RED VELVET COOKIE BOX
Ingredients
Cookie Dough Base
- 240 g (1 cup+1 tbsp) unsalted butter room temperature
- 60 g (4 tbsp) cream cheese like Mascarpone (or Philadelphia) chilled
- 150 g (2/3 cup) caster sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla paste or vanilla extract
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 55 g egg white from about 1+1/2 egg
- 300 g (2+1/2 cups) all purpose flour
Red Velvet Piped Cookies
- 150 g (5,2 oz) of Cookie Dough Base
- 3 g (1 tsp) unsweetened cocoa powder
- about 1/2 tsp red food coloring paste not liquid food coloring!
- about 8 g (2 tsp) all purpose flour
Cut-Out Red Velvet Cookies
- about 300 g (10,5 oz) of Cookie Dough Base use the half of the remaining Cookie Dough Base
- 3 g (1 tsp) unsweetened cocoa powder
- about 1 tsp red food coloring paste not liquid food coloring!
- about 35 g (3 tbsp) all purpose flour
Cut-Out White Cookies
- about 300 g (10,5 oz) of Cookie Dough Base the half of the remaining Cookie Dough Base leftover
- about 30 g (2+1/2 tbsp) all purpose flour
Buttercream Filling
- 60 g (1/4 cup) unsalted butter room temperature
- 80 g (2/3 cup) powdered sugar
- 1/3 vanilla bean seeds or 2 tsp vanilla extract/vanilla paste
Decoration
- white chocolate melted
- pistachios finely chopped
- strawberry jam
Instructions
Cookie Dough Base
- Beat softened butter, cream cheese, sugar, salt and vanilla with an electric mixer until creamy and well combined.
- Add the egg white and mix until combined.
- Add gradually the flour in 2-3 times and mix with a spatula until creamy and well combined (don't overmix).
Red Velvet Piped Cookies
- Place in a medium size bowl, 150 g of the Cookie Dough Base.
- Add sifted cocoa powder, food coloring and combine with a spatula.
- Add the flour in few steps and mix with a spatula until get a not too creamy dough: the flour amount could vary a bit, depends on how much food coloring you've used.
- Transfer the dough into a piping bag (2D piping tip) and pipe about 8 roses onto a lined baking sheet.
- Place piped cookies in refrigerator until all the cookies are ready (at least 30 minutes).
Cut-Out Red Velvet Cookies
- Place half of the remaining Cookie Dough Base (about 300 g) in a medium size bowl.
- Sift in cocoa powder, add red food coloring and mix with a spatula until combined.
- Add flour in few steps until the dough pulls away from the bowl and doesn't stick to your fingers: you'll get a soft and smooth ball.
- Roll the dough between two baking sheets until get a 0,6cm-1/4 inch circle.
- Put the rolled dough in refrigerator until prepare the White Cookies dough.
Cut-Out White Cookies
- Place the remaining Cookie Dough Base (about 300 g) in a medium size bowl.
- Add flour in few steps until the dough pulls away from the bowl and doesn't stick to your fingers: you'll get a soft and smooth ball.
- Roll the dough between two baking sheets until get a 0,6cm-1/4 inch thick circle.
- Put the rolled dough in refrigerator until cut out Red Velvet cookies from the previously rolled Cut-Out Red Velvet cookie dough.
Cut your cookies out and bake them
- Cut out about 20-25 medium size cookies from the refrigerated rolled Red Velvet Cookie Dough and keep the scraps aside.
- Place your red cookies over a lined baking sheet and put in refrigerator until bake them.
- Cut out about 20-25 medium size cookies from the refrigerated rolled White Cookie Dough and keep the scraps aside.
- Place your white cookies over a lined baking sheet and put in refrigerator until bake them.
- Knead the red scrapes and roll out between 2 parchment paper, one 0,6cm-1/4 inch thick rectangle shape.
- Knead the white scrapes and roll out between 2 parchment paper, one 0,6cm-1/4 inch thick rectangle shape.
- Place the white rolled rectangle on top of the red rolled rectangle and trim the edges with a knife to get a perfect rectangle: keep the scraps aside to make later marbled cookies.
- Roll the rectangle on the shorter side: you'll get a spiral log. Put the log in refrigerator until make marbled cookies.
- Knead slightly together the scraps of the rectangle and roll this marbled dough until get a 0,6cm/1/4 inch thick circle.
- Cut out marbled cookies and place them onto a lined baking sheet.
- Remove the spiral log from refrigerator and slice it into 0,6cm-1/4 inch thick cookies (you'll get about 25 spiral cookies).
- Bake all your cookies in preheated fan oven (upper and lower heat) at 170°C-340°F for 8 to 12 minutes* (*depends on the cookies size).
- Cool down completely on a wire rack.
Buttercream Filling and Decoration
- Place soften butter with vanilla in a medium size bowl and start mixing with a hand mixer.
- Gradually add powdered sugar and keep on mixing for at least 10 minutes at high speed until become light and fluffy.
- Use this buttercream to create sandwich cookies.
- Decorate the other cookies with melted white chocolate and chopped pistachios (optional).
- You can also fill your sandwich cookies with white chocolate or strawberry jam.
Video
Notes
Hello, I am Valentina! Welcome to How Tasty!
I am an Italian girl in love with baking and cooking. I’ve been raised in a cooking family, baking since I was a little girl and learning from my mom and my professional chef grandma.
I created the Youtube channel How Tasty in 2017 to share with you my passion.
You don’t need to be a professional cook to follow all my recipes thanks to the video tutorials and the tips & hints you can find here.
Let’s cook!
Tips:
I’ve received many requests about the food coloring I’ve used for this cookie box. Food coloring quality is very important when you make a recipe like this, so I always suggest to use a professional one.
I’ve used the food coloring paste by Sugar Flair in the color “Christmas Red”. You can find it on Amazon and this food coloring brand never disappoint me!
You can use any other food coloring in paste or gel, but be careful to not use liquid food coloring if you want a perfect bright red and if you don’t want to make a soggy cookie dough!
Be careful to get the perfect dough consistency for your piped cookie roses. For this reason, check out my recipe video where you can see the perfect consistency I got.
You have to get a not too soft dough, or you’ll get flat rose shapes after baking; but if it will be to thick, you won’t be able to pipe it!
Remember: better a slightly hard dough than a too creamy one for perfect sharp shapes and edges.
Refrigerating time is very important before baking your cookies, mostly if you live in a hot climate, the heat could be the worst enemy of your cookie dough.
If your raw cookies will be well chilled, the shape will turn out perfect after baking and the edges will be sharp.
The decoration is totally up to you: be creative and make your cookie box unique! Here I’ve made buttercream, but chocolate ganache works amazing too.
You can personalize shapes, filling, colors…unleash your creativity!
For those who ask me for an eggless version of this recipe, I answer you can make the dough just substitute the egg white with milk at room temperature. The dough will be less elastic, but it will work!
