The month of love is among us, and it’s a perfect time to spread goodness by sharing a simple token of appreciation for the people you love the most like your family, friends or colleagues. This Valentine’s Day Red Velvet Crinkles recipe is a good one that you can easily bake at home. We all know that homemade is better than store-bought cookies.
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Crinkles are chocolate cookies coated with powdered sugar or confectioner sugar. During their time baking, the cookie dough spreads which creates the crinkle effect of the cookies due to the powdered sugar.
For this recipe instead of making the typical crinkles, let’s try these Valentine’s Day Red Velvet Crinkles which are perfect for the season because of their redish color.
Have you ever been confused about Red Velvet? It’s actually a flavor that is described as something that doesn’t taste like vanilla nor chocolatey.
The term red velvet originally came from the oxidation of the cocoa powder which is caused by the lemon or any acid ingredient added to the recipe. Nowadays, food coloring is commonly added to intensify the color and in this case, I used a gel food color in “Christmas Red” for that deep red color.
Now that you have a bit of background with what we’re cooking, let’s get started with these Valentine’s Day Red Velvet Crinkles!
You will need the following Red Velvet Crinkles ingredients
1 2/3 cup All-purpose flour, 3 tablespoon cocoa, 1 ½ teaspoon of baking powder, ½ teaspoon salt, ½ cup softened butter, ½ cup white sugar, ½ cup brown sugar, 2 eggs, 1 teaspoon vanilla, 1 teaspoon lemon juice or apple cider vinegar, Red gel food color, ½ cup mini white chocolate chips and ½ cup sifted powder sugar
Red Velvet Crinkles Recipe Steps
Step 1: Combine the dry ingredients – all-purpose flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Using a wire whisk to mix and to remove lumps. Set aside.
Step 2: In another bowl, add the sugars and softened butter. You can use a mixer, whisk or wooden spoon to cream the ingredients until well mixed.
Add the eggs one at a time to ensure that it is well incorporated. You can also add my favorite lemon juice and vanilla at this time.
Step 3: Mix the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and fold until slightly mixed. Now is the perfect time to add the gel food color. You can adjust the amount to your liking.
You can use the tip of the spoon or a toothpick to add the super red gel food coloring. Continue mixing until your cookie dough is red enough for you. Do not overbeat to avoid working on the gluten which will result to a hard cookie.
Step 4: Add the white chocolate chips to the Valentine’s Day Red Velvet Crinkles cookie dough. Fold and transfer to a smaller bowl.
Cover with plastic wrap and let it chill in the refrigerator for at least an hour or overnight. This is an important step, not chilling will hasten its spreading and may result in less of a crinkle effect on the cookie which you wouldn’t like.
What’s a crinkle cookie without crinkles right?
Step 4: After chilling the cookie dough, preheat the oven to 360F. Using a small ice cream scoop, scoop small balls from the cookie dough and drop to the sifted powdered sugar.
Coat until well covered. Transfer to a baking sheet leaving at least an inch gap because the cookie will spread. Bake for 10-12 minutes.
Step 5: Check the cookies on the 10-minute mark. The cookies should be firm on the sides and soft in the middle.
Leave for a minute or two if you want them crunchy. But if you prefer a chewy cookie then it’s done.
Take it off from the heat but let it rest for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to avoid destroying the cookies.
You can wrap the cool cookies in wax paper or clear plastic and just tie a ribbon with a tag to give as a gift. If you have a wide mouth jar, then you can also fill it up with the Valentine’s Day Red Velvet Crinkles for good looking packaging idea and it’s earth-friendly wrapping since the receiver can re-use the jar!
Happy Valentine’s Day!