Red Velvet Crinkle Cookies are thick and fudgy with just a hint of cocoa flavor. They're the perfect easy and festive treat for Valentine's Day OR Christmas!
Yield:
18 cookies
Prep Time:15minutes
Cook:14minutes
Tessa's Recipe Rundown...
Taste: These are red velvet, which is not chocolate so there’s just a hint of cocoa! Texture: Thick, fudgy, and soft. Ease: Super easy! Though the dough does require a 30 minute chilling time. Pros: Fun, colorful, and festive cookies everyone will adore. Cons: None! Would I make this again? Yes.
There’s nothing better than a little festive cookie to put everyone in the mood for a holiday.
These Red Velvet Crinkle Cookies will definitely make you everyone’s favorite person at the office or at school.
That is until everyone realizes they have powdered sugar all over their mouth / face / clothes.
This recipe is perfect for either Valentine’s Day, Christmas, or just when you’re craving Red Velvet.
Which really only has a hint of cocoa flavor but is full of nostalgia for those of us who grew up with it living in the U.S.
If you give this recipe a try, be sure to leave a comment with a star rating at the bottom of this post! You have no idea how much that helps support us.
How to Make Red Velvet Crinkle Cookies
What’s the best food coloring for red velvet?
I personally love Americolor Super Red Gel Paste coloring. It provides a bold color with a small amount. You can order from Amazon or find it at cake supply stores.
You can also use Wilton gel food coloring, just make sure to use the kind in the little pots. NOT the squeeze tube coloring.
Add enough food coloring until the dough is a deep red.
How to make thick, soft & fudgy cookies
Number 1: be sure to measure your flour & cocoa powder properly. Check out my article on how to measure flour for baking success. Accidentally adding too much is super easy, and will dry out your cookies and make them crumbly.
Number 2: don’t overbake your cookies! They should still look slightly ‘wet’ inside the crinkle cracks when you pull them out of the oven. They will finish baking on the hot pan.
Number 3: try out a high-fat cocoa powder! Cocoa is a drying ingredient, meaning it can zap moisture. The less fat and the more starch a cocoa powder has, the drier your final baked good will be. I love to use Penzey’s high fat natural cocoa powder in this recipe. Check out this post on Serious Eats for more cocoa info.
What makes a cookie ‘crinkle?’
To get those distinctive cracks, we use both baking powder and baking soda in this recipe. Before a cookie sets while baking in the oven, the baking soda and powder produce CO2 bubbles that rise to the surface and burst, leaving those little sugary fault lines. If we used only baking soda in the recipe, the cookies would spread out and be thinner. Adding in baking powder helps make nice thick cookies that remain soft.
How to roll crinkle cookies in powdered sugar
Don’t be afraid to really get in there with the powdered sugar! In fact, the directions call for rolling each ball of dough in the sugar twice. This helps achieve a nice thick coating of sugar that doesn’t dissolve into the cookie while baking.
For best results, avoid organic powdered sugar which will dissolve more. And if you can find it, 5x powdered sugar (as opposed to more finely ground 10x) will also make for a prettier snowy sugar coating.
How to store Red Velvet Crinkles
The cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
How to freeze Red Velvet Crinkles
You can also freeze the dough before rolling in the powdered sugar. Follow these instructions but allow the balls of dough to defrost before rolling in sugar and baking as the recipe instructs.
Red Velvet Crinkle Cookies are thick and fudgy with just a hint of cocoa flavor. They're the perfect easy and festive treat for Valentine's Day OR Christmas!
In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
Heat the butter on the stovetop or in the microwave until melted. Add the brown sugar and white sugar to the hot butter and stir until combined. Allow to cool to just warm before stirring in the eggs, one at a time. Stir in the milk, vanilla, and food coloring. Slowly mix in the flour mixture. Cover in plastic and refrigerate until firm enough to scoop without sticking, about 30 minutes or up to 1 day.
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Using a spring-loaded scoop, divide the dough into 1 1/2-tablespoon sized balls and drop onto prepared baking sheets. Pour powdered sugar into a medium bowl and roll the dough balls in sugar two times, letting them sit in sugar between coatings.
Place on prepared baking sheets, spacing 2 inches apart. Bake until cookies have spread and coating is cracked, 12 to 14 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes before removing to wire racks to cool completely. Cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
Course:
Dessert
Cuisine:
American
Keyword:
christmas, valentine's day
Photos by Ashley McLaughlin.
February 2020 Baking Challenge!
This recipe was the selection for February’s baking challenge! Check out the entries below, and click here to find out what the current challenge is!
About Tessa...
I share trusted baking recipes your friends will LOVE alongside insights into the science of sweets. I'm a professionally trained chef, cookbook author, and cookie queen. I love to write about all things sweet, carb-y, and homemade. I live in Phoenix, Arizona (hence the blog name!)
Easy, and delicious! Not too sweet for my taste buds and instructions were easy to follow as well. Great tip on leaving the dough 30 minutes or more.. because I left mine for 5 hours and once I came back the dough was perfect and ready to use! Thank you very much enjoyed this recipe very much ^.^
hi! i am very excited to be trying this recipe out tomorrow for Valentine’s Day! i was wondering if i need to increase the amount of butter used because i only have hershey’s natural cocoa. what do you recommend?
I was really excited as I love red velvet and I love crinkle cookies but I was not impressed. They tasted institutional and without much flavor. I followed the recipe exactly and with the designated cooking time they were dry. I tried to underbake them and that helped, but not enough. Thankfully my daughter liked them so they didn’t go to waste, but for me they weren’t worth the calories. I’ve loved other cookies from the site.
