Red Velvet Kiss Cookies

by Sabrina Snyder

Last Update:

27 Comments

4.38 from 8 votes
36 servings
Cook Time 13 minutes
Total Time 43 minutes
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Red Velvet Kiss Cookies bring all the cozy goodness in a fun little bite, finished with a sweet center. The perfect holiday treat! Try today!

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!

Sabrina’s Red Velvet Kiss Cookies Recipe

Many recipes for red velvet cookies come from red velvet cake mix, but these cookies are from scratch. You can make them in just a few minutes, so don’t let the lack of cake mix in this recipe intimidate you. It’s really easy to put this together. 

Recipe Card

Dinner, then Dessert

Red Velvet Kiss Cookies Recipe

Red Velvet Kiss Cookies bring all the cozy goodness in a fun little bite, finished with a sweet center. The perfect holiday treat! Try today!
Yield 36 servings
Cook Time 13 minutes
Total Time 43 minutes
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Author Sabrina Snyder
someone holding a bright colored dessert with chocolate in the middle
PrintRate

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.

Video

Nutrition

Calories: 187kcal | Carbohydrates: 27g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 8g | Saturated Fat: 5g | Cholesterol: 24mg | Sodium: 54mg | Potassium: 158mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 13g | Vitamin A: 155IU | Calcium: 32mg | Iron: 1.9mg

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About this Recipe

Red Velvet Kiss 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. 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.

Ingredients

  • 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 the best taste. 
  • Cocoa: Unsweetened cocoa powder is a staple that should be found in every pantry. 

How to Store

  • 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 cookies up to 2-3 months with parchment paper between layers, in an airtight container to prevent freezer burn.

Frequent Questions

How do I make my cookies chewy?

Here are a few good tips for keeping homemade cookies chewy: Use a combo of brown sugar and white sugar in your cookie recipe, as we do in this one make the best cookies. Underbake 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.

How do I make sure the cookies are red colored?

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 the best results. Keep in mind it has to be liquid, not a gel-based coloring. 

Why are my Kiss Cookies flat?

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.

How do I measure flour correctly?

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.

Variations

  • Kisses: Use white chocolate Kisses, ones with almonds, or 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. Some premade organic-style red food colorings 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. 

More Yummy Valentine Cookie Recipes

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Photo used in a previous version of this post.

Red Velvet Kiss Cookies Collage
Red Velvet Kiss Cookies on baking sheet
Red Velvet Cookies with Hershey's Kiss Chocolates
Red Velvet Hershey's Kiss Cookies Collage

About the Author: Sabrina Snyder

Sabrina is a professionally trained Private Chef of over 10 years with ServSafe Manager certification in food safety. She creates all the recipes here on Dinner, then Dessert, fueled in no small part by her love for bacon.

Sabrina Snyder is a professionally trained personal and private chef of over 10 years who is the creator and developer of all the recipes on Dinner, then Dessert.

She is also the author of the cookbook Dinner, then Dessert – Satisfying Meals Using Only 3, 5 or 7 Ingredients, published by Harper Collins.

She started Dinner, then Dessert as a business in her office as a lunch service for her coworkers who admired her lunches before going to culinary school and becoming a full time personal chef and private chef.

As a personal chef Sabrina would cook for families one day a week and cook their entire week of dinners. All grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning was done along with instructions on reheating. As a private chef she cooked for private parties and cooked in family homes in the evenings for families on a nightly basis after working as a personal chef during the day.

Sabrina has been certified as a ServSafe Manager since 2007 and was a longstanding member of the USPCA Personal Chef Association including being on the board of the Washington DC Chapter of Chefs in the US Personal Chef Association when they won Chapter of the year.

As a member of the community of food website creators Sabrina Snyder has spoken at many conferences regarding her experiences as a food writer including the Indulge Food Conference, Everything Food Conference, Haven Food Conference and IACP Annual Food Professionals Conference.

Sabrina lives with her family in sunny California.

See more posts by Sabrina

Dinner, then Dessert, Inc. owns the copyright on all images and text and does not allow for its original recipes and pictures to be reproduced anywhere other than at this site unless authorization is given. Read my disclosure and copyright policy. This post may contain affiliate links.

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Comments

    1. It gets sifted in with the dry ingredients. Thanks for catching that, the recipe card has been updated!

      Reply

  4. 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.

    Reply

  5. 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.

    Reply

  6. 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.

    Reply

  7. 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!!

    Reply

  8. They are delicious, but the end result was not a red cookie, the cocoa powder kept the batter chocolate brown.

    Reply

  9. 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.

    Reply

    1. 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.

      Reply

  10. 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.

    Reply

    1. 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.

      Reply

      1. 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!

        Reply