This past Black Friday, my guy bought us a brand new TV. The back-story is a tale for another day (it involves four stores, two TVs, and one very sleepless night for him), but the end result was that we now essentially have a computer with a huge screen in our living room.
Yes, a computer. Apparently, it isn’t enough for a TV to turn off, on, and play DVDs anymore because this one came with apps, just like on my iPhone: Hulu, Target, YouTube, MLB.com (I can’t wait until April to use that one!), and more. But so far, our favorite has been Netflix.
With the Netflix app, we’ve been watching past season of old TV shows, and they fly by much faster without waiting a week in between episodes or any commercial interruptions! My guy generally gravitates towards adventure or thriller-type shows, most of which contain too much blood and guns for me, but while he’s at work and I’m baking in the kitchen all day, I’ll turn on Cupcake Wars. (For those of you who haven’t seen it, here’s the show description.)
Quite a few times each season, one of the contestants bakes red velvet cupcakes as one of their four flavors, and nearly every time, Florian, the French judge, despites it. As a very particular person with a highly refined palate, he remarks that they’re too vanilla-y without enough cocoa, unnaturally bright red, too doughy, too dense, too tough… All with a classic thick French accent. Almost nobody has earned a red velvet approval from Florian!
Yet even with all of those warnings playing on the TV in the background, I still decided to bake these White Chocolate Red Velvet Cookies for Valentine’s Day. With how they turned out, I’d actually be proud to present them to Florian! Soft and chewy, deep brick red, and with a strong hint of cocoa, they’re as close to perfection as red velvet cookies can come.
Before we start mixing up the dough, there are two very important ingredients in this recipe.
1) Red food coloring. It wouldn’t be red velvet without it! Buy the larger bottles sold individually on the baking aisle. Don’t use the tiny dropper bottles; they don’t contain nearly enough liquid to tint these cookies.
2) Cornstarch. It sounds like a strange ingredient for cookies, but trust me on this! Cornstarch makes the cookies extremely soft by soaking up additional moisture from the dough, and they’ll stay that soft for an entire week.
The flavors in the cookie dough base required a little tweaking. In the first batch, I couldn’t taste the cocoa powder at all, so I doubled it for round two. The result was a rich, chocolaty cookie with just a hint of vanilla. Although I adored it, the taste may have had a little too much cocoa on its own for Florian, but…
With a plethora of white chocolate chips, the flavor balanced perfectly. The white chocolate added the extra oomph of vanilla that a classic red velvet flavor requires. And even though I’m normally not a huge fan of white chocolate, I couldn’t stop myself from sneaking cookie after cookie after cookie!
Somehow, I think Florian may have done the same thing too.
| White Chocolate Red Velvet Cookies | Print |
- ¾ c + 2 tbsp (105g) all-purpose flour (measured correctly)
- ¼ c (20g) unsweetened cocoa powder (measured correctly)
- ¾ tsp (1g) cornstarch
- ½ tsp (2g) baking powder
- ¼ tsp (2g) salt
- 2 tbsp (28g) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 1 tsp (5mL) vanilla extract
- ½ c (106g) light brown sugar
- 1 ¾ tsp (9mL) red food coloring
- 3 tbsp (32g) white chocolate chips
- Preheat the oven to 350°F, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
- Whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, cornstarch, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together the butter, egg, and vanilla. Stir in the brown sugar, smearing out any clumps along the side of the bowl. Carefully stir in the red food coloring. Add in the flour mixture, stirring just until incorporated. Fold in 2 tablespoons of white chocolate chips.
- Drop the cookie dough into 12 rounded scoops onto the prepared baking sheet, and flatten to about half their height. Press the remaining white chocolate chips into the tops. Bake at 350°F for 10-12 minutes. Cool on the pan for 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack.
If you aren’t a fan of white chocolate, substitute 2 tablespoons of regular semisweet chocolate chips and 1 tablespoon of miniature chocolate chips. (Mix ½ tablespoon of the miniatures into the dough, and press the remaining ones into the tops of the cookies.)
This recipe is easily doubled or tripled to serve more.
{low fat, low calorie}
More red velvet cookie recipes from other food bloggers…
♥ Red Velvet Peanut Butter Blossoms from i am baker
♥ Red Velvet Sugar Cookies by Crème de la Crumb
♥ Red Velvet Chocolate Chip Cookies by Sally’s Baking Addiction
♥ Red Velvet Blondies by Crazy for Crust
Hi! Can I use whole wheat pastry flour? I’m ready to make these!
Yes, that will work just fine! I can’t wait to hear what you think of these cookies Kandice! 🙂
I really liked the cookies, they were delicious!m
I’m so glad you enjoyed these cookies, Sam!! 🙂