Perfect Red Velvet Crinkle Cookies are easy to make in 1 bowl! With fudgy red centers and a hint of cocoa, it’s hard to stop at just one!

These stunning vegan cookies have all the flavors of red velvet cake but in cookie form. Coated with both granulated sugar and powdered sugar causes beautiful crinkles to form when baking.

Often, impressive cookies are more difficult and time consuming to make, but this recipe is super simple. You can make the dough in one bowl and there is no chilling required.

Whether you’re making them for Valentine’s Day, Christmas or just a lazy Saturday, everyone will fall in love with these red velvet crinkle cookies!

Tips for success

  • Measure flour correctly – I use the spoon and level method. Spoon flour from container into a measuring cup, then level it off with a knife, without shaking or patting down the flour.
  • Red food coloring – Use actual red food coloring, not a natural version like beet powder, for the prettiest results. Scroll down for vegan options.
  • Natural cocoa powder – While you could use dutch processed cocoa powder, it will result in darker cookies, so they won’t look exactly like mine.
  • Bake in the center rack – Unless you have a convection oven that bakes evenly throughout, bake one cookie sheet at a time, in the center rack of your oven. Baking two sheets at a time rarely works out well.

Vegan red food coloring

This can be a little confusing, so I’ve done some research for you! McCormick Culinary Red Food Color is vegan friendly. It’s the only decent product I know of that is in fact, vegan.

If you didn’t know, many red food coloring comes from beetles. However, the one linked to above does not, it contains FD&C Reds 40 and 3, which are not the ones that come from bugs. I know red food coloring is not a health food, but I basically only use it for red velvet cupcakes, cake and perhaps sugar cookies.

Want more impressive cookie recipes?

square image of a red crinkly cookie

Red Velvet Crinkle Cookies

Servings: 18 cookies
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 25 minutes
Author: Nora Taylor
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Perfect Red Velvet Crinkle Cookies are easy to make in 1 bowl! With fudgy red centers and a hint of cocoa, it's hard to stop at just one!
5 stars (9 ratings)
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Ingredients 

For the cookies

For rolling

US Customary – Metric

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
  • In a large bowl, add the melted vegan butter and sugar. Stir with a wooden spoon until well combined and smooth. Add the ground flax seeds, soy milk, vanilla and red food coloring. Stir or whisk well to combine.
  • Sift in the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt using either a sifter or fine mesh strainer. Stir until combined with the wet ingredients and a soft dough is formed. 
  • Fill one small bowl with the granulated sugar and another with the powdered sugar. Using a cookie scoop (or spoon), scoop 1 1/2 tablespoon sized balls of dough. Roll the ball in the granulated sugar first, then in the powdered sugar very generously, covering all sides. The more powdered sugar, the prettier the cookies will be.
  • Place the balls onto the prepared baking sheet, about 2 inches apart so they have room to spread.
  • Bake in the center rack of the oven for 11-13 minutes until set and cracks have formed. They will appear slightly undercooked and soft, but will firm up as they cool.
  • Cool on the baking sheet for at least 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack. Store any extra cookies in an airtight container for 4-5 days. They can also be frozen. Enjoy!

Notes

  1. This red food coloring is vegan friendly and I highly recommend it! If you want to use something more natural, you could try beetroot powder, but the results won’t look the same and you will likely need to use much more.
  2. May substitute almond/cashew/coconut/oat milk for the soy milk if needed.

Nutrition

Serving: 1cookie, Calories: 132kcal, Carbohydrates: 26g, Protein: 2g, Fat: 3g, Saturated Fat: 1g, Trans Fat: 1g, Sodium: 60mg, Potassium: 62mg, Fiber: 1g, Sugar: 17g, Vitamin A: 158IU, Vitamin C: 1mg, Calcium: 20mg, Iron: 1mg

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