Red Velvet Kiss Cookies tastes like red velvet cupcakes in cookie form with a Hershey’s Kiss in the middle, the perfect holiday cookie.
These Red Velvet Kiss Cookies are easy and impressive cookies you’ll enjoy baking like our yummy Molasses Cookies, flavorful Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies and Classic Hershey’s Kiss Cookies. Make all three for the perfect easy Holiday Baking platter!
Red Velvet Cookies are incredibly fun! But while the flavor may seem confusing since it’s a light cocoa flavor with a buttery finish, everyone will love eating these festive cookies. Of course, the red color comes from food coloring.
Many recipes for red velvet cookies come from red velvet cake mix, but these cookies are baked from scratch. You can make them in just a few minutes, so don’t be intimidated by the lack of cake mix in this recipe. It’s really easy to put this together.
If you want to skip the sanding sugar next time, you can also roll the cookies in powdered sugar before baking to make them into crinkle cookies and skip the chocolate candy altogether. You can also use Hershey’s Hugs which are white chocolate and milk chocolate striped kisses.These cookies are naturally the next thing to make after you’ve tried Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese frosting and Red Velvet Cupcakes for Christmas or Valentine’s Day.
How to Make Red Velvet Kiss Cookies
Making these delicious cookies at home is so easy. And because we are not using a premade cookie mixture, the flavor is going to be so much more authentic and wholesome. Let’s check out the process!
- Step One: Whip the butter together with the sugar. As an option, instead of using a stand mixer, you can use a large bowl and hand mixer since you only need to beat butter with sugar and the rest of the ingredients only need to be barely combined.
- Step Two: Sift the dry ingredients into a medium bowl, then mix with egg and coloring. Always sift your dry ingredients when baking and always add it to your recipe on low speed until just mixed in. The less your flour interacts with the cookie dough the less the gluten works to create a tougher dough.
- Step Three: Ball up the dough into portions, roll in sugar, and refrigerate for 20 minutes. Using a cookie scoop ensures all your cookies will be the same size. Make sure to handle the cookie dough a minimal amount before baking, the butter staying cold will keep the cookies thicker, like a pillow.
- Step Four: Bake. Use a good silicone mat/baking mat to prevent the bottoms of the cookies from overcooking.
- Step Five: As soon as the cookies are done baking, immediately press the chocolate Kisses into the cookies. Enjoy after they’ve cooled! Let your cookies cool completely on a wire rack instead of on the baking sheet. Only let them cool on the baking sheet for a couple minutes to firm up before removing them.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Here are a few good tips for keeping homemade cookies chewy: Use a combo of brown sugar and white sugar in your cookie recipe like we do in this one make the best cookies. Under bake by 1-2 minutes if you find your cookies are coming out more crisp than you’d like. If you mix the flour too much in the recipe the cookies can be too dry. Refrigerate your cookie dough to keep the cookies thicker if you find they are baking too thin. And finally, use a good quality baking sheet/cookie sheet.
If your cookies crack when baking your dough was too dry. This means you added too much flour likely from scooping rather than spooning flour into your measure.
Baked Red Velvet goods require a lot of red food coloring to overcome the natural colors in the recipe. The cocoa powder is brown and if not compensated for will keep the cookies brown in color, even with a bit of food coloring. We recommend using a full tablespoon of liquid food coloring for best results. Keep in mind it has to be liquid, not a gel-based coloring.
When your butter gets too warm, your cookies will flatten too quickly in the oven. You need the butter to be softened to cream it well, and the time it spends in the refrigerator gives it some time to firm back up to bake into a thicker cookie. Make sure to allow time for these cookies to cool in the refrigerator properly before baking.
When measuring flour for baking do not put your measuring cup directly into your flour container. This is not an accurate way to measure flour as the scooping packs in more flour than you need. Instead use a clean spoon to spoon flour into your measuring cup, then level it off. Do not use any utensils in measuring ingredients before using them with your flour, this can cause cross contamination in your flour container.
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Key Ingredients in Red Velvet Kiss Cookies
These ingredients are pretty easy to pick up a most major grocery stores.
- Kisses: We use regular Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Kisses in this recipe.
- Sugar: This recipe utilizes both brown and white sugars. You can use granulated sugar as well for the coating.
- Red Color: The red dye has to be liquid based, not gel food coloring. If using one of the beet, pomegranate, or hibiscus based options, double the amount used to ensure the red color comes through.
- Vanilla: Use real vanilla extract for best taste.
- Cocoa: Unsweetened cocoa powder is a staple that should be found in every pantry.
Variations on Red Velvet Kiss Cookies
The flavor from Red Velvet is actually just buttery chocolate. This makes it easy to make a few fun variations on this recipe!
