red food coloring – this is a wonderful natural alternative to food coloring. Use 2 teaspoons for a slight red color to your cookies. You can also use liquid food coloring, but you need quite a bit more of it. Use closer to 1 Tablespoon. I use and recommend gel food coloring.
- Be sure to check out my top 5 cookie baking tips AND these are my 10 must-have cookie baking tools.
Keywords: red velvet chocolate chip cookies, red velvet cookies
If I could give this recipe 10 stars I would! I followed your instructions to the letter including weighing the dry ingredients. I used gel coloring at they turned out a perfect color. Cookies are soft with a perfect texture. Thank you for sharing your hard work with us! Made for my daughter’s fiancé who loved the red velvet Keebler cookies but can’t find them anywhere. I think he will love these more!
★★★★★
I’ve made these cookies for my family two times and both times they were a HUGE hit! I couldn’t recommend this recipe enough.
★★★★★
Made these for my grandson’s daycare providers. The cookies were fluffy, soft and oh so yummy! I did not have regular sized chocolate chips so I used mini in the dough. Then I topped them with 3 grand chips on the top! Perfect Valentine cookie!
★★★★★
Love, love, love the flavor and texture of this cookie. Can’t wait to share them with co-workers. Another good one Sally! ♥️
★★★★★
This is a great recipe. I’d rate it 10/10
★★★★★
Loved this recipe. It definitely not red more brown than anything. But I mainly chose this recipe because it only calls for one stick of butter. Taste just like a chocolate chip cookie.
★★★★★
Absolutely love this recipe. It never fails and they are a crowd favourite too!
★★★★★
Fantastic recipe. I do with the type of cocoa powder was more clear. Definitely use one that is Dutch processed. Makes a world of difference. Also I found the cook time to be too long. I prefer my cookies to be softer, baked 8-10 min and only left them in the sheet an additional 2 min. Perfect.
★★★★
I used the new Hershey’s cream cheese chips in these and they were wonderful. I added extra food coloring and they still weren’t red when baked but they definitely tasted like red velvet.
★★★★★
Whats the ratio the beet powder if using instead of food coloring?
Hi Panayotta, see recipe notes: Use 2 teaspoons for a slight red color to your cookies.
Can I put it in the oven without chilling it for 2 hours?
This recipe is absolutely delicious. I’m wondering if they would hold up as a crinkle cookie as well? I think they would look amazing in my cookie boxes!
★★★★★
Would it work to add nuts to these? I actualy have some macadamia nuts I’d love to use up- think they would be too much with these flavors? Thanks so much!!
Sounds delicious! We recommend keeping the total amount of add-ins to 1 cup, so reduce the amount of chocolate chips and add chopped macadamia nuts in their place.
Can I use beetroot juice instead of the powder?
Thx
Hi Misha! We haven’t tested that but would advise against adding extra liquid to the dough, which would throw off the consistency and likely cause the cookies to spread. Let us know what you try!
Hi can i mix using a whisk beside a mixer?thank you.
The cookie dough will be a little bit too thick to use a whisk, but you can use a wooden spoon or spatula instead to mix by hand.
This recipe looks great & the comments are all catching my attention.. however I do have a question… how do I change the amt of liquid & dry ingredients (if I even do) if I want to omit the morsels..
Hi Katie, you can make the cookies and omit the chocolate chips without any changes. Or you might enjoy these red velvet cookies, too! You can leave the white chocolate off.
Can i use white chocolate chip instead?
Absolutely!
What do I use instead of light or brown sugar?
Your recipes are always my go to because they always come out perfect on the first try,, but I’m so disappointed to say the colour on these just did not come out. They’re brown like a chocolate cookie. After looking at other recipes, majority say 3-4tsp of cocoa. I think the 1/4 cup of it is what overpowered the red food colouring. Will try making again just reducing the cocoa!
★★★★
Omg, I bought a bag of red velvet cookies at the local farmers market the other day and they were good but were made from boxed red velvet cake mix and I knew homemade would be way better. I made these, doubled the recipe and swapped white chocolate chips for the semi sweet. They are soooo good!! Especially warm out of the oven. My 4 year old told me “mom your red velvet cookies taste better” lol!
★★★★★
Unfortunately these cookies did not work. I used the exact same measurements, followed all the steps closely including the chilling for 2 hours and everything and they turned out bad with a very bland taste. The color also didn’t really look like the one on the pictures portrayed here no matter how much coloring I put in them so they are most likely Photoshopped here to look brighter.
I am a beginner baker and did chocolate chips cookies a lot, none of them failed as bad as this one.
I only recommend this recipe if you are a pro baker and can fix the recipe to your liking. Otherwise they will fail even with the right measurements.
★
Aww sounds like you didn’t follow the instructions. You have to make sure you measure properly and ensure you have room temp butter – not melted. I will say that I don’t have the same color results with gel coloring but I use liquid and get a bright red just like the photos. I’ve also found chilling overnight works best for these to prevent spread and keep your dough balls small. I do one heaping tablespoon of dough. It’s also important to use quality ingredients. I’ve made these last-minute with cheap vanilla extract and sugar and it was not the best. Otherwise, every time I make these cookies people go crazy for them. Better luck on your next try!
★★★★★
I don’t bake cookies much except at Christmas time. However, I’m fascinated with anything red velvet and wanted a cookie recipe that I could add to my collection. I only gave this four stars because I’m not sure if the middle is supposed to be as soft as mine are. I did bake them a lot longer than the 13 minutes because I bake at a lower setting because my oven is new so it bakes really fast. It’s a precaution I use against burning pastries. The cookies are delicious and I’ve shared some with my neighbors…waiting on their reviews. Thank you, Sally
★★★★
Its absolutely not fair to alter the recipe as you did with lower oven temp and then give 4 stars. You didn’t follow instructions, and that’s on you.
I’ve made this recipe at least a dozen times. These are my kids’ favorite cookies. They love to share them with friends. I had always followed the recipe exactly until recently. I had to make these for a school event and realized I had ran out of natural cocoa powder, it was midnight and I had no choice but use dutch processed cocoa. Let me tell you all, these cookies are BETTER with DUTCH PROCESSED POWDER! they are a little fudgier and the taste is better. I also use a mix of white and dark chocolate chips but that’s just because the kids like it this way. thank you, Sally, for this recipe!
★★★★★
Can I make them as a giant cookie cake ?
Do you think this dough is good for 2 8 inch big cookies.?
Thanks!!
Hi Humera, You should be able to use this dough for one 8 or 9 inch round pan. Follow the baking directions for our Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake. Enjoy!
What’s the shortest amount of time I can chill these before making them? And they would still turn out well…
Hi Terri, the dough should be chilled for at least 2 hours (or up to 3 days).
This is now my go-to cookie recipe!
★★★★★
This cookie recipe is good but it doesn’t taste like a red velvet chocolate chip cookie, it just tastes like a regular chocolate cookie. I followed the recipe to a tea and I even chilled it for the 2 hours but it just tastes like a regular chocolate cookie.
★★★
Can I use powder food colouring?
Yes! See recipe notes for details on using beet root powder.
Hi! Is there any way to make it spread a little bit wider?
Hi Darlyn! When cookies aren’t spreading, it usually means that there’s too much dry ingredient (flour) soaking up all the liquid. When measuring flour, use the spoon & level method. Do not scoop the flour out of the container/bag. Doing so leaves you with excess flour in the cookie dough. If you are ever in the middle of baking a batch and the cookies still aren’t spreading, remove them from the oven, and use a spoon to slightly flatten them out before returning them to the oven. Hope this helps for next time!
Hi can I use fresh milk instead of buttermilk? Thanks!
Hi Laine, yes you can!
Hi would you recommend swapping the chocolate chips out for a nut?