Red Velvet (or not) Snowcapped Cookies--Week 11 of the 12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies

The good news: I finally got a chance to test my homemade natural beet-based red food coloring and you can't taste the beetiness.

The bad news:  it isn't strong enough to show through the cocoa powder in a red velvet environment.

So my "red velvet" snowcapped cookies aren't very red.  More of a brown really.  They're still yummy and velvety though!

My followers on Facebook may recognize this concept from a Mr. Food segment I mentioned last week.  I thought his snowcapped red velvet cookies were cute as heck, but I was very disappointed when I saw the "recipe" on his website.  The "ingredients" for the "recipe" were red velvet cake mix, eggs, vegetable oil, water, white chocolate chips, and a container of cream cheese frosting.  Good golly, Miss Molly!  Shouldn't someone whose name is Mr. Food use ingredients that are actual, ya know, food???

So here is my adaptation, using food, not premade mixes and packages of garbage.  I have included how much artificial food coloring you would want to use if you choose to use such things, but if you use a natural version, you may need to use much, much more to get that pretty red color.  Or you could remember that food is about taste, not so much color, and just omit it for a chocolaty cookie without the fancy trappings.

Red Velvet (or not) Snowcapped Cookies

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp red food coloring (optional)
2/3 cups cocoa powder
3 cups white whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup white chocolate chips
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6 tbsp butter, softened
3 oz cream cheese, softened
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 375.  Cream together 1 cup butter, sugar, and brown sugar with an electric mixer.  Blend in egg and 2 tsp vanilla until smooth.  Beat in food coloring, if using.  Stir in cocoa, flour, baking soda and salt, making sure to scrape down sides.  Stir in white chocolate chips.  Place byrounded tablespoons on an ungreased baking sheet about 2 inches apart.  Bake 10-15 minutes, until set.  Cool completely.

Blend together butter, cream cheese, and vanilla.  Slowly add powdered sugar and cream until smooth.  Scoop frosting into a plastic baggy, cut a corner of the baggy with kitchen shears and squeeze peaks of frosting onto each cookie.

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Let's see what everyone else is baking up this second to last week of Christmas Cookies: