Red Velvet White Chocolate Chip Cookies

Some may save red velvet for a special occasion, I say any day is a great day for red velvet! No special occasion needed. I made some Red Velvet Cupcakes last week for a friend who was hosting a birthday party and it inspired me to create another red velvet dessert. These cookies are a combination of two of my all time favorite desserts, those Red Velvet Cupcakes and Chocolate Chip Cookies. 
These lightly chocolaty, deliciously chewy, gorgeously red cookies are simply fantastic!  In my opinion red velvet isn't chocolate, if I wanted a chocolate dessert I'd make a chocolate dessert. Red velvet to me is a combination of vanilla and chocolate, one shouldn't really overpower the other. That's why when I make red velvet recipes they are somewhat mild on the cocoa. Plus when you use too much cocoa it depletes that beautiful red color, it turns it more of a brownish auburn shade rather than a velvety red. I also tried making these cookies with half brown sugar and half granulated sugar and that even hid the red color due to the deep brown shade of the molasses in the brown sugar, so the brown sugar was out. 
These cookies would also be delicious if you were to omit the white chips and instead frost them with Cream Cheese frosting. If you personally prefer a really chocolaty red velvet, I would say rather than adding more cocoa to the dough just add milk chocolate or semi sweet chocolate chips in place of the white chocolate chips.
And to all you early holiday Pinners out there (I'm definitely not talking about myself =), these would go great on the Christmas or Valentines Day list. Enjoy!

{Updated} Red Velvet White Chocolate Chip Cookies***
Yields about 3 dozen

Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 Tbsp cocoa powder*
1 1/2 tsp cornstarch
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
8 Tbsp butter, at room temperature
6 Tbsp all vegetable shortening, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 1/2 tsp white vinegar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 Tbsp red food coloring
1 1/3 cups white chocolate chips, divided

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a mixing bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, cornstarch, baking soda and salt, set aside. Add butter, shortening and sugar to the bowl of an electric stand mixer and mix on medium speed until very pale and fluffy about 4 minutes. Add egg and egg yolk and mix until combine. Add vinegar, vanilla and food coloring and mix until well blended. Slowly add in dry ingredients and mix just until combine. Mix in 1/2 cup white chocolate chips. Scoop dough out by the heaping tablespoonfuls (about 1 1/2 Tbsp) and roll into balls and place on buttered or Silpat lined cookie sheets. Gently press about 6 white chocolate chips into the top of each cookie, being careful not to flatten the cookies (if you do flatten them a bit just reshape them to the height they had before adding the chips) and bake in preheated oven 8 - 9 minutes. Allow to cool several minutes on baking sheet before transferring to a wire rack to cool. Store cookies in an airtight container.

*If you want a more chocolaty cookie you could replace 1 - 2 Tbsp flour with an additional 1 -2 Tbsp cocoa, the red just won't be quite as vibrant. Or, you could replace the white chocolate chips with chocolate chips.

**Note: this recipe has been completely revised as of 9/7/12 due to comments stating cookies are flat and not red enough. I myself thought them to be flat. This recipe completely eliminates both of those issues. These are thick, vibrantly red and completely delicious (they better be, these were my 4th batch. Fourth times a charm right =).

***Anyone wanting the original recipe I posted back in August, I finally found it thanks to Break It, Make It, or Bake it, thanks Audrey! She posted it before I had deleted my first version and added in the revised version above. To be honest I like the ones below best I just got a few complaints that they were flat and not red enough so I added the recipe above in hopes of solving the issue for the complaints. The recipe below is also the ones that are pictured:

{My Original} Red Velvet White Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 Tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp cornstarch
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp distilled white vinegar
1 large egg
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsp red food coloring
3/4 cup white chocolate chips, divided

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a mixing bowl whisk together flour, cocoa powder, cornstarch, baking powder and salt, set aside.
In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, whip together butter, sugar and vinegar until pale and fluffy, about 3 - 4 minutes. Mix in egg. Add in vanilla and red food coloring and mix until blended. With mixer set on low speed, slowly add in dry ingredients and mix just until combine. Mix in white chocolate chips (note: I mixed in half of the white chocolate chips then set aside the other half to press into the tops of the rolled dough balls so more of them show through when baking...but I just noticed over at Gonna Want Seconds that she just pressed some extra white chocolate chips into the tops of cookies AFTER baking, genius!). Scoop dough out by the heaping tablespoonfuls and shape into balls. Transfer to Silat or parchment paper lined baking sheets and bake in preheated oven 9 - 11 minutes. Allow to cool on cookie sheet before transferring to a wire rack to cool. Store cookies in an airtight container. 

