Perfect Red Velvet Crinkle Cookies are easy to make in 1 bowl! With fudgy red centers and a hint of cocoa, it’s hard to stop at just one!
These stunning vegan cookies have all the flavors of red velvet cake but in cookie form. Coated with both granulated sugar and powdered sugar causes beautiful crinkles to form when baking.
Often, impressive cookies are more difficult and time consuming to make, but this recipe is super simple. You can make the dough in one bowl and there is no chilling required.
Whether you’re making them for Valentine’s Day, Christmas or just a lazy Saturday, everyone will fall in love with these red velvet crinkle cookies!
Tips for success
- Measure flour correctly – I use the spoon and level method. Spoon flour from container into a measuring cup, then level it off with a knife, without shaking or patting down the flour.
- Red food coloring – Use actual red food coloring, not a natural version like beet powder, for the prettiest results. Scroll down for vegan options.
- Natural cocoa powder – While you could use dutch processed cocoa powder, it will result in darker cookies, so they won’t look exactly like mine.
- Bake in the center rack – Unless you have a convection oven that bakes evenly throughout, bake one cookie sheet at a time, in the center rack of your oven. Baking two sheets at a time rarely works out well.
Vegan red food coloring
This can be a little confusing, so I’ve done some research for you! McCormick Culinary Red Food Color is vegan friendly. It’s the only decent product I know of that is in fact, vegan.
If you didn’t know, many red food coloring comes from beetles. However, the one linked to above does not, it contains FD&C Reds 40 and 3, which are not the ones that come from bugs. I know red food coloring is not a health food, but I basically only use it for red velvet cupcakes, cake and perhaps sugar cookies.
Want more impressive cookie recipes?
- Vegan Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
- Raspberry Almond Thumbprint Cookies
- Vegan Lemon Shortbread Cookies
- Iced Vegan Oatmeal Cookies
- Vegan Snickerdoodles
Red Velvet Crinkle Cookies
Ingredients
For the cookies
- 5 tablespoons vegan butter, melted
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon ground flaxseeds
- 1/3 cup unsweetened soy milk
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 3/4 teaspoon vegan friendly red food coloring*
- 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
For rolling
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup powdered sugar
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, add the melted vegan butter and sugar. Stir with a wooden spoon until well combined and smooth. Add the ground flax seeds, soy milk, vanilla and red food coloring. Stir or whisk well to combine.
- Sift in the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt using either a sifter or fine mesh strainer. Stir until combined with the wet ingredients and a soft dough is formed.
- Fill one small bowl with the granulated sugar and another with the powdered sugar. Using a cookie scoop (or spoon), scoop 1 1/2 tablespoon sized balls of dough. Roll the ball in the granulated sugar first, then in the powdered sugar very generously, covering all sides. The more powdered sugar, the prettier the cookies will be.
- Place the balls onto the prepared baking sheet, about 2 inches apart so they have room to spread.
- Bake in the center rack of the oven for 11-13 minutes until set and cracks have formed. They will appear slightly undercooked and soft, but will firm up as they cool.
- Cool on the baking sheet for at least 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack. Store any extra cookies in an airtight container for 4-5 days. They can also be frozen. Enjoy!
Notes
- This red food coloring is vegan friendly and I highly recommend it! If you want to use something more natural, you could try beetroot powder, but the results won’t look the same and you will likely need to use much more.
- May substitute almond/cashew/coconut/oat milk for the soy milk if needed.
Hello! I’ve run out of red food colouring and am wondering if I could just make these without the colouring? Presumably it’s just for aesthetic reasons, so without it they’d be chocolate rather than red velvet? They look delicious 🙂
Yeah they just wouldn’t really be red velvet, but the taste would be the same.
SO good! I made these probably 5 times over the holiday season, and everywhere I went people loved them. These are so easy to make and come out perfectly every time. I like to add a full teaspoon of red food coloring (the one you recommended). Thank you for another delicious recipe!
I’m thrilled they were a hit, Ellen! Thank you for the wonderful review!
These cookies are delicious! I make them for Valentine’s Day and Christmas bake sales, which support my favorite animal rescue groups. Thanks for all your wonderful recipes!
How wonderful you are loving the cookies, and that they help support animal rescue groups! I appreciate you using my recipes! Thanks for your awesome review and feedback!
Any advice on how to make these orange? I have an orange party for my sons school and we just tried them and they are brown but delicious.
I’d actually go make my Lemon Crinkle Cookies but replace everything lemon with orange!
Hi! Can I use coconut oil instead of butter? Thanks 🙂
It might work okay, but I find cookies tend to come out more flat or crispy when replacing coconut oil for vegan butter.
these cookies are soooo good i’ve made them several times and they are always a hit! people are always so surprised that they’re vegan. it’s been years and nora’s recipes never fail me!
Tried this recipe this morning and it turned out fantastically well (even though I ran short of several ingredients and had to sub things). The cookies are crispy-edged, fudgy-centered, pretty, and scrumptious! Definitely adding this to the Holiday cookie baking extravaganza:) . Thanks again for accessible, yummy vegan fare.
Wow, that’s wonderful to hear! Thank you for your amazing feedback and review, Kristy 🙂
Is there any way I could reduce the granulated sugar in the cookies a bit? Or would that mess up the consistency?
You can try only using 3/4 cup of sugar in the dough but it will affect the consistency.
these were so cute and delicious! next time I think I would go a little lighter on the powdered sugar coating as they were a bit sweet for my family, but that is just our preference! also – this is probably the easiest cookie recipe I’ve ever made. very low effort high reward 🙂
These are absolutely delicious! I would highly recommend making these! You would never know that they are vegan. Perfect for the Holidays! Thank you for another great recipe!
Nora your recipes are delicious, thank you so much. These cookies are a hit and super delicious, our non vegan friends & family love them.
Hi Sylvia. Thank you for using my recipes – I’m glad you are enjoying them! I appreciate you sharing your comments on the crinkle cookies! Happy cooking!
Thank you Nora for all your wonderful recipes! My kids and I have made MANY of your chocolate crinkle cookies as Christmas gifts. I haven’t tried this one yet. Is there a reason you rolled these in granulated sugar before the powdered sugar? Thanks!
Yes, it actually helps the powdered sugar to stick better and gives them a yummy texture after baking. I’m so glad you’re enjoying the recipes, thank you so much!
I made these for a cookie exchange and they were a hit! Soft and chewy on the inside with a nice crisp outside.
I’m so glad these were a hit at your cookie exchange! Thank you for sharing your wonderful review and comments!
These are sooo good! They will now be part of my yearly Christmas baking! The whole family loves them, even the non-vegans. Thanks for another delicious recipe!
Aren’t these fun Christmas cookies!? I’m thrilled they are now part of your annual Christmas baking! Thank your for sharing your wonderful comments! Happy cooking!
The metric conversion is missing
Sorry about that, I’ll fix it asap.
Thank you can’t wait to try these all your recipes are amazing ?
To make into gfvegan do you need to add extra moisture?
No I would just sub a gf flour mix. Hope you love them!
I’m excited to try these! Do you think it would be ok to add chips? (Vegan white chocolate )
I don’t see why not! Enjoy.
Delicious and easy. Have made these several times since I saw the recipe. Made them for my dairy free daughter but everyone loves them.
Yummy, my family loves this! ?
I’m so happy your family loves the cookies, thanks for letting me know!
LOVE THIS! Quick question though: I really really want to add cream cheese to it for the classic “red velvet” feel. Would you suggest adding a dollop of vegan Betty Crocker cream cheese in the middle before baking? Or would this mess everything up? Im feeling pretty crazy I might try it anyway.
Ps. LOVE your stuff!
I’m not sure, it might work! Thank you so much, I’m glad you enjoy the recipes! If you try it, let me know how it goes. 🙂
Great recipe!! I do find they stay a lot softer and spread out less when chilling the dough before baking! Made with jovial all purpose flour, without food coloring and only used powdered sugar on the coating! The crinkle was perfect! Already making another batch!! Thanks Nora! 🥳
The cookies look and taste wonderful, but the vegan red colouring never stood a chance against the cocoa… They look like ordinary chocolate cookies… A bit disappointed, but you did write that beetroot based colouring would give different results.
Yes, beetroot color just doesn’t work as well for color in red velvet recipes. Glad you enjoyed the flavor though!
Made these cookies tonight. THEY ARE SO GOOD! Taste like a mix between a rich brownie and cookie. I used avocado oil instead of vegan butter because I was out and they turned out exactly like the picture. I didn’t roll mine in granulated sugar, just powdered sugar and I am glad I didn’t because these are already pretty rich and sweet in my opinion.
Glad you love the cookies, Amanda! Thank you for sharing!
What a great idea to use food coloring in these! I have made the original ones (subbing applesauce for the butter) and they are delicious! I’m going to make these for Valentine’s Day now! Thank you Nora for providing these great recipes!
Thank you, Laura, for using my recipes! I’m glad you are enjoying them! Happy cooking!
Is there a substitute for flaxseeds. I can’t eat that. Please and thank you.
You could use ground chia seeds in the same measurement. Thank you!
Could I use all purpose gluten free flour?
Hi Sally. That should work well. Hope that helps!