Red velvet cookies

It’s been at least 24 hours since I last baked a cookie, so I was coming out in something of a cold sweat!

I’ve been wanting to try a red velvet cookie ever since I saw one in a shop window and they just looked spectacular!  I had a spare pot of my faithful red velvet food colouring (Sugarflair Christmas Red for anyone who can get hold of it) which I always use when making red velvet cupcakes, so decided on a little experimentation.

This was my first attempt and as something of a cookie connoisseur (well, at least I eat a lot of cookies) I was confident enough that I could juggle another cookie recipe with a few tweaks.

That’s exactly what I did for these and they worked out perfectly!  Honestly, I don’t think I’ll be making any changes to this.  Having toyed with butter, oil and vegetable shortening mixes recently, I’d decided to mix oil and Trex as my preference and this gave a lovely soft, chewy cookie.  Not only that, but it tasted perfectly fresh the next day too, without any of the usual crispening or drying out!

I got 16 cookies out of this mixture (8 per baking tray).

Ingredients

• 3½ ounces / 100g plain flour
• 3½ ounces / 100g bread flour
• 1 ounce / 25g cocoa
• 1 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
• ¼ teaspoon of salt
• 1¾ ounces / 50g coconut oil
• 1½ ounces / 45g Trex
• 5¼ ounces / 150g Light soft brown sugar¾
• 1¾ ounces / 50g caster sugar
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
• 1 pot of Sugarflair Christmas Red
• 8¾ ounces / 250g dark chocolate chunks

Method

Line two baking trays with parchment.

Sift the flours, cocoa, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a bowl.

Meanwhile, in a freestanding mixer with the paddle attachment, cream your oil, Trex and sugars until light and fluffy.

Add the egg and vanilla and mix until combined.

Add the food colouring and continue to mix until the colouring is fully integrated into your mix.

Pour in the dry ingredients and mix on a slow speed until you have a smooth dough.

Add the chocolate and fold in with a large metal spoon by hand.

Transfer the dough to the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180°C / 356°F  (160°C / 320°F).

Remove the mixture from the fridge, roll into 16 equal sized balls and divide between the baking trays.  These keep their shape quite well and don’t spread out too much.

Press each down slightly so they become fat patties and then put in the oven for 12 minutes.

Remove and transfer to a wire rack to cool.