Red Velvet Black and White Cookies
Ok, you might need to sit down for this one. This is going to be good. I don’t know where to start with these cookies. Red Velvet Black and White Cookies- they brilliantly combine the tradition of black and white cookies with the near religion that is red velvet cake. The cookie is soft, moist and cakey, and the frosting… shut up! They were SO incredibly good… and this is coming from me… I practically eat cookies for a living!
When it comes to Black and White Cookies, I think I have a problem. They are absolutely my favorite cookie in the world. I like Black and White Cookies more than I like…. I dunno: puppies. Yea, and who doesn’t like puppies!? So it’s pretty serious.
I can’t take credit for the cleverness of this delicious cookie. The idea is from Rachel Ray. I know… she seems to be everywhere these days, even a dog food cooking show. Crazy.
Onto the cookie.
Seriously. Please understand me when I say that YOU MUST MAKE THESE COOKIES! They’re brilliant! They’ll instantly make you more popular (if you share) and they’ll reduce the fine lines and puffiness under your eyes (if you use them like spa cucumber slices). I wouldn’t lie to you. Go. Make!
Red Velvet Black and White Cookies
recipe by RayRay
makes 10 large cookies
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 Tablespoon cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
5 Tablespoons butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 Tablespoon red food coloring
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup buttermilk
For Vanilla Glaze
2 cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-2 tablespoons hot water
For Chocolate Glaze
4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate
3 Tablespoons butter
1 Tablespoon light corn syrup
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper, or grease and flour the pan well so the cookies don’t stick. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt.
Using a mixer, 5 Tablespoons of butter with the granulated sugar until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in the egg, food coloring and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk until smooth.
Place 1/4-cup scoops of batter 2 inches apart of the prepared baking sheet, spread the batter out with a butter knife, so they’re not completely flat but look like the pictures below. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out dry, 12 to 15 minutes. Let the cookies sit for 5 minutes, then transfer to a rack to cool.
To make the glazes-
In a bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract, 1 tablespoon of corn syrup and 2 tablespoons hot water, until smooth. That’s your vanilla glaze.
In a seperate bowl, melt the butter and the chocolate in a microwave for about 1 minute. Add the corn syrup and stir until smooth. That’s your chocolate glaze!
Once the cookies are cooled, face them all bottom side up of a clean surface. Spread half of the cookie with vanilla glaze and the other half with chocolate glaze. Refrigerate for 20 minutes to set. And…Yum!
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I love these cookies. My mom found your site from TipNut and I had to make these cookies when she showed them to me. I’m obsessed with other things you have listed, but one thing at a time.
I was confused, also, by the recipe. It says 1 stick of butter, but the instructions say 5 Tablespoons of butter… so I had to read your comments to get the skinny on what to do.
My family loved them!
I wasn’t expecting them to be so big, so I may make smaller cookies next time. But, I’m in love. *swoon*
These look amazing! I think I’ve found just the cookie to get me out of my non-baking rut. Look to the cookie! :-)
OH THESE LOOK SOOOOOOOOOO good. Thank you very much for this recipe. These will surely be made very often in my house. I LOVE Red Velvet cake but these look so much quicker to make and much easier to send with hubby in his lunches. YUM!
I just made the batter and put it in the oven, they all completely flattened out and ran together, im a pretty seasoned baker so this was a waste of ingredients for me….
jennifer- i’m sorry the cookies didn’t work out for you! i know how frustrating that is. i haven’t made these cookies in a few months. i’ll give them a go tomorrow to make sure the recipe still holds up. again… sorry!
Joy – love your blog! Amazing recipes. I made this recipe and although it tasted great, it looked like the dog’s breakfast. Can you specify how wide to spread out the cookies and how many cookies this recipe will yield?
Also, I used parchment (my foolproof always reliable parchment) and they stuck to the paper…
I loved the idea of these cookies but sadly i just made them and they puffed up like a cake and not so much like the pictures you showed I mut have done something wrong but they are very good even when they are cupcake style.
Hey all! It seemed like some of you were running into trouble when making this recipe! I’m so sorry. Nothing is worse that putting a bunch of time and energy into something and then having it come out all crazy.
I made the cookies myself, twice, this weekend. I realized that I had too much butter in the cookie recipe. The stick of butter I had previously posted was too much. Yikes! I’m so sorry! The cookie recipe only requires 5 Tablespoons of butter, NOT 8 Tablespoons.
I used a 1/4-cup measuring cup to scoop the cookies onto a greased and floured pan (I skipped the parchment) and spread them so they were roughly 2 1/2 to 3-inch circles. Going along that way, the recipe should yield 8-10 big old cookies.
Hope this helps!
Best. Cookies. Ever. After I got the vanilla glaze to be glazey, all was well. However, the cookies seemed to be pretty huge, so maybe next time I’ll scoop a little bit less.
I just finished making these cookies, and for some reason the chocolate glaze had this funky texture… Was it because of the butter&chocolate? Also, how can I get the vanilla glaze to have more flavor than just … sugar?
Otherwise I think the cookie part turned out well :)
I made these for our family for Christmas. Everyone loved them! So pretty! Since there seemed to be a controversy about the ingredients I went to RR’s website to look at the recipe. The confusion occurred because her site says you need 8 T butter, but it should spell out early on 8 T butter, divided. 5T are for the cookie batter & the other 3T are for the chocolate glaze. I didn’t know if others spreading issue was because of excess butter or because of batter temperature. I always chill cookie dough first for cookies I don’t want spreading, so I chilled this for about 30 minutes, then spread out some dough with a knife to 3 inch circles. Baked them on a Baker’s Joy sprayed baking sheet. They were perfect. My vanilla glaze didn’t work so well. I had to add milk to make it work. I may have done something wrong. I’ll try again sometime using your recipe.
Thanks very much! You have a wonderful blog!!!!!
Hi Joy,
I just finished making these cookies tonight. The red velvet cookie is so delicious. But for some reason my vanilla glaze and chocolate glaze are so sweet that it really over-powers the cookie. I checked and i did follow the recipe as written. Is there any way to make a lighter (less sweet) glaze? Thank you!!
Hi Joy- Per my earlier post. I now know why my white icing was WAY too sweet. In the ingredients list the white glaze calls for 1 teaspoon of corn syrup. But later on in the methodology to make the glaze it says mix 1 TABLESPOON corn syrup- which is what I did. So I’m thinking it should have been only 1 teaspoon- is that correct? Thank you!
Hi linda. Sorry for the confusion. Yes, 1 teaspoon is the way to to, especially since you don’t like the glaze overly sweet. Thanks! I’ll fix that shortly!
I love this idea!! My daughter is turning 15 this weekend and we are having a Twilight party for her. These cookies are perfect for that. They are the exact color that I need!! Thanks for posting this recipe!!
Actually, rachel ray is from upstate new york i think?
which is where im from, and we are known for our “halfmoons”
they are almost like black and white cookies
except the bottom is like chocolate cake, and the “glaze” is more like a frosting. they’re delicious!
http://k53.pbase.com/o4/89/683489/1/72341080.NAz2pPaI.Halfmoon_cookiecopy.jpg
thats the best picture i could find!
but these look delicious as well, im going to try them as soon as i get a chance!
I made these for a housewarming, and everyone FREAKED out. Thanks for sharing! :)
Well, I had never tried red velvet cake OR black and white cookies before nor had I been tempted. The pictures and descriptions in this blog finally tempted me to try both. Unfortunately, they are just not my cup of tea, though they did come out pretty and were fun to make. Making the vanilla glaze, though, there was no way that I was going to be able to incorporate 2 cups of powdered sugar into just 3tbsp of liquid. About a cup and 1/8 was all that I used in the end. Perhaps I tried to incorporate too much sugar at one on the first try? Also, the R. Ray recipe does call for 1tbsp of corn syrup in that glaze, not 1tsp.
I made my first Joy The Baker recipe- these turned out great! The cookies were a little big for my taste- so I made smaller ones. Also, made a double bath. Some of them fell apart a little but since I made so much there are plenty to work with! Especially in the smaller size. Thanks for the great recipe!
I made these last night & made 2 batches! They came out FANTASTIC & it was worth being up until 1 a.m. making them (didn’t start until 10 and watched a show or two while they cooled). I tweaked the recipe a bit, only because I find many times red velvet doesn’t not have enough of a chocolate taste when that chocolate taste is what makes it so special…SO, I added an extra tbsp of cocoa powder (I used Ghiradelli) to each batch for a total of 2 tbsp per batch. Also, I don’t think that red velvet is true red velvet without cream cheese frosting, so I took a risk and added about half of a container of cream cheese (8 oz container) to the mixture of confectioners sugar, corn syrup & hot water…it really mixed together nicely & the cream cheese frosting had the perfect flavor, wasn’t too sweet & hardned perfectly on the cookies!
Oh my I just stumpled across this site on google.. YES!! Im excited to say the least. And reading about these cookies the first thing that came to mind is that I would make them with Cream cheese.. :) So glad to hear someone tried it and it was good.. Here I go.. Im making them in 5…4…3…2
Hi Joy,
Another one stumbling onto your blog through my subscription to tipnut. I would love to subscribe to yours also but couldn’t find the link to do so.
These cookies have got to be the most amazing thing since ….. I hope all the bugs are worked out with the recipe as I am going to have to make these for our church dinner on Sunday for a big surprise. I have never seen so many people in one place that perfer red velvet cake over other kinds. You have certainly made my day with finding your recipe. it sounds like you are a top notch baker and I would love to try more of your recipes. Thanks and Best Wishes, Alice
Hi!! i’m going to make these tomorrow to gift them to a friend. How well do this go stacked, or pilled in a plate? Will the frosting smear all over other cookies if they are kind of over each other???
Thanks!!
yummy!!! that looks delicious I love the fact that you took the time to guide us through all the process of making this really nice lookin cookies… I will try your resepie just so you know I do give you credit for this cookies… your great!!!
This recipe is GENIUS! black and white cookies alone are amazing, red velvet cake is heaven, a fusion of both…NIRVANA!!!!
Hey Joy! Longtime reader of your blog, but I think this is actually the first time I’ve made a recipe that I found through you! These cookies are divine. Been meaning to make them forever, and so glad I finally had an occasion, so thanks! I’m always baffled by RR recipes though, the many I’ve made almost always take WAYYY longer than 30 minutes. Hmm.
I made these and mailed them to a friend for her birthday! They were fantastic! Except the vanilla icing absolutely would not stop being a thick gunky mess. Booo. I made a different one with powdered sugar, butter, and milk and life was good again. Thanks for the idea!
I can’t wait to try these for a Christmas exchange I’m having. I use a Silpat baking mat most of the time, would that work for these cookies?
Thanks!
Melissa
The first recipe of yours I’ve tried out! I did these red velvet cookies, but minus the red :) (didn’t have food colouring). I treated my coworkers to a fresh batch, and we were wonderfully on sugar highs for a meeting that afternoon. Delicious!
‘Made these and they’re really tasty! I have enough leftover ingredients to make another batch…but it would be nice to have a vanilla glaze that didn’t just taste like pure sugar.
I am absolutely going to make these nest week for a family celebration! We are having a themed night with lots of playing cards, and I plan to make make card suit- shaped cookies with the cookie cutters I found. How would you advise that I go about shaping these into my heart and diamond cutters? From the looks of it, I’m assuming this is not a recipe that I can lay the dough flat and just cut out shapes… Any advice? I would really love to make these! My only other idea so far was to make a sturdier, classic sugar cookie recipe, use red food dye, and cut accordingly. Thoughts? Thank you so much :)
hi kayla.
i think you should definitely stick with a classic, rolled sugar cookie recipe with red dye in it. and try to find a gel red die as it’s stronger than the grocery store liquids.
sugar cookies are the way to go. happy baking!
Hi! Late response, but for anyone else reading through the comments looking for tips like I am at two in the morning….
I was just thinking it might work to set the cookie cutters down on your greased, papered, etc. baking sheet and then pour the batter in through the top (that is, if your cutters are open at the top). Hopefully, if the batter is thick enough, the shapes will hold. Hopefully. :)
Absolutely love this blog, by the way!
Ugh, I’m kicking myself for not reading through *all* the comments before baking these cookies (I read a few and couldn’t wait any longer! I had to try them!). I followed the instructions that said to add 1 tablespoon of corn syrup to the vanilla glaze (should have been 1 teaspoon). I realized the mistake after trying a finished cookie and realizing that the vanilla glaze was WAAAAY too sweet. Joy, I beg you to please fix the recipe before another person makes the same mistake! The amount is right in the ingredient list, but not in the actual recipe instructions. Very disappointing.
Has this recipe been corrected? I’m excited to give this a try! It sounds yummy!
I made these cookies to take to a Christmas cookie exchange party. Of course around Christmas thing are busy, so I had just enough time scheduled to make these in between everything going on. I followed the recipe exactly. I didn’t even get to the glaze step because the cookies themselves were so bad I just threw them all away. My husband, who will eat anything, told me I should not serve those to people. Do not waste your time on this recipe like I did.
i know how crazy this time of year is… i’m so sorry you had a bad experience with this recipe.
joy, thank you, you’re amazing! I basically owe my entire baking obsession to you, because you’re adorableness and gorgeous pictures (and love appreciation of chocolate) just make me want to make everything you post!
just made these.
they’re amazing.
no surprise there.
I LOVE these cookies! They’re so gorgeous and so delicious! Made 5 batches this Christmas season.
Learned alot in the process. Light corn syrup and dark chocolate will help keep the frosting less sweet. Also, I only needed to make 1/2 the recipe of frosting to cover all the cookies. Letting the cookies cool on the cookie sheet kept the bottoms smooth, making them easier to frost. When adding corn syrup to the melted chocolate, if it “curdles” just add melted butter to make it smooth again. I tried several times to alter the recipe to make them crispy or chewey. No luck. So just accepted they are an indeed a “cakey” but yummy cookie!