Red Velvet Cookie Bars
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These red velvet cookie bars are soft and chewy with a delicious red velvet flavor and tangy cream cheese frosting. These cookie bars are essentially a big batch of red velvet sugar cookies. 
I love anything red velvet – whether it’s classic red velvet cake, red velvet chocolate chip cookies, or even a decadent red velvet cheesecake. These red velvet cookie bars are the perfect recipe for chewy sugar cookie bars. They have the classic red velvet flavor with a hint of tang and mild chocolate. Then they’re topped with the creamiest cream cheese frosting. I love making these over Christmas with red and green sprinkles, or over Valentine’s Day with red or pink sprinkles.
If you’re wondering how these differ from my red velvet brownies – these cookie bars or soft and tender, whereas the brownies definitely verge on gooey.
Making Red Velvet Cookie Bars
I love making sugar cookie bars as opposed to cookies because there’s no need to chill the dough and need to messy your kitchen rolling and cutting out cookies. So, here’s the rundown of the recipe and what each step looks like.
- Preheat the oven to 350F (180C). Lightly grease a 9×13 inch (23×33 cm). Alternatively, you can line the pan with parchment paper, leaving an overhang around the edges. If lining the pan, I actually recommend lightly greasing the pan first because it helps the parchment paper stick to the pan, making it much easier to spread the cookie dough into the pan later on.
- Then in a medium bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients: flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt. You’ll notice that there’s just a little cocoa powder in these bars – that’s because red velvet is in between vanilla and chocolate in flavor.
- Then in a separate large bowl, cream together the butter and sugars. The butter should be softened, but not starting to melt.
- Then beat in the egg, extra egg yolk, vanilla extract, red food coloring and vinegar. The extra egg yolk makes these bars chewier. For the red food coloring, I like to use gel because it’s more concentrated and therefore packs a bigger punch – but liquid works too. Then the vinegar is key for the slight tanginess that’s key in red velvet. At this stage the dough mixture will look very neon, but it will darken and soften in color after you add in the dry ingredients.
- Add the dry ingredients into the butter mixture, then beat until combined. If your dry ingredient look lumpy, I recommend sifting them into the bowl.
- Spread/press the dough into your prepared pan to form an even layer. If you choose to press it into the pan, I recommend using a piece of wax paper between your palms and the dough so that the dough doesn’t stick to your hands.
- The cookie bars will bake for about 25-30 minutes or until the top looks set and you can see the bars starting to pull away from the edges of the pan.
Once the bars are baked and cooled, it’s time to get on with the frosting. Creamy, tangy delicious cream cheese frosting. Whenever making cream cheese frosting, there are a few key things to keep in mind:
- The butter and cream cheese should be slightly softened before getting started, but they should still be slightly firm to the touch. If your butter is starting to look slimy, then it’s too soft.
- Use full-fat, brick-style cream cheese. I always use Philadelphia. You need to use full-fat, brick-style so that the frosting is thick enough. Anything labeled low fat, low calorie or that comes in a tub is too thin.
- Be careful not to overbeat the frosting. Overbeating will lead to thin frosting that doesn’t set properly. To avoid overbeating – I recommend sifting your powdered sugar first. This way you aren’t relying on beating the frosting to get rid of lumps in the sugar.
Soft and tender red velvet cookie dough made into thick cookie bars with a thick layer of cream cheese frosting – yup, these red velvet cookie bars are perfection. And for more cookie bars, then be sure to try:
Red Velvet Cookie Bars
Equipment
- 9x13 inch (23 x 33 cm) baking pan*
Ingredients
Red Velvet Cookie Bars
- 2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 3 tablespoons cocoa powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar, light or dark
- 1 large egg
- 1 large egg yolk, in addition to the full egg
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon red food coloring, liquid or gel, feel free to use less
- 1/2 teaspoon vinegar, distilled or white vinegar
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened but not starting to melt
- 8 ounces full-fat cream cheese, be sure to use brick style
- 2 1/2 - 3 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sift if lumpy
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1-2 tablespoons cream , whipping cream or table cream, if needed
Instructions
Red Velvet Cookie Bars
- Preheat the oven to 350F (180C). Lightly grease a 9x13 inch (23x33 cm) pan. Alternatively, line with parchment paper so that there's an overhang around the edges.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
- In a large bowl, beat together the butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar until creamed.
- Beat in the egg, egg yolk, vanilla, red food coloring and vinegar into the butter mixture until you no longer see lumps of butter.
- Add the dry ingredients into the butter mixture (if lumpy, sift the dry ingredients into the bowl). Then mix together, starting with the mixer on a low speed. Mix together until you no longer see lumps or streaks of dry ingredients.
- Spoon the dough into the prepared pan and spread/press into an even layer. If you plan to press it down, use a piece of wax paper in between your hands and the dough so that the dough doesn't stick to your palms.
- Bake in the middle of the preheated oven for about 25-30 minutes, or until the top looks set and the edges are starting to pull away from the sides of the pan.
- Cool the bars fully before frosting.
Cream Cheese Frosting
- In a large bowl, beat together the butter and cream cheese until you no longer see lumps of butter.
- Sift in 2 cups powdered sugar and add in the vanilla and salt. Beat together, starting with the mixer on a low speed.
- Beat in the rest of the powdered sugar about 1/2 cup at a time until the desired sweetness and thickness is reached. If needed, beat in 1 to 2 tablespoons of cream.
- If you lined your pan with parchment paper, lift the cooled bars out of the pan using the overhang of the parchment and place on a cutting board. If you simply greased the pan, leave the bars in the pan.
- Frost the cooled bars using a flat edge knife. Optionally, decorate with sprinkles.
- Slice with a thin, sharp knife.
Notes
- Eggs: You will need 2 eggs for this recipe. You will use 1 large egg and just the egg yolk of the second egg. They should be at room temperature before making the bars.
- Cream Cheese: Be sure to use full-fat, brick-style cream cheese.
- Storage: Store frosted cookie bars covered in the fridge for up to 3 days. Unfrosted cookie bars can be wrapped tightly and frozen. Thaw in the fridge overnight.
- Nutrition: Details provided are an estimate only and based on 1 cookie bar with frosting, assuming all the frosting is used and the pan is sliced into 15 uniform bars.
Nutrition
