The other day I was getting ready to head over to my friend Jill’s house to watch a movie.  She’s a huge fan of cookies and red velvet, so I figured I should whip something up before I headed over (to eat cookies).  Since Valentine’s Day is quickly approaching, I wanted to try my hand at something a little festive and appropriate for the holiday.  These little guys fit the bill.  I took them over, still warm from the oven, and they were quickly and repeatedly snacked on.  Nothing beats good red velvet, right?

So, before you make this recipe, there are a few things you should know.  Some things that I may have had a few issues with.  But the end result turned out so good that I had to share them with you.

The cookie dough is VERY thick, so if you don’t happen to have an electric or (preferably) standing mixer, I would give these a pass.  The dough would probably be way too tough to combine by hand.  As far as the red food coloring goes, I used the standard Wilton red food coloring gel….but I had to use an awful lot of it (almost the entire larger vial) to get the cookies to turn a red shade.  Perhaps a liquid food coloring would work better with this recipe in the future (it might also help with the thickness of the cookie dough, too.)  When you are ready to bake them, flatten them down a little with your fingers or the back of a spoon-they are very cake-like and won’t flatten out like regular (less delicious) cookies.

The fact that Jill continues to talk about how delicious these cookies over a week later says a lot.  That’s music to my ears.

Red Velvet White Chocolate Chip Cookies

Servings: approximately 20 cookies

Ingredients

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup cocoa powder

Red food coloring liquid or gel

1/2 cup white chocolate chips

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside.

2. In the bowl of your standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and both sugars on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.

3. Add the food coloring gel or liquid until you reach the desired color.

4. Reduce the mixer speed to medium-low and add the egg and vanilla, mixing well until combined.

5. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder, mixing until thoroughly combined.**I had to add  more food coloring gel at this point because the addition of the cocoa powder really changed the color.

6. Using a rubber spatula, gently fold in the white chocolate chips until incorporated.

7. Using a cookie dough scoop or a tablespoon, drop the dough into mounds about two inches apart from one another.  Lightly flatten each cookie dough mound with your fingers or the back of a spoon.

8. Bake until slightly golden and crisp around the edges, about 10-12 minutes.  Enjoy.

Source: Barely adapted from How Sweet It Is.

Happy October!

My favorite month of the entire year is here-consisting of things like my birthday (I celebrate the whole month….), Halloween (one of my favorite holidays), changing colors of the leaves, football games, and fall-inspired food, of course.  I have a lot of fun things planned for the blog this month, including some little public service announcements and awareness for a few causes on top of some great recipes.  This is a celebratory month for me.

Speaking of celebratory, these cupcakes were for my new friend, Mari Paz’s, birthday.  Mari Paz and I are extremely similar.  We’re both libras, both left-handed, both the second daughter in a line of daughter-daughter-daughter-son families, and we are both in the medical field (geographically, though, we are from different parts of the world: Mari Paz is from Mexico and I am from Indiana…..).  Mari Paz has been so much fun to work with-she always finds the positive side in things and is incredibly hard-working and supportive of her colleagues.  There need to be more people in this world like Mari Paz (the other residents I work with are pretty fantastic, too, I might add…..).  I’ll introduce you to them when their birthdays roll around.

When I asked Mari Paz what choice of cupcake she would like, I was delighted to hear “red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting”.  Ah, a girl after my own heart.  I haven’t posted a red velvet cake recipe (only pink velvet) because I wanted to find *the* red velvet cake recipe.  I was a little overwhelmed with all of the different recipes out there, so I scoured through several before deciding on this one, from King Arthur Flour company.  I chose my go-to cream cheese frosting from Martha Stewart, but I substituted a real vanilla bean for the flavoring.  Nothing beats real vanilla beans, folks.  Except for real vanilla beans in a cream-cheese frosting-topped red velvet cupcake.

Smooth and slightly chocolate-y, these cupcakes were great.  I have found some recipes that have been called “too dry” or “too bland”, but this one was great.  It was mellow and smooth.  But, let’s be honest here.  The frosting is what steals the show on these little treats.

Happy October, everyone!

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Frosting

Servings: 12 cupcakes

Ingredients

For the cupcakes:

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 and 1/3 cups sugar

2 large eggs

Red food coloring gel, to desired tint

3 tablespoons Dutch-process cocoa

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon white vinegar

2 and 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup buttermilk

For the frosting:

8 ounces (1 package) cream cheese, at room temperature

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature

4 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted

1 whole vanilla bean, split lengthwise and seeds removed

Instructions

1. For the cupcakes: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. Line a cupcake pan with the liners of your choice.

3. In the bowl of your standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes or so.

4. Add the eggs, one at a time, until the mixture is smooth.

5. Add the food coloring gel, cocoa, salt, baking soda, and vinegar, mixing until well-combined.

6. Add the flour and buttermilk, alternating with one another, starting and ending with the flour.

7. Evenly divide the cupcake batter between your lined cupcake pans and bake until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean, about 25-30 minutes or so.

8. Remove the cupcakes from the oven and let cool completely before frosting.

9. For the cream cheese frosting: In the bowl of your standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or using a hand mixer-whatever you have), cream the cream cheese and butter together until smooth.

10. Reduce the mixer speed to low and slowly add the confectioners’ sugar until smooth.

11. Add the seeds from the vanilla bean and mix until thoroughly combined.

12. Once the cupcakes have completely cooled, pipe the frosting as desired (I used my Wilton 1M tip) on top of the cupcakes.

Sources:  Cupcakes slightly adapted from King Arthur Flour Company and frosting adapted from Martha Stewart.