Red Velvet Cheesecake Cookies

Red Velvet Cream Cheese Cookies by Cynful Kitchen
Red Velvet and Cream Cheese middles make the perfect quick and easy cookies to bake for Valentine’s Day!

Wait, isn’t Red Velvet so 2011? Maybe, but red is the timeless colour for fiery passion. It is perfect for a) Canada Day and more relevantly, b) Valentine’s Day. I would want to include Lunar New Year as well since red is an auspicious colour, but that’s probably stretching it! 🙂

Easy? Check. Unlike sugar cookies, there is no need to worry about how much chocolate chip cookies spreading.
Delicious? Chewy, Soft, Rich and Delicious like sandwiched cheesecake, but it is not too sweet. Check! (Taste-tested and approved by my hubby)
Fancy? Making drop (chocolate chip) cookies fancy – check!

Preheat oven to 350 F. I baked mine around 370 F at 8 to 9 minutes per cookie.

All you need is a mixer, a spatula, a bowl & a small heart-shaped cookie cutter.
Red Velvet White Chocolate Cream Cheese Heart Cookies
I have used a 2 inch heart-shaped cutter; it was part of a purchased find on Instagram from whatweleftbehind.com – the remaining of her mother’s cookie cutter collection; the email conversation went like this, when I had asked for a quote of the items that I liked, “You like to bake. My mother loved to bake..” Then, the rest depended on the postman. So much history was in that box! (I am very grateful for the contents in the box — a treasured collection of vintage cookie cutters that must have made so many birthdays, Valentine’s Day, Easter and Christmas memories.) I’m a sucker for many vintage kitchen items. My kitchen is haphazardly anachronistic – the KitchenAid mixer, vintage dishes handed down from both Mr. M and my mom, along with practical vintage kitchen tools and gadgets.

February is also Heart Month. Two uncles survived, but my father didn’t make it on his second battle. In fact, when I was revisiting my Red Velvet Chocolate Chip recipe to update photos, it was a sad realization that it was 5 days before we lost him and I didn’t even have the chance to say goodbye. The dire reality is that there aren’t many heart & stroke foundations outside of North America and that timely specialists’ care is rare/inaccessible. So, I encourage everyone to make a difference – be it supporting your local Heart & Stroke foundations or be an advocate for positive change or take a First Aid course.

Playful Cream Cheese Frosting & Red Velvet Cookie Shot

However, a cookie that my dad would have enjoyed nonetheless! He called cookies ‘biscuits’.

Red Velvet Cream Cheese Hearts, complemented by white chocolate chips
Red Velvet Cream Cheese Hearts

And what are Red Velvet treats without ANY cream cheese? A tragedy; that is what it is! You can call it Red Velvet Cheesecake Cookies, but really, this was inspired by Nabisco’s Chips Ahoy Middles.

A batch of a dozen of Red Velvet Cheesecake Hearts, fresh right out of the oven
A batch of a dozen of Red Velvet Cheesecake Hearts, fresh right out of the oven

Red Velvet Cheesecake Cookies

INGREDIENTS
1 cup butter (2 sticks butter)
½ cup sugar
1 cup golden yellow brown sugar
½ cup Demerara sugar

1 egg + 1 yolk
1 ½ tsp coffee in 1 tbsp & 1 tsp of buttermilk
1 tsp Lorann Red Velvet emulsion

2 ½ cup flour
6 tbsp cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt

¾ cup white chocolate chips

For the cream cheese filling:
1 stick of cream cheese (72 g or 2.6 oz)
¼ cup icing sugar

(Scroll DOWN below to print recipe or save the recipe to Pinterest.)

If you’re in Canada, you can find any of the Lorann’s emulsions at Bulk Barn; otherwise, most specialty baking stores would carry them as well. I LOVE the Red Velvet emulsion because you don’t have to add any extra food colouring. Truth is, if I don’t have to use my AmeriColor Super Red (food gel), I really don’t want to use it in my batters. I’d like to save my food gels for cake or cookie decorating.

A side note on Cocoa: I really, really like using high quality Dutched processed Gourmet Baking Cocoa by Rodelle (established 1936). King Arthur Flour published this article “The A B C’s of Cocoa” in 2014 and it has helped me a great deal in finding the perfect proportions of coffee to cocoa to baking soda.

Other tips: You can freeze your from scratch cookie dough to be baked later — for up to two weeks. However, I should warn you that taste-testing the cookie dough is highly addictive.

Related FBC member’s desserts:
Stamped Cookies by Shayna from Mommy Outside The Box
(Super easy) Valentine’s Day Oreo Pops by Fareen from Food Mamma

Red Velvet Cheesecake Cookies
Red Velvet Cream Cheese Hearts
BigOven - Save recipe or add to grocery list
Yum
Votes: 0
Rating: 0
You:
Rate this recipe!
Print Recipe
Servings Prep Time
30 cookies 20 minutes
Cook Time
9 minutes
Servings Prep Time
30 cookies 20 minutes
Cook Time
9 minutes
Red Velvet Cheesecake Cookies
Red Velvet Cream Cheese Hearts
BigOven - Save recipe or add to grocery list
Yum
Votes: 0
Rating: 0
You:
Rate this recipe!
Print Recipe
Servings Prep Time
30 cookies 20 minutes
Cook Time
9 minutes
Servings Prep Time
30 cookies 20 minutes
Cook Time
9 minutes
Ingredients
Cream the following:
Liquids
Dry Ingredients
Cheesecake Middle:
Servings: cookies
Units:
Recipe Notes
  1. Cream together butter & sugar until fluffy in bowl with electric mixer.
    Red Velvet Cheesecake Cookie Dough
  2. Add egg, coffee mixture (with buttermilk), and red velvet emulsion and combine until smooth. (If you only have vanilla on hand, add food colouring. Taste will be slightly different.)
  3. In a separate bowl, stir in flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt until just combined.
  4. Gradually add the dry flour mixture in thirds. Be careful not to over-mix.
  5. Use a spatula to stir in the chips. (Personal preference)
  6. Whip together cream cheese and icing sugar using a clean whisk.
  7. Use a table-spoon to drop two dozen (12) balls; 24 total. Then, flatten with the back of spoon, cut with your heart or other desired cookie cutter shapes. (You might need to adjust the size of the dough you drop.)
  8. Then, fill about ½ tsp of the cream cheese or cheesecake filling on one heart dough. Then, use a second heart-shaped cookie dough to gently seal around the edges -- like making a pierogie, if you would. Pinch and seal around the edges.
  9. Bake between 8 and 9 minutes at 370 to 375°F (187 to 190.6°C), depending on your individual ovens.
  10. Let the tray cool on the rack for a minute before continuing to cool each cookie on the cookie racks.
Share this Recipe
Powered byWP Ultimate Recipe

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *