Red Velvet Cookie Bars
Updated Feb. 13, 2025
- Total Time
- 1 hour 10 minutes
- Prep Time
- 10 minutes
- Cook Time
- 30 minutes, plus 30 minutes’ cooling
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- ½cup/113 grams unsalted butter, melted, plus more for the pan
- ¼ cup/57 grams cream cheese, softened at room temperature
- 1cup/200 grams granulated sugar
- 1large egg
- 2teaspoons vanilla extract
- 5drops red gel food coloring, or up to 1 teaspoon
- ¾teaspoon kosher salt (such as Diamond Crystal)
- 1cup/128 grams all-purpose flour
- ½cup/47 grams unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted if lumpy
- ¼teaspoon baking powder
- 1cup/120 grams powdered sugar
- ½cup/113 grams unsalted butter, softened
- ¾ cup/170 grams cream cheese, softened
- 1teaspoon vanilla extract
- Pinch kosher salt
For the Cookie Bars
For the Cream Cheese Frosting
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Preparation
- Step 1
Make the red velvet cookie bars: Heat oven to 350 degrees. Butter an 8-by-8-inch baking pan and line it with a piece of parchment paper that hangs over two sides.
- Step 2
In a large bowl, combine the butter, cream cheese and sugar. Mix with an electric mixer on medium-high until smooth and fluffy. Add the egg, vanilla, food coloring and salt. Mix until well combined.
- Step 3
Add the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder. Mix on low speed until just combined, using a flexible spatula to scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl to ensure the batter is evenly mixed. Add more food coloring if desired to tint the bars a deeper red.
- Step 4
Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake 20 to 25 minutes, or until set and dry in appearance and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs. Set the pan on a rack to cool completely, and clean the bowl.
- Step 5
While the cookie bars cool, make the cream cheese frosting: In the clean bowl, combine the powdered sugar and butter. Mix with an electric mixer on low speed until moistened, then turn the mixer up to medium-high and beat until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Scrape the bowl, then add the cream cheese, vanilla and salt, and mix until well combined.
- Step 6
Use the parchment to lift the cooled cookie bar out of the pan, then spread the frosting evenly over the top. Slice into smaller bars and serve. Store any leftover bars, covered, in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
Private Notes
Comments
Traditional red velvet does not have beets! That's a variation that is a different cake. Sugar is normal in a dessert and it's not red food dye, it's coloring. There are many natural food colors these days. Why are people here so strange?!
First off, these are pretty good. I would note however, that there is so much cocoa in the recipe you will not get a red velvet color with the cookie. I ended up adding some food coloring to the frosting to get in the spirit of Valentines Day. I also agree with another commenter that the amount of frosting is overboard. If you the frosting recipe in half you will still have enough to coat the entire cookie with a nice layer. Of course, if you love cream cheese frosting have at it.
If this recipe title was Red Velvet Brownies, I would say it hit the mark. Tastes like red velvet cake with brownie texture. Frosting tastes as expected, pretty good, just too much of it.
Has anyone added white vinegar? This is standard in a red velvet cake.
Easily subbed GF flour and it was fantastic and easily gluten free
These are great. I skipped the red food coloring. I felt it was the right amount of frosting, the cookie bars are pretty thick especially when they’ve been in the fridge, so you want to have a nice thick layer of frosting to balance that. You might want to let the bars firm up in the fridge a little before you serve them, everything was pretty soft when I first made them.
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