Easy, adorable chewy little bright red sugar cookies with a heart in the center! These Red Velvet Sugar Cookies make the softest, chewiest sugar cookies and the hearts in the center are just store-bought candy! This recipe makes a small batch of cookies because Valentine's Day desserts should serve two.
Why Red Velvet?
I discovered something really important about red velvet, and I'm ready to tell the world. If you've never had red velvet, it's a tender cake with a touch of cocoa powder. It loves to be paired white chocolate, and it loves cream cheese, but what you didn't know is how much a white chocolate peanut butter heart brings to the party.
If you remember (and laughed at) my Valentine's Day candy review, you'll recognize these Reese's white chocolate peanut butter hearts. It was hard to save 6 for this red velvet sugar cookies recipe, but I did it. If I can do it, you can do it! This small-batch sugar cookie recipe just makes 6 cookies, so all you have to save is 6 hearts. That's reasonable, right?
To be honest, though, any heart-shaped chocolate is welcome here. The caramel hearts from my small-batch brownies would be great, and even the Dove dark chocolate hearts, though they are a bit smaller.
Let's Get Baking
Creating these Red Velvet Sugar Cookies for two is really easy and doesn't take much time. Here's what you need:
- Unsalted Butter
- Sugar
- Egg Yolk
- Vanilla Extract
- Red Gel Food Coloring
- All-Purpose Flour
- Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
- Baking Soda
- Salt
- White Chocolate Peanut Butter Hearts
Combine the melted butter, sugar, egg yolk, vanilla extract, and red gel food coloring. Then add the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt and stir to combine. Flatten the dough and divide into six parts. Roll each part into a ball and cover in sugar. Bake and allow to cool. Add the heart into the middle and enjoy!
Red Velvet Sugar Cookies for Valentine's Day:
I've got a soft spot for red velvet. I've gone years without it, because, as you know, as a society, we are very into beet and spirulina powder these days, and we are certainly avoiding red food coloring. But, um, it's Valentine's Day and I just can't resist a festive dessert for two. It's just how I roll.
This sugar cookie recipe is based on one from my next cookbook, Sweet & Simple: Dessert for Two, and I love it for so many reasons. The recipe uses melted butter, which is always loaded easier for a person like me who is a) impatient and b) never remembers to put butter on the counter to soften. These cookies bake up soft, crackly and perfect, no matter what size you scoop them. I've rolled them into 10 dough balls, and I've beefed it up to 6 balls (like I did here)--no matter what I do, they always bake up perfect. They also bake up perfectly round, even if you do a half-ass job shaping them into balls.
They're essentially the perfect sugar cookie recipe that you need in your arsenal.
If you're looking for the perfect easy sugar cookie recipe without red food coloring, I've got you covered.
These cookies only use an egg yolk, so be sure to check out my recipes to use leftover egg whites.
Red Velvet Sugar Cookies
Small batch sugar cookies: red velvet sugar cookies with hearts for Valentine's Day!
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar, plus extra for rolling
- 1 large egg yolk
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon red gel food coloring
- ½ cup + 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ⅛ teaspoon fine salt
- 6 white chocolate peanut butter hearts (like Reese's)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350, and line a small baking sheet with parchment paper (or use a silicone mat).
- Stir together the melted butter, sugar, egg yolk, vanilla extract and red food coloring. Stir very well to combine.
- Next, sprinkle the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt evenly over the dough, and stir just to combine.
- Press the dough flat and evenly in the bowl, and then divide it in half by eye. You should get 3 cookies from each half.
- Roll each dough ball in your hands, roll lightly extra granulated sugar, and then space evenly on the prepared baking sheet.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes, until they spread, start to crackle and appear dry on top.
- Let the cookies rest on the baking sheet for 2 minutes before moving them to a wire rack to cool completely.
- After the cookies have cooled for 10 minutes, press a white chocolate heart into the center of each cookie. Move the cookies to the fridge (so the hearts don't melt too much) to set for 30 minutes.
- Bring to room temperature before serving.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
6Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 325Total Fat: 22gSaturated Fat: 8gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 11gCholesterol: 82mgSodium: 225mgCarbohydrates: 27gFiber: 3gSugar: 18gProtein: 8g
Andrea Engels says
These look lovely! My daughter is allergic to red food colouring - what do you think would happen if I made non-coloured red velvet cookies? Would you think I need to add more liquid to make up for no food colouring?
