Chewy Red Velvet Cookies: Take 2

 So once upon a time I stumbled across a great recipe for chewy chocolate chip cookies. See the recipe here. Back then I did traditional vanilla cookie dough with chocolate chips. But this time I added a little twist to the mix to make red velvet chewy goodness. I have made red velvet ones before but I didn’t think they were red enough; so this time I made sure to use a food colouring PASTE rather than the liquid stuff (Trust me, once you try pastes you’ll never go back). The great thing about making different flavour cookies is that for minimal ‘pimpage’ of the cookie dough, you get drastic results. In this case for red velvet cookies, simply take out 1 oz/ 25g flour and replace with 1 oz / 25g cocoa powder, add red food colouring, ALWAYS compliment with white chocolate chips and you’re sorted.

Anyways here’s the recipe as I have noted down in my recipe folder:

9 oz / 225g plain flour

1 oz / 25 g cocoa powder

7 oz / 170g butter (melted)

8 oz / 200g light brown muscovado sugar

4 oz / 100g caster sugar

½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1 egg & 1 egg yolk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

6 oz / 150g white chocolate chips (though the amount of chocolate one uses is obviously not set in stone…)

*red food colouring (pastes are more expensive but stretch further, but liquid form colourings are also good)

1) Preheat oven to 170°C / Gas 4. Grease and line a baking tray and set aside.

2) In a bowl mix the egg, egg yolk, vanilla extract and sugars together and beat until pale (an electric hand whisk does the best job here). Stir through the melted butter. Sieve in the flour, cocoa powder and bicarbonate of soda until combined. Colour the dough with the red food colouring- how red you want them is really up to you. Fold through the white chocolate chips.

3) Take one tablespoon for each cookie portion and place four on the tray, spaced well apart. Flatten the heaps of dough slightly and bake in the oven for 10-12 mins, until the cookies are visibly set around the edges but still slightly doughy in the middle. Allow to cool slightly on the tray before placing on a wire rack to cool. Repeat with the remaining dough. If you prefer a crunchier cookie, cook for a couple of minutes longer until the cookies are more set.