Red Velvet Crinkle Cookies

These Red Velvet Crinkles cookies are soft, fudgy, festive, and the perfect Christmas cookie to add to your cookie box.

With a beautiful cracked surface and a gooey chocolate interior with just the right amount of chocolate chips, these will be one of your favorite cookies to make around the holiday’s.

Looking for more Christmas cookie ideas? I’ve got you covered:

• Italian Rainbow Cookies
• Italian Ricotta Cookies
• Gingerbread Cinnamon Rolls
• Peppermint Bark
• Soft Linzer Cookies

Red Velvet Crinkle Cookie Ingredients

King Arthur All-Purpose Flour: Spooned and leveled

Cocoa powder: To give these cookies their signature chocolatey flavor

Mini chocolate chips: These really bring the chocolate flavor home, but you can sub white chocolate if you prefer

Vanilla extract: For a slight vanilla flavor and depth

Eggs: At room temperature

Unsalted butter: Softened to room temperature

Baking powder: To help the cookies rise

Red food coloring: To color the batter

Granulated sugar: For both the batter and for rolling

Brown sugar: For richness

Powdered sugar: To coat the cookies in order to get that cracked effect

Kosher salt: To bring it all together

How to Make Red Velvet Crinkle Cookies

Here’s how to make these perfect holiday cookies.

Step 1: Prep your ingredients

Mix your dry ingredients (the flour, cococa powder, baking powder, and salt) in a bowl and set aside.

Step 2: Cream the butter and sugars

Add the softened butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar to the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Start on low, and then slowly increase the speed to medium (we start on low so that you don’t make a mess by flinging all the sugars around). Let that mix for about 3–5 minutes, or until it’s light and creamy.

Step 3: Add the wet ingredients.

Now lower the mixer to low speed and add the eggs one at a time, making sure they incorporate before adding the next. Then add the vanilla and a few squirts of the red food coloring (I don’t measure here and just add until it’s at the color I want — about ½ to 1 teaspoon in total).

Step 4: Add the dry ingredients.

Now with the speed on low, add the flour in about 3 sections, making sure the first is fully incorporated before adding the next. If you want your batter a little more red, you can add a couple more drops of food coloring during this process.

Step 5: Fold in the chocolate chips.

Once the batter is just incorporated, remove from the mixer and fold in the chocolate chips. Make sure you don’t overmix here!

Step 6: Refrigerate your batter.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough chill in the fridge for atleast 2 hours, or up to 3 days.

Once you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a couple of cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Step 7: Roll the balls.

Now add about ½ cup of granulated sugar to a bowl and about ½–1 cup of powdered sugar to another bowl (make sure the powdered sugar bowl is a bit deep so that you can really pack the powdered sugar on!).

Once ready, take about 1 TBS of batter and roll it into a ball, then gently roll it in the granulated sugar, like this:

Then drop it into the powdered sugar and make sure you pack it on.

Note: If it’s humid out you may need to roll the balls in the powdered sugar twice. You’ll be able to tell if the powdered sugar is getting absorbed while you’re rolling the rest of the balls. Once you’re ready to bake they should look like little snowballs, like this:

Step 8: Bake the cookies!

Bake the cookies in the preheated oven for ~9 minutes, or until they’re just set but the centers are still a little soft. Remove and let sit in the baking sheet for 2 minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool.