Red Velvet Heart Cookies

Red Velvet Heart Cookies

Red Velvet Heart Cookies

I wanted to bake cookies and tint them red but without all the red food color. I found Lorann Professional Kitchen Red Velvet Bakery Emulsion and was so happy when I saw it used in this recipe from The Adventures of Sweet Sugarbelle. I made heart shape cookies using various heart cutters in different sizes. The texture of the cookie is chewy almost cake like, and tastes like red velvet in cookie form from the emulsion, vinegar and buttermilk powder. I share the recipe below.

Red Velvet Polka Dot Heart Cookies

Yield: 3 dozen 3 1/2 inch cookies

Ingredients
1 cup (2 sticks) Unsalted Butter, softened and each stick cut into 8 cubes

1 Extra Large Egg

3 tablespoons Milk

2 teaspoons Pure Vanilla Extract

1 tablespoon Lorann Professional Kitchen Red Velvet Bakery Emulsion

½ teaspoon Apple Cider Vinegar

2 cups Powdered/Confectioners' Sugar

½ cup Cocoa Powder

3 1/4 cups All Purpose Flour

1/4 cup Saco Cultured Buttermilk Powder

2 teaspoons Baking Powder

½ teaspoon Coarse Salt

Red Velvet Emulsion and Buttermilk Powder

Directions
Cut each stick of butter into 8 pieces.

Sift flour, cocoa powder, buttermilk powder, baking powder and salt in large bowl and combine with whisk or spatula; put aside.

Cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl of an electric mixer with paddle attachment on low to medium speed. Mix until incorporated, about 1-2 minutes.

Scrape sides of bowl with spatula and mix again for 5-10 seconds more.

Add egg and mix until incorporated. Scrape down bowl with spatula and mix again for another 10 seconds.

Add vanilla extract, red velvet emulsion, and milk and mix for 1 minute.

Slowly add flour mixture and mix on low speed for 1-2 minutes.

Add vinegar.

Continue to mix until dough clumps around paddle attachment.

Form dough into a ball, cover with plastic wrap, and cool in fridge for 1-2 hours or overnight.

Red-Red Velvet Heart Cookies

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Take 1/4 of the dough, use rolling pin and roll out between 2 pieces of parchment paper to desired thickness and cut out shapes. I used various Heart shape cutters. Mix a little cocoa powder with flour to lightly coat the cutters. Repeat rolling the dough and cutting shapes until you have used it all.

Place cookie shapes on parchment lined baking sheet and space apart 2 inches. Put cookies in the freezer for 10 minutes before baking. They hold their shape when you do this.

Bake cookies for 9-11 minutes, or until center of cookie no longer looks wet. My cookies baked in 11 minutes.

Let cookies cool in baking sheet for 5 minutes and transfer to wire rack to cool completely, about 1 hour.

Let cookie sheets cool completely before you bake again. I put the cookie sheet in the freezer for 5 minutes. Repeat until you have baked all the cookies.

Turquoise-Red Velvet Heart Cookies

Large Batch Royal Icing
Ingredients
8 Egg Whites

8 teaspoons Lemon Juice, freshly squeezed

12 cups Powdered/Confectioners' Sugar, sifted

Directions
In a medium size bowl, whisk together the egg whites and lemon juice.

Transfer to stand or hand held mixer with paddle attachment and mix on high for 1-2 minutes.

With mixer speed on low, slowly add sifted sugar and beat on low until smooth.

If needed, you may add 1 teaspoon of water at a time until you reach the right consistency. Watch the Joy of Baking (link at the end) video for both Flooding Consistency and Piping Consistency Royal Icing. If you prefer a recipe using Meringue Powder, it is also available at this link.

White-Red Velvet Heart Cookies

I separated the icing in plastic containers with lids according to the different colors I needed for tinting.

I used Americolor Soft Gel Paste Food Color in Super White, Super Red, Fuschia, and Turquoise. I wanted the white bright, so added two drops of Super White.

Keep the containers covered until you are ready to color. Royal Icing hardens fast so keep it covered when not in use.

I transferred the icing immediately into Squeeze Bottles using a funnel to prevent it from spilling. Keep the squeeze bottle tips covered. If the Royal Icing hardens due to exposure to air, spray a little bit of water and shake bottle well holding the tip with your finger. Test the icing consistency on a paper towel before decorating the cookie.

Use a paintbrush or cookie stick to reach edges and use tip of cookie stick or a toothpick to pop any air bubbles.

I lined a cookie sheet with paper towels and placed the cookies on cooling tray over it.

I did the outlines first and waited about 15 minutes and then filled the cookies.

Pink-Red Velvet Heart Cookies

I used the following for decoration:
Wilton Valentine Mix Sprinkles
Wilton White Sparkling Sugar
Wilton Blue Sugar
Wilton Blue Sugar Pearls
Wilton White Sugar Pearls
Wilton Nonpareils
Silver Dragees
Celebration Sixlets Blue Candy Coated Chocolate

For further information:
For the Red Velvet Roll-Outs recipe, please visit The Adventures of Sweet Sugarbelle: http://www.sweetsugarbelle.com/2012/02/red-velvet-roll-outs-recipe/

For the Royal Icing recipe and video tutorial, please visit:
http://www.joyofbaking.com/RoyalIcing.html

Enjoy!

-Sophia/Two Frys