I’m not much for cake. I’m sure you’ve noticed if you have looked around this website. So red velvet cake is just not something I’m going to make. But if you want to make a red dessert, it’s the go to. But cookies? Cookies are always welcome on my plate or dessert menu. So I give you red velvet m&m cookies.
These red velvet m&m cookies are sort of like a mixture of red velvet cake and chocolate chip cookies. They are chocolatey, chewy and sweet. The red gel food coloring is going to give you this wonderful coloring, but we also roll them in red sanding sugar for extra color, sweetness and a little crunch on the exterior.
Even better, they are no chill so you can have them ready in under an hour! So for a last minute valentines treat that comes right from the heart, these are a big winner.
Red Velvet M&M Cookies Key Ingredients
- Cocoa – Cocoa powder, in this case natural cocoa, helps develop both the color and the classic red velvet taste.
- M&M’s – In lieu of chocolate chunks we are using the holiday m&m candies for lots of red, pink, and white.
- Gel food coloring – Gel food coloring is much more intense color and allows you to use much less of it to get rich and vibrant colors.
Here are some other great recipes to try for Valentine’s Day:
- Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cheesecake
- Heart Shaped Raspberry Rolls
- Easy Valentines Rice Krispies Treats
Ingredients
- ½ cup Unsalted butter softened
- 135 g Light brown sugar ⅔ cup
- 50 g Granulated sugar ¼ cup
- 1 large Egg
- 1 tsp Vanilla
- 2 tbsp Natural cocoa
- ½ tsp Red gel food coloring
- 180 g AP Flour 1½ cup
- ½ tsp Baking soda
- ¾ tsp Sea salt
- 1 cup M&M's
- ⅓ cup Red Sanding Sugar
Instructions
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and preheat your oven to 350°F
- In a small bowl, combine flour, salt and baking soda, whisking together. Set aside
- In a medium-large bowl, combine softened butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar. Beat on medium until combined and lighter in color (about 3 minutes)
- Add egg and vanilla to butter mixture and beat until homogenous.
- Switch to low and add in cocoa powder, and once mixed into the dough add food coloring. I used gel food coloring and approximately ¼-½ tsp. If you are using a regular liquid food coloring you will probably need more. Depending on the brand of food coloring I would start by adding about 4-5 drops, mixing in completely and seeing if you need more.
- Add your flour mix to your wet ingredients and mix until just combined.
- Add your m&m's and mix in using a rubber spatula or spoon.
- Scoop your cookies onto the baking sheet. I used a 2 tbsp cookie scoop. A larger scoop could be used however this will most likely affect bake time and the amount of cookies produced. Leave about 2-3 inches of space between each cookie.
- With your sanding sugar in a small bowl, take one cookie dough scoop and roll into a ball between your palms. Place the cookie dough into the sanding sugar and coat. Place back on the baking sheet.
- Repeat with the rest of the cookie dough.
- Place baking sheet into the oven on the center rack. Bake for 11-12 minutes. Cookies will still be quite soft, let rest on the baking sheet for 3 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack.
- Store cookies in an airtight container. They will keep up to a week but be the freshest the first 3 days.
