My red velvet cookies with chocolate chips are inspired by classic red velvet cake, with that delicious hint of cocoa and a beautiful red hue. They’re buttery and lightly chewy, and those white chocolate chips add lovely bursts of creamy sweetness in every bite!
After some careful experimentation, I’ve perfected these vibrant red velvet cookies. They’ve got just the right amount of chewiness and are studded with creamy morsels of white chocolate. Think of them as a brighter, more seasonal version of my brown butter chocolate chip cookies.
In this red velvet cookie recipe, I also use a little red sanding sugar. It gives them a nice crunch around the edges and adds to their color — they come out of the oven with an incredibly bright red hue!
It’s one of those recipes I love making for special occasions like Valentine’s Day, Independence Day, or Christmas. For another, try my persimmon cheesecake with red wine sauce.
Ingredients & Substitutions
- Red Food Coloring is a requirement for red velvet cookies, of course! Use one teaspoon of gel food coloring or a tablespoon of liquid coloring.
- Chocolate Chips: I like Ghirardelli white chocolate chips, but you can substitute any kind of chocolate chips you like.
- Red Sanding Sugar: This is completely optional, but I like the added effect! Also, if you happen to be running low on food coloring, the sanding sugar will help make the color pop.
- Cocoa Powder: I recommend a basic unsweetened cocoa powder like Hershey’s. I don’t recommend super dark chocolate or black cocoa powder, which will make it harder to to make the cookie dough red.
- Baking Staples: Flour, baking soda, salt, butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla.
How to Make Red Velvet Chocolate Chip Cookies
Making the Red Velvet Cookie Dough Base
Mix your flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium-sized bowl.
Next, in a larger bowl, beat your butter with both sugars (brown and granulated) until it’s fluffy and creamy. This usually takes about 2 to 3 minutes.
Expert Tip: Make sure your butter is soft (room temperature), because it makes mixing way easier and gives you smoother dough.
Now, crack in your eggs, and add the vanilla extract and red food coloring. Mix until the color is even.
Once your wet ingredients are well combined, gradually pour in the dry ingredients from earlier. Mix gently until you don’t see any flour streaks. Try not to overmix, or your cookies might become tough.
Finally, carefully fold in the white chocolate chips. Try not to break them up.
Chilling the Cookie Dough
There’s a 1 hour chill time required for this cookie dough! The dough is very buttery and sticky, so it will be hard to scoop into balls if you don’t chill it long enough.
Just take a chill pill and use this time to read a good book. You can try The Lonely Hearts Book Club, or check out our book lists if you need ideas. I also got some good ideas from Delaney’s list of bookish romance books.
Baking Your Red Velvet Chocolate Chip Cookies
Once your dough has chilled, preheat your oven to 350 degrees F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Scoop the dough with a cookie scoop or spoon, and roll it into balls. Coat them in the red sanding sugar, then place them about two inches apart on the baking sheets.
Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. The edges will set, but they should still be slightly wet in the center.
Once baked, let your red velvet cookies with chocolate chips cool on the baking tray for 10 minutes. You can then move them to a wire rack to cool completely.
Expert Tip: Your red velvet cookies will still look slightly underbaked in the center, but that’s exactly what you want. They’ll firm up as they cool and stay nice and chewy.
Recommended Tools
- Electric mixer with Paddle Attachment – Really simplifies making the red velvet chocolate chip cookie dough. Use a wooden spoon if you don’t have one.
- Cookie scoop – Makes perfect portioning quick and easy.
My Literary Inspiration for These Red Velvet Cookies with Chocolate Chips
The Valentine’s Day book that I chose to accompany this recipe is The Lonely Hearts Book Club by Lucy Gilmore. Though I haven’t read it yet, it’s on my list of romance novels to read this February.
“A young librarian and an old curmudgeon forge the unlikeliest of friendships in this charming, feel-good novel about one misfit book club and the lives (and loves) it changed along the way.“
Sloane Parker is the young librarian in her small town who looks forward to visits from old curmudgeon, Arthur McLachlan. When Arthur doesn’t show up one morning, she tracks him down and finds out that he is severely ill. To cheer him up, Sloane creates a book club that ends up drawing in other lonely hearts. Together, they find the joy of unlikely friendship.
I love a romance novel with an old curmudgeon. That, along with the fact that its set in a library and book club – I think I’m going to really like this book! The description reminds me of The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry by Garielle Zevin, which I really enjoyed. If you’ve read this book, please let me know if you’d recommend it!
Red Velvet White Chocolate Chip Cookies
Equipment
- 1 medium mixing bowl
- 1 large mixing bowl
- 1 Electric mixer with paddle attachment (or wooden spoon)
- 2 Cookie sheets
- 1 cookie scoop optional
- 1 Wire rack
Ingredients
- 2 ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup cocoa powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp salt
- ¾ cup butter, softened (1 ½ sticks)
- ¾ cup light brown sugar, packed
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp red gel food coloring or 1 Tbsp of red liquid food coloring
- 1 cup white chocolate chips
- red sanding sugar optional
Instructions
- In a medium mixing bowl, stir together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
- Add the dry ingredients from Step 1 and mix until just combined. Stir in chocolate chips.
- Cover and chill the dough for 1 hour.
- Preheat the oven to 350?. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Using a cookie scoop or large spoon, scoop out cookie dough and roll each scoop into a ball with your hands. Sprinkle some red sanding sugar in a measuring cup, and drop the ball in. Shake the measuring cup to coat the dough ball with sanding sugar. (optional)
- Place cookie dough balls onto the parchment lined baking sheets, about 2 inches apart from each other. Bake for 10-12 minutes until set around the edges and slightly wet in the center.
- Let the cookies cool on the pan for 10 minutes, before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Enjoy with a glass of milk!