Made these today. They are so pretty and tasty too! Two questions: (1) my cookies came out just a little dry (baked for 12 min) – not moist and fudgy as others have commented. Any suggestions on how to make more moist? I did think the batter looked just a little on the dry side, but given this was my first attempt, didn’t want to mess with it. If this happens again, what can I add to batter to make more moist? (2) I added the red food colouring as directed. The batter was red and when the cookies came out of the oven they were red, but once they cooled, they are brown. Still lovely looking but red colouring would be more festive. I definitely want to give these another try, so would appreciate any feedback on my questions. Thanks! 🙂
Hi Kris, so glad you tried this recipe out! Did you read through the baking tips in the pink box above the recipe? Dry cookies for this recipe would likely be caused due to too much flour and/or cocoa, so I’m wondering if you used a digital scale to measure your ingredients. And what kind of food coloring did you use?
hi, i really admire your recepies and your work.. but my question its i want to know what im doing wrong that my cookies coming flat after baked?!! 🙁 ill really appreciate your answer thank you!!!
I love this recipe. The only problem I have is that instead of turning red, it turns brown just like a normal chocolate crinkle. But everything else is perfect!
I just made this, and its a little dry. I think it’s because I baked it 2 more minutes because they look ‘fat’ LOL they are bigger than what you have in the picture, so I went ahead and baked it more. The recipe says 18 cookies but I ended up with 22 cookies. Anyway, it taste really good. I’ll definitely make it again next time. Thank you for the recipe. ☺❤
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Easy, and delicious! Not too sweet for my taste buds and instructions were easy to follow as well. Great tip on leaving the dough 30 minutes or more.. because I left mine for 5 hours and once I came back the dough was perfect and ready to use! Thank you very much enjoyed this recipe very much ^.^
Wonderful to hear! I’m so glad you enjoyed your cookies 🙂
made it without baking powder and came out okay! replaced baking powder with 1/4 tsp baking soda
hi! i am very excited to be trying this recipe out tomorrow for Valentine’s Day! i was wondering if i need to increase the amount of butter used because i only have hershey’s natural cocoa. what do you recommend?
I was really excited as I love red velvet and I love crinkle cookies but I was not impressed. They tasted institutional and without much flavor. I followed the recipe exactly and with the designated cooking time they were dry. I tried to underbake them and that helped, but not enough. Thankfully my daughter liked them so they didn’t go to waste, but for me they weren’t worth the calories. I’ve loved other cookies from the site.
Hi, if I am using an stand mixer, what hook should I use?
I would use the paddle attachment!
Made these today. They are so pretty and tasty too! Two questions: (1) my cookies came out just a little dry (baked for 12 min) – not moist and fudgy as others have commented. Any suggestions on how to make more moist? I did think the batter looked just a little on the dry side, but given this was my first attempt, didn’t want to mess with it. If this happens again, what can I add to batter to make more moist? (2) I added the red food colouring as directed. The batter was red and when the cookies came out of the oven they were red, but once they cooled, they are brown. Still lovely looking but red colouring would be more festive. I definitely want to give these another try, so would appreciate any feedback on my questions. Thanks! 🙂
Hi Kris, so glad you tried this recipe out! Did you read through the baking tips in the pink box above the recipe? Dry cookies for this recipe would likely be caused due to too much flour and/or cocoa, so I’m wondering if you used a digital scale to measure your ingredients. And what kind of food coloring did you use?
hi, i really admire your recepies and your work.. but my question its i want to know what im doing wrong that my cookies coming flat after baked?!! 🙁 ill really appreciate your answer thank you!!!
Hi Monica, flat cookies are usually due to too warm of butter being used. I go over this in my 3 Biggest Reasons Your Cookies Flop article! I hope that helps.
Texture is great, so light and chewy! I used Guittard red dutch process (Cocoa Rouge) cocoa powder and the flavor is wonderful and rich.
So happy you loved these cookies!
I already used the wilton gel food color but i cannot meet the red color of the crinkles- it turns brown. What maybe is the problem here?
Did you use the Wilton squeeze tube coloring? I recommend using Americolor Super Red Gel Paste coloring – more info on this is in the pink box above!
Hi Tessa, can I make these with white chocolate chips and omit the powdered sugar
Soft and chewy! I tried this with some cream cheese filling and it was so good
This looked exactly as in the pictures and tasted fabulous. I used finely granulated sugar but it made no difference, it was even more crispy.
It’s so good. I also added cream cheese inside the crinkle. ❤️
Is it okay to use coconut oil or shortening in place of butter in this recipe?
I did put vegtable oil though. 🙂
I love this recipe. The only problem I have is that instead of turning red, it turns brown just like a normal chocolate crinkle. But everything else is perfect!
I just made this, and its a little dry. I think it’s because I baked it 2 more minutes because they look ‘fat’ LOL they are bigger than what you have in the picture, so I went ahead and baked it more. The recipe says 18 cookies but I ended up with 22 cookies. Anyway, it taste really good. I’ll definitely make it again next time. Thank you for the recipe. ☺❤
Not impressed. Would not make again. Serious lack of flavor. They were cake like and dry.
5 star! my daughters love it.not so sweet just right for hot coffee or choco! thank you Tessa!
God bless you.I will surely try your other recipes.
Very quick and easy recipe. I must for all red velvet lovers in a cookie form!
Quick and easy recipe for any red velvet lovers!