Vanilla Glazed Red Velvet Cream Cheese Cookies

I feel like this post needs to start with an apology.

I mean, first there’s the whole repetitive thing. I know that I posted a red velvet cake recipe last week, so it’s a little soon for another red velvet recipe. And then there’s the whole “being too trendy for my own good thing.” I mean, January is ending, which means that food blogs are about to get overloaded with red velvet in preparation for valentine’s day. So while this post may seem like my desperate attempt at getting ahead of the game, and getting traffic at the same time, I assure you, that isn’t the case.

Let’s blame this post on my brother-in-law.

You see, my brother-in-law hates chocolate. Or so he thinks. Insane. I know. Moving on. So whenever my sister and her family come for a visit, or I visit them, I find myself enormously challenged to come up with non-chocolate desserts. And while some of my favorite and most popular recipes were inspired by this very restriction, I came up with an interesting discovery. If said brother-in-law doesn’t know that an item has chocolate, he’s totally cool with eating it.

Which brings us right back to red velvet. And why I made them this week. I’m going to be spending the weekend at my sister’s, and I, of course, am bringing the dessert. This dessert. Let’s see how he loves it!

No, my brother-in-law doesn’t read this blog. Why do you ask?

Now let’s talk about this recipe. And how it’s so good that I totally won’t apologize for it.

I invented it at 11:30 last night, after being completely unhappy with the results of my google search. All the red velvet cookie recipes that I found were either made from a mix, or they were basically chocolate cookies with red food coloring. I wanted to get the proper red velvet texture, so I made these. And then I decided that topping them with cream cheese would be nice, but why not dump the cream cheese right into the batter? Genius. I know. And then, in an effort to be somewhat less cliche, I opted for a vanilla glaze. Don’t look at me like that. There’s cream cheese in the dough!

Anyway, how successful were these? Well, one coworker said “I just died and went to heaven.” Another was even more enthusiastic. “Let’s both quit our jobs,” he proposed, “and go into the business of selling these together.”

Yep, they’re that good. Now let’s see what my brother-in-law has to say about them.

Red Velvet Cream Cheese Cookies:

Ingredients:

1/4 cup milk or soy milk

1/2 teaspoon white vinegar

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine

8 ounces cream cheese or tofutti cream cheese

1 cup sugar

2/3 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 Tablespoon red food coloring

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 3/4 cups flour

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

In a small bowl, combine the milk and vinegar and set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat together the butter/margarine, cream cheese, sugar and brown sugar until creamy.

By this time, the milk should appear somewhat curdled. Add it to the mixer and beat to combine.

Add the egg, food coloring and vanilla, beating to combine after each addition.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder and baking soda.

With the mixer on a low speed, slowly add the dry ingredient mixture and beat until just combined.

Use a small cookie scoop to drop the dough onto prepared cookie sheets.

Bake at 350 for 8-9 minutes.

Remove from oven and set aside to cool completely before glazing.

Vanilla Glaze:

Skip the glaze if you don’t want the extra step, but it sure is pretty!

Ingredients:

1 cup powdered sugar

1 teaspoon oil

4 teaspoons milk or soy milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions:

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and stir until combined. The consistency should be thick enough for the glaze to hold it’s shape. (Add a bit more powdered sugar, if needed. )

Drizzle glaze over cooled cookies. Use a plastic squirt bottle for an even and neat look.

Enjoy!

Thank you for stopping by! Come back soon- I have something exciting to share with you! -Miriam

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