Recipe Source: Cooking Classy

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Sprinkles Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting Copycat Recipe

If you've ever tried a Sprinkles Red Velvet Cupcake then I have the feeling you are really going to love this post. My family is obsessed with Sprinkles Cupcakes. Their Red Velvet Cupcake is simply irresistible. It is one cupcake that is truly hard to compete with, but I was definitely up for the challenge. On my recent vacation to Southern California I was sure to stop by Sprinkles in Newport Beach so I could refresh my memory on just exactly what that rich, sweet and even velvety cupcake tasted like so I could come home and create my own Sprinkles Red Velvet Cupcake Copycat recipe. I LOVE making copycat recipes at home. It gives me such a fun challenge in the kitchen. Everyone who tried these cupcakes said they tasted just like Sprinkles! If you don't believe them, try for yourself. These are without a doubt melt in your mouth amazing! Not low fat by any means but worth it, I loaded the butter in these babies (just like I assume Sprinkles does). Enjoy and share (if you wish =)!

Sprinkles Red Velvet Cupcakes 
Yields 15 insanely delicious cupcakes

Ingredients:
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
3 Tbsp cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup salted butter, firm but not cold*
1 cup + 2 Tbsp granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 Tbsp red food coloring
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup whole milk
1 tsp distilled white vinegar
1 recipe Cream Cheese Frosting, recipe follows

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a mixing bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder and baking soda, set aside. In a separate large mixing bowl, with an electric hand mixer on medium speed, whip together butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes. Add in eggs one at a time stirring after each addition. (Now stand back and change out of any nice shirt you have on and) Add red food coloring and vanilla extract and mix until combine. In a small mixing bowl (or in the measuring cup you used to measure milk), combine milk and 1 tsp vinegar. Add milk mixture and flour mixture to cupcake mixture, alternating in two separate batches, mixing until combine after each addition. Divide batter evenly among 15 paper lined muffin cups, filling each cup about 2/3 full. Bake in preheated oven 18-21 minutes until toothpick inserted into center of cupcake comes out clean. Remove from oven and allow to cool about 2 minutes in muffin tin, then transfer to wire rack to cool for 10 minutes, then transfer to an airtight container to cool completely (this just helps them retain more moisture). Once cooled completely, spread generously with Cream Cheese Frosting (just as sprinkles does, lots of frosting!).

*I warmed the butter in the microwave for about 9-10 seconds on HIGH power in a small microwave safe bowl, basically you don't want it softened but not cold either. Just in between the two. Also, alternately you could use unsalted butter and add 1/4 tsp salt to the recipe. I just always keep salted butter on hand so I wanted the recipe to use salted. So if you use salted you don't need to add any salt to the recipe.

Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients:
1/2 cup salted butter, firm but not cold (if using unsalted add 1/8 tsp salt)
6 oz cream cheese, cold (I recommend using Philadelphia brand in this recipe)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
Red and blue food coloring, for decor (optional)

Directions:
In a large mixing bowl, using and electric mixer, whip together butter and cream cheese until pale and fluffy (about 1 minute on high speed, then 3-4 minutes on medium high speed). Mix in vanilla extract. Add powdered sugar and beat until smooth. If doing optional infamous Sprinkles Cupcakes dot on top then scoop out a few tablespoons frosting into two separate bowls and tint with food coloring (lots of red in the one and barely any blue in the other). Spread a small circle of red on top followed by a small light blue, use a toothpick to spread if needed (it helped me get a more circular shape around the edges with its finer point).

Recipe Source: Cooking Classy

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