Christina Lane says
Hi Andrea!
You can absolutely make these cookies without the red food coloring. They'll be light brown (like chocolate chip cookies). You don't need to add anything extra, but you could double the vanilla for fun? :)
Andrea Engels says
Thanks Christina! Can't wait to try them.
sylvie c says
I 've discovered your site via/through BudgetBytes and I'm so thrilled!! I have a lot of catching up to do but it's okay....Thank you so much for your hard work :-):-):-)
Christina Lane says
Hi Sylvie! Nice to meet you :) Isn't Beth the greatest? I've read her blog for AGES. Anyway, glad you're here :) I take requests!
Tiffany says
I'm kinda confused, how do you even get the red velvet taste if it's all normal ingredients???
Christina Lane says
The 'red velvet taste' is a buttermilk cake with the smallest touch of cocoa powder and red food coloring. That's it :)
Jen says
Will this dough work well with cookie cutters? I'd like to make shapes!
Christina Lane says
No, sorry, Jen. These cookies are made to spread and get crisp on the edges and crackly and chewy in the middle. If you cut out shapes and bake, they will spread everywhere.
Here is my recipe for cut-out cookies: https://www.dessertfortwo.com/1-dozen-cut-out-sugar-cookies-2/
Emily says
Hi, do you think I could make the dough the day before and refrigerate it? I'm super excited to make ese for my boyfriend for valentines :) thanks!
Christina Lane says
Yes, Emily! You can. Just let it rest on the counter for 30 minutes to come to soften a bit :) Happy V Day!
Emmy says
I was so excited to make these and sadly they turned out not so great :/ I bake quite a bit and can't pinpoint why they flopped. They had a very dark red color, not the beautiful vibrant red shown here. also, the taste was really off. I live in high altitude, so I added 1 extra T of flour because they were really oily. I did also use McCormick food coloring and adjusted that as well. I'm not sure what went wrong.
Christina Lane says
Hi Emmy! Did you use red food coloring or red food gel? I'm not sure what happened, as there are many positive reviews of this recipe :/ Did you measure everything precisely?
Christy says
I used food coloring instead of gel too but mine came out divine. Granted I only used a few drops trying to guess what it would take, and they came out brown instead of red, but I can live with that. Did you add baking powder instead of soda?
Nathalie says
This smells divine, wafting from the oven. But I think I'll skip rolling them in sugar next time. ????
Sarah says
I cheated and tripled this recipe - and it worked beautifully! I know that is not the way it should be - you test and test to get it into a small batch - but I needed more and wanted you to know if was really great!
Kristin says
So glad I saw this. I need bigger batches so gim glad I can triple it!
kate says
Hi Sarah (and thank you Christine for the recipe not to mention your entire website!)- I only just discovered this recipe and like you, I tripled it. As I incorporated the dry into the wet, I noticed the cookie dough was plenty ready with about 1/4c of the dry remaining; wondering if you recall if you did as well? No Reese white pb hearts up here in Canadaland but I did use some Hershey’s ‘cookies & cream’ kisses and they were adorable!
Ananya says
Hi Christina, would you show a simple chocolate cake recipe for me ( and my boyfriend sometimes...But mostly for me :P)....
I don't have a microwave ..Or else the chocolate mug cakes would have been great...
Christina Lane says
Of course, Ananya! Here are a few options that I found using the search function at the top of the site: https://www.dessertfortwo.com/?s=mini+chocolate+cake
Tori says
Can I add buttermilk and vinegar to this to enhance the "red velvet" taste?
Christina Lane says
In a word: no. Don't alter the recipe because the recipe is tested to work as-is. If you make modifications, I can't guarantee the results. In this case, if you add more liquid, the cookies will spread everywhere and the vinegar will make them rise unevenly. You can try the red velvet cupcakes on my site instead: https://www.dessertfortwo.com/red-velvet-cupcakes-2/
Thanks,
Christina
Rosemarie says
Excited to try this recipe! If I used McCormick red food “coloring” how much would I need to use to achieve vibrant red (rather than muddy red)?
Christina Lane says
I recommend the gel