Tessa’s Recipe Rundown
Taste: Perfectly sweet with that quintessential red velvet flavor!
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.
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Nothing beats these festive Red Velvet Crinkle Cookies to put everyone in the mood for a holiday!
These 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 anytime you’re craving Red Velvet.
Red velvet really only has a hint of cocoa flavor, but it 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
Best Red Food Coloring for Red Velvet Crinkle Cookies
- I personally love Americolor Super Red Gel Paste coloring. It provides a bold color with just a small amount. You can order from Amazon here, or find it at cake supply stores.
- Wilton gel food coloring also works well – 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.
- I don’t recommend using liquid food coloring, because it’s not as concentrated and won’t add enough color to your cookies without also adding a ton of excess liquid.
- Wondering if you can use natural dye? Learn more about Natural vs. Artificial Food Coloring here.
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 Make Thick, Soft & Fudgy Red Velvet Crinkle Cookies
- Measure your flour and cocoa powder correctly. I highly recommend using a digital kitchen scale to measure ingredients, but if you don’t have one, check out my article on how to measure flour. Accidentally adding too much flour and cocoa powder is super easy, and will make your Red Velvet Crinkle Cookies dry and crumbly.
- 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.
- Use 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. Learn more about cocoa powders here.
How to Roll Red Velvet Crinkle Cookies in Powdered Sugar
Don’t be afraid to really get in there with the powdered sugar! 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 Crinkle Cookies
Red Velvet Crinkle Cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
How to Freeze Red Velvet Crinkle Cookies
You can also freeze the Red Velvet Crinkle Cookie dough before rolling in the powdered sugar. Learn how to freeze cookie dough here but allow the balls of dough to defrost before rolling in sugar and baking as the recipe instructs.
More Valentine’s Day Recipes:
- Chocolate-Covered Strawberries
- Valentine’s Day Chocolate + Strawberry Cake
- Chocolate Lava Cakes
- Cookie Dough Hearts
- Strawberry Chocolate Galette
More Amazing Cookie Recipes:
- Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Soft and Chewy Sugar Cookies
- Red Velvet Cut-Out Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting
- Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
- S’mores Cookies
Red Velvet Crinkle Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 cups (254 grams) all-purpose flour, measured correctly
- 1/4 cup (22 grams) unsweetened natural cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 4 tablespoons (57 grams) unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup (100 grams) light brown sugar
- 1/2 cup (100 grams) granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1 tablespoon milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon
red gel food coloring - 1/2 cup (63 grams) powdered sugar, for coating
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
- Heat the butter on the stovetop or in the microwave until melted. Add the brown sugar and white sugar to the hot butter and use a rubber spatula to 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 with 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 medium spring-loaded cookie 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 cookie 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.
This post was published in 2020 and has been updated with additional recipe tips. Photos by Ashley McLaughlin.
February 2020 Baking Challenge!
This recipe was the selection for February’s baking challenge! Learn more about my monthly baking challenges here. Check out everyone’s beautiful cookies below:
These cookies are so easy to make, and I love the 30 minute chilling time. Definitely one of my favorite flavors!
These cookies turned out really well. Very light and fluffy with a lovely flavor.
What can be used instead of brown sugar?
Perfect for a preValentine’s day tea. These cookies are cakey and easy to make. My dough was a bit sticky so I refrigerated it longer than the recipe specifies. I used a 1-1/2 T cookie scoop for my first batch but decided to use a 1-1/2 t cookie scoop and reduce the baking time for the next batch as the smaller cookies were better for tea. A good cookie if you like a cakey cookie with a very subtle mildly sweet taste.
Good consistency but zero flavor. Tasted like a waste of calories. They are really easy and cute, but make a huge mess.
This is a great cookie recipe! It has the perfect balance of sweetness and chocolate flavor.
I love red velvet! They turned out beautifully. Love your blogs and recipes! You are always my go to when I want to try something new!
Easy and delicious! Whenever I make Tessa’s recipes, everyone loves how balanced the goodies turn out. Nothing is ever too sweet! These are perfect, even being rolled in powdered sugar.
Great tasting soft cookies. Easy to make with just hand mixing. Very fudgy and soft
I loved this recipe! It came together very easily and is delicious. It’s hard to only eat a few! Just as a side note, I wasn’t sure if my cocoa was high-fat or not, so I melted two cocoa butter wafers and added that in with the wet ingredients. I’m not sure how much of a difference it made, but the end result was most and delicious so it certainly didn’t hurt!
These are, first of all, so festive! Flavor-wise, the cocoa was a bit too mild for me, but my dad thought it was just right—if you’re craving a richer chocolate flavor, I’d definitely add some espresso powder or adjust for more cocoa powder! The best part is the texture, though—like a perfectly fudgey brownie! I’ll make these again for sure.
So delicious!