These Red Velvet Cookies are all the delicious flavor of red velvet; buttery soft, and crisp on the outside and topped with some of the best cream cheese frosting.
Check it out. These delicious morsels are actually based off my sugar cookie recipe and they are totally amazing!
THE BEST RED VELVET COOKIES
There are some treats that are totally worth having. You know the kind? The ones you don’t care whether or not you “should” eat them; you just know you definitely want to have one. That’s what I’m talking about with these red velvet cookies! They are based off of this sugar cookie recipe (give me a shout out in the comments if you have tried those). But I red velveted them up. They have that delicious tang and chocolate flavor that makes a red velvet recipe perfect. They are crisp on the outside and they are amazingly buttery on the inside. And then you whip up this perfect cream cheese frosting to top them with. Yummy! You are going to love them!
TIPS AND TRICKS TO MAKE THESE RED VELVET SUGAR COOKIES TURN OUT PERFECT
Here are my tips for making cookies perfect. It’s easy to follow a recipe, but sometimes it’s helpful to get specific.
- Your butter has to be room temperature. You should be able to push your finger into it and make a small dent but not go all the way through. Want to make that go faster? Cut your butter up into 1 inch pieces and leave it on the counter for a half hour.
- Your eggs also need to be room temperature. Want that to go faster? Fill a bowl with luke warm water and leave them in there for a few minutes.
- It’s really important to measure your flour correctly. Scoop the flour into the measuring cup and level it off. If you scoop right out of your flour container using your measuring cup, you will end up with significantly more flour.
- Make sure you cream your butter and sugar together for at least three minutes. It needs to not just be mixed, it needs to be light and fluffy. The sugar actually beats air into the butter and that’s key in baking.
- Your pans can’t be hot. If you are baking in batches and need to use your baking pans more than once, you need to make sure that they have cooled before you put more dough on them. You can make this happen fast by just running them under cold water and drying them off. Speaking of pans, I love these! And I love using these with them (pictured above).
- This isn’t essential, but I find that using a scoop helps to keep all your cookies the same size, for consistent baking and it also makes the process of getting the cookies into ball form so much faster! I love this scoop.
OTHER GREAT RED VELVET RECIPES
- Red Velvet Sour Cream Bundt Cake
- Red Velvet Buttercream Frosting
- Red Velvet Bars
- Red Velvet Bread Pudding
When you try these Red Velvet Cookies, leave a comment and let me know how they taste.

Red Velvet Cookies
Ingredients
- For Cookies
- 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 2 TBSPs unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/2 tsps baking powder
- 1/2 tsps salt
- 14 TBSPs unsalted butter room temperature
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar plus more for rolling
- 2 eggs room temperature
- 2 tsps vanilla extract
- 1 tsp white vinegar
- 1 TBSP red food coloring
- cream cheese frosting
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Prepare baking pans with parchment paper or silicon baking mats .
- In a large bowl mix together 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour, 2 TBSPs cocoa powder, 1/2 tsp baking powder, and 1/2 tsp salt.
- Cream together the 14 TBSPs (1 3/4 sticks) butter and 1 1/2 cups sugar until light and fluffy. Add in the eggs, one at a time, then 2 tsps vanilla, 1 tsp white vinegar, and 1 TBSP red food coloring.
- Slowly add in the flour mixture a little bit at a time until the dough is fully combined.
- Using a medium scoop make 1 inch balls out of the dough (about 1 1/2 TBSPs worth), roll them in sugar, and space them out 2 inches apart on the baking sheet.
- Bake for 7 to 10 minutes or until the edges of the cookies being to crisp.
- Remove from the oven and after two minutes, remove the cookies from the baking sheets and transfer to cooling racks. Allow to cool completely.
- Frosting with cream cheese frosting.
Notes

did you make this
Red Velvet Cookies
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Rosalinda says
How long can you store these cookies in room temperature (without cream cheese frosting)? I would like to make them ahead of time before icing them up. Thank you.
Airtight container for a week.
Kathy says
How many cookies does this recipe make? Want to make it for a cookie exchange so need to know if I need to double the recipe or not.
About two dozen cookies
Jessica says
Making these cookies now and my dough is more cake-like mixture:( what can I add to fix this mixture????
Eeeek! So my best guess is that your butter was melted and not soft. I’m not sure that I can give you something that you could do to fix it. Because if you add more flour it will affect the taste. It definitely should not be a cake mix consistency.
Sheri Bowling says
Hi there – thanks for the recipe! We are big Red Velvet Fans around here – even had it for my wedding cake. (Many years ago!) – I am going to try your cream cheese frosting , but I want to try my frosting too – which is just a light and yummy buttery kind. (We’ve used for years and years, and I did see Pioneer Woman try it and she say she’s never going back! – Not sure how it will do on cookies! I like all frosting!) I just want to check and see if you sifted your dry ingredients before I make a go for it – only because I sift my cake’s dry ingredients. THANKS!
I’m a super lazy baker, Sheri! So no, I didn’t sift :)
Robbyn says
Can these be made with a regular hand mixer? I don’t have a kitchen aid stand mixer.
They definitely can be made with a hand mixer!
Kristin says
Can you premake the batter and store it in the fridge the night before? Also can you freeze this cookie dough?
I haven’t tried freezing this cookie dough, but I would think it would freeze well.
Ashley Lowe says
Hi! This is my second time making these. They taste AMAZING, but they look so flat. Do I need to refrigerate them for a few hours to help with this? They just don’t look pretty. Any thoughts?
So my best guess is that you are using baking powder that has gone bad. You can test it by adding it to some water. You should see bubbling immediately.
Sue says
These look yummy! I’m definitely going to make them. Thank you for sharing! I signed up for your email! I’m very excited!
Sue
I’m so happy to have you Sue!
Lyn says
Hello-since these have cream cheese in the frosting how long can they sit out on the counter?
Hi Lyn, that’s a personal judgement call. I leave mine out, however, if you are being conservative, you should keep these frosted cookies in the fridge.
Katie says
Do you think all purpose gluten-free flour would work the same? Thank you!
Hi Katie! I’m so sorry, I don’t have a lot experience with gluten free baking. I do know that not all recipes work with a 1 to 1 swap. So it may require some research and testing.