- Kisses: This recipe calls for milk chocolate Hershey Kisses. But you can substitute with white chocolate Kisses, ones with almonds, and even the mint flavored ones for a fun take on the perfect treat!
- Cocoa Powder: There are some brands that offer a white cocoa flavored powder which you can substitute for the brown cocoa powder. This will be especially helpful if using a natural red food coloring agent.
- White on White: Use white cocoa powder and white Kisses for a fun and bright variation.
- Caramel Delight: Use caramel-filled Kisses on top of the cookie for a delectably sweet addition to the classic version.
- Red Coloring: If you want a healthier and/or kosher version of food coloring, you can use the concentrated juice from beets and pomegranates, or the saturated tea of hibiscus as well. They’ll need to be concentrated versions and you’ll need to double the red coloring used if using one of these directly. There are some premade organic-style red food colorings that are great for coloring eggs, but that may not produce the energetic red color needed in these cookies, so be sure to use a heavy hand if utilizing them.
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How to Store Red Velvet Kiss Cookies
- Serve: Since these cookies contain large chocolates make sure they are kept in a cool spot in single layers or the chocolate kisses will get marks on them and melt.
- Store: When storing be sure to store in airtight containers, they will stay fresh for up to one week at room temperature.
- Freeze: Freeze your Red Velvet Kiss Cookies up to 2-3 months with parchment paper between layers, in an airtight container to prevent freezer burn.
Ingredients
- 14 tablespoons unsalted butter , softened, (⅞ cup of butter)
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 cups flour
- 1 cup cocoa powder
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon red liquid food coloring
- 3/4 cup sanding sugar , gold, red, or clear
- 36 Hershey’s Kiss chocolates , unwrapped
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Add to the stand mixer the butter, brown sugar and sugar. Set on medium speed for 1-2 minutes until light and fluffy.
- While the butter is creaming sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a separate bowl.
- Add the eggs, vanilla extract, and red food coloring to your stand mixer for 15 seconds then add in the flour mixture.
- Scoop the cookies with a 1 tablespoon sized cookie scoop and roll in sanding sugar then refrigerate for 20 minutes.
- Bake on a cookie sheet for 11-13 minutes then as soon as they come out of the oven press a Hershey’s Kiss chocolate into the middle of the cookie and allow them to cool on a wire rack.
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Photo used in a previous version of this post.
Good, not great
What do you do with the half a tsp. of salt ?
It gets sifted in with the dry ingredients. Thanks for catching that, the recipe card has been updated!
can we refrigerate the dough overnight?
Your recipe ingredients calls for salt, but you didn’t list salt in your instructions.
I didn’t catch until they were in the oven. It definitely needs salt.
Like many of the others, my cookies we’re not red at all. They tasted good right out of the oven but the leftovers got pretty hard by the next day.
Nice recipe not involving peanut butter! That being said, the amount of cocoa in recipe cancelled out the “red”. This ended up being more of a brownie blossom than red velvet. For my own tastes, I’d cut the cocoa down to at least 1/2 cup or less to allow for the red to be more visible. Either way yummy cookie.
Thanks for the feedback, Deb. I’m glad you enjoyed them.
My dad said it was the best cookie he has ever tried since he’s the red velvet king in our house hold. I can’t wait to try them when we have our family Xmas!!
I take that as a huge compliment, thanks!
They are delicious, but the end result was not a red cookie, the cocoa powder kept the batter chocolate brown.
I’m so glad you enjoyed them. Did you use the liquid red food coloring and sanding sugar?
My cookies came out brown not red and did
Not taste like red velvet . I used gel food coloring… could that have caused them to be all brown and not red? I’m so disappointed.
The liquid food coloring is more concentrated so it will give you more color. Sorry they didn’t live up to the red velvet taste for you.
Unfortunately, while the cookies tasted great, they didn’t come out red at all for me. I didn’t have liquid food coloring, but gel so maybe that’s why.
You really need the liquid food coloring for this recipe. Also, using red sanding sugar will give it an even more color pop. Hope this helps for next time.
So pretty and such a fun idea! These are perfect for summer picnics!
They are a perfect treat for sure!
Hi Sabrina,
I made these cookies today. I have a question, how come my cookies were not as red as shown here? They look more chocolate looking than a bright red!
You can always add a bit more food coloring to get the desired redness you’re looking for.
They are so adorable and delicious! Perfect treats!
Thanks, Toni!
I could eat these every day!
They’re pretty irresistible!
mmmm… these red velvet cookies sound incredible!! I bet they taste amaaaazing!!!
Yep, they sure do!
Pretty and delicious! A killer combo.