Festive, fun, and Santa approved, these this red velvet crinkle cookie recipe is a holiday favorite! But a holiday spin on your favorite fudgy crinkle cookies 🙂
Kicking off cookie week with these fudgy homemade red velvet crinkle cookies! Festive, fun, and Santa approved, this red velvet crinkle cookie recipe is a holiday favorite!
Red Velvet Crinkle Cookies
HAPPY MONDAY SWEET ANGELS WE ARE SO EXCITED. Why are we screaming? Well, because it’s officially Broma Cookie Week AKA the best week ever (debatably better than pie week). And we’re kicking it off with these festive homemade red velvet crinkle cookies. They’re fudgy, chocolatey, fool-proof, and Santa approved.
We think you’re going to love them.
What are red velvet crinkle cookies?
You’ve probably had a crinkle cookie around the holidays. They’re traditionally a dense, fudgy, chocolate cookie rolled in powdered sugar that forms a distinctly crackled top. A lot of people make them by doctoring a cake mix, and don’t get me wrong, they’re delicious. But there’s nothing quite like homemade.
These red velvet crinkle cookies from scratch are slightly less chocolatey than their original chocolate version and are, of course, red, but they have the same dense, almost brownie texture and are simply scrumptious.
How to make red velvet cookies red?
Red food coloring of course! Simply add a few generous drops (about 1/4 teaspoon) to your batter and you’ll have Christmas red cookies in no time.
I will admit, I kind of hate making red velvet desserts. Clearly that hasn’t held me back (hello: red velvet macarons, red velvet cake, red velvet brookies 🙂 BUT, I know I’m not alone in despising that they temporarily dye all your baking gear red. But you know, you gotta do what you gotta do. Live fast, die young, bad girls do it well… or whatever the kids are saying these days.
And believe me when I tell you it is worth that extra scrub in the sink for this red velvet crinkle cookie recipe.
Tips for the best crinkle cookies:
Don’t chill your dough: You want these cookies to spread a little bit so you don’t get round snowballs. We found that refrigerating our dough made the cookies keep their shape too much, so if you do prep the dough in advance, give it an hour on the counter to come back to room temp!
Roll the dough in granulated sugar AND powdered sugar: This will help the powdered sugar stick to the cookie and prevent the powdered sugar from dissolving into the moisture of the cookie so you get that good snowy crinkle every time!
Don’t over bake: You want these red velvet crinkle cookies to be slightly gooey in the middle so that they don’t dry out!
We are SO excited it’s finally the holiday season, and even more excited to share alllll our fav cookie recipes with you each and EVERY day this week.
Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
Cream the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar together in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Scrape down the bowl and add the eggs one at a time, beating between each addition. Add the vanilla and red food coloring, and mix well.
In a separate bowl sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt to combine. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and beat together until combined.
Fill one bowl with granulated sugar and one bowl with powdered sugar. Use a 1 ounce cookie scoop (or tablespoon) to scoop cookies out. Roll the balls first in the granulated sugar and then in the powdered sugar to completely coat the cookie balls. Place on the prepared cookie sheet an inch apart. Bake for 10 minutes or until the cookies have puffed up and cracked, but are still a little gooey in the center.
Allow to cool and enjoy with a glass of milk!
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Keywords: easy, holiday, christmas, santa, gooey, chewy, homemade, from scratch, the best
Notes
*food coloring varies A LOT. We made these with Wilton professional food coloring which is very pigmented. If you are using a store bought gel or liquid food coloring you’ll need to use more!
Hello! If making ahead and freezing the dough balls, should I roll in sugar and then freeze? Or roll after I take the dough balls out of the freezer to thaw? Thx!
Hi Judy! Powdered sugar can get a little funky when it freezes and defrosts, so I recommend freezing the dough balls and then rolling them after you take them out of the freezer! Happy baking!
Do you use unsalted butter? Bit of an amateur here and I feel like all the recipes always call for unsalted so I wanted to double check before I goofed this up 😅
Hi! Looking to make these and wondering if they can be substituted easily for Bobs 1:1 GF flour? My whole family is gluten free besides me and I love baking them sweet treats!
Leave a comment and rate this recipe!
Hi, what kind of cocoa powder did you use? Dutch processed or unsweetened?
We always use Dutch processed!
This is a great cookie. The granulated sugar gives a nice crisp coating.
★★★★★
Hello! If making ahead and freezing the dough balls, should I roll in sugar and then freeze? Or roll after I take the dough balls out of the freezer to thaw? Thx!
Hi Judy! Powdered sugar can get a little funky when it freezes and defrosts, so I recommend freezing the dough balls and then rolling them after you take them out of the freezer! Happy baking!
Do you use unsalted butter? Bit of an amateur here and I feel like all the recipes always call for unsalted so I wanted to double check before I goofed this up 😅
Hi Bre! Yes, we usually use unsalted butter, but you can always use salted butter instead and just go down on the added salt by 1/4 teaspoon!
Hi! Looking to make these and wondering if they can be substituted easily for Bobs 1:1 GF flour? My whole family is gluten free besides me and I love baking them sweet treats!
Hi Sarah! I haven’t personally tried this recipe with Bob’s 1:1, but it usually works well in cookies and cakes so I think it should work here!