It`s that time of year again, everybody! Today is cookie reveal day for the annual Food Blogger Cookie Swap hosted by Love & Olive Oil and The Little Kitchen. It`s basically a gigantic cookie swap between active food bloggers from around the world (mainly, the US). We bake some yummy, homemade cookies and send a dozen cookies to each of our 3 matches. In turn, we also receive a dozen cookies from 3 random food bloggers!
This is my third year participating and I always love receiving cookies in the mail. It`s a joyous surprise seeing what kind of cookie you`ll receive and from whom! This year, I received some very memorable and delicious cookies from 3 awesome bloggers. I received peanut butter snickerdoodle bites from Lisa at Blogghetti, chocolate pinwheels from Melissa at Fried Rice & Donut Holes, and brown butter shortbread cookies from Sara at Confectionary Tales of a Bakeaholic. Thank you ladies! The cookies were awesome and my stomach enjoyed them very much! :)
The last two years I sent out cookies using original recipes I created. Unfortunately, I didn`t have as much time this year to test multiple batches of cookies before sending them out. So, I turned to other food bloggers from last year for some inspiration! As I was looking through the previous years of cookie swap submissions, I was reminded of red velvet gooey butter cookies. This is an extremely popular recipe on the internet and I wanted to see why for myself!
What`s funny is that I was actually looking at Fried Rice & Donut Hole`s post for the recipe from 2012. Little did I know that I would receive a dozen beautiful chocolate pinwheels from her this year! A funny coincidence, huh?
I never had gooey butter cake, but these cookies are supposed be similar. The recipe uses red velvet cake mix. I much as I would have loved a gooey cookie, I almost always lean towards crisp and crunchy cookies, so I opted to not make them gooey. Hence, just red velvet butter cookies. :)
These cookies have that wonderful red velvet taste and a very soft interior. Almost, cake-like from using the cake mix. The very edges are lightly crisp, but the centers are soft as clouds! I was addicted to these cookies. I couldn`t help but eat some every day. I gave some to my sister and she ate them all in a day!
To make them more festive, I rolled them into some Christmas sprinkles before baking. After rolling them into powdered sugar, I pressed the sprinkles into the dough ball. Don`t they look so pretty?
Red Velvet Butter Cookies
Ingredients:
-
14 ounces cream cheese, softened
-
1 cup (16 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
-
2 large eggs
-
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
-
2 (16.4oz each) box Red Velvet cake mix
-
about 1-2 cups powdered sugar
-
Christmas themed sprinkles
Directions:
1.
Line your baking sheets with parchment paper.
2.
In a bowl with your electric mixer, cream together the cream cheese and
butter until fluffy.
3.
Add in the egg and vanilla extract. Mix to combine.
4.
Add in the cake mix and combine well.
5.
Chill in freezer for 15-30 minutes. Or, refrigerate for 1-2 hours.
6.
Preheat oven to 375°F.
7.
Place powdered sugar in a plate.
8.
Roll the dough into 1 inch balls. Roll into powdered sugar. If desired,
press sprinkles into dough.
9.
Place on baking sheet, about 2 inches in between each cookie.
10.
Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes, or until centers look done. Rotate
baking sheets 180 degrees halfway through baking time.
11.
Allow cookies to cool for about 3 minutes on baking sheet, before
transferring to cool completely on a cooling rack.
12.
If desired, dust more powdered sugar on top of cookies.
*Notes:
-
14 oz of cream cheese, is 2 block, minus 2 ounces.
-
Store cookies in airtight container. They will stay great for about 1
week.
