Valentine’s Day is just around the corner! If you haven’t yet found a card for your sweetie…well…you may be out of luck (I looked yesterday & it was already slim pickings!). This Hallmark holiday, dedicated to all things love & affection, began with the ancient festival of Lupercalia – a raucous, drunken fertility rite in which Roman men & women paired off. Maybe you’re planning to celebrate like the Romans of old! Or…maybe…instead of a crazy wine-filled bacchanal, you’re celebrating with homemade dinner & dessert. Luckily it’s not too late to whip up a batch of these lovely Inside-Out Red Velvet Cookies. Your beloved is sure to LOVE them! Enjoy!
EDITOR’S NOTE:
I made these the other day…and they spread like crazy in the oven. They turned out flat as a pancake & looked nothing like the beautiful sandwich cookies shown in the pic. If I were to bake these again, I’d try one (or two or three) of the following adjustments:
- Before baking, put the cookie dough in the fridge for a couple of hours. This would harden the butter & make them less likely to spread. Though…if the dough is harder, it might make forming the cookies more difficult.
- The recipe says to beat butter & sugar “until light & fluffy”. But overbeating butter (i.e., adding too much air) can increase spreading. So, I’d revise that to beating only until combined.
- Add a couple of extra T’s of flour. This would thicken the dough…but would take some experimentation to figure out the right ratios.
Good luck! If you find a good solution, please let me know!!
Makes 13 cookies
Ingredients
For Cookie Dough
- 1-1/4 c flour
- 1/4 c unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/2 t baking powder
- 1/2 t salt
- 1/2 c butter, softened
- 1/2 c sugar
- 1/4 c packed brown sugar
- 1 lg egg
- 1 T red food coloring
- 1/4 t vanilla extract
For Cream Cheese Filling
- 6 oz cream cheese, softened
- 1/4 c + 2 T powdered sugar
- Pinch salt
Preheat oven to 350 deg & line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a small bowl, combine cream cheese, powdered sugar & salt. Mix until smooth. Cover with plastic wrap & refrigerate until slightly firm, about 25 min.
In a med bowl, whisk flour, cocoa powder, baking powder & salt. In the bowl of a stand mixer (you can also use a hand mixer), cream butter & both sugars until light & fluffy. Beat in egg, food coloring & vanilla until incorporated. Add flour mixture & mix until just combined.
Scoop heaping tablespoons of cookie dough & roll into 13 even-sized balls. Using your fingertips & palms, flatten each into a 3-1/2” circle roughly 1/4” thick.
Place about 2 t of cream cheese filling in the center of each round, keeping the edges clean. Bring the edges of the dough around the filling & pinch the edges together to seal. Gently roll the filled dough into a ball. Space cookies about 3″ apart on prepared baking sheet.
Bake cookies 15-17 min. Cool completely & enjoy!
Recipe Adapted from & Photo Cred: Best Inside-Out Red Velvet Cookies Recipe – How To Make Red Velvet Cookies
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