Cakey Red Velvet Cream Cheese Crinkle Cookies are soft, chewy cookies that are made from scratch and will fit right in with your holiday plans. Use them for cookie swaps, gifting or just to pass around the Christmas table!
In a bowl mix together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt and set aside.
Use a stand mixer or hand mixer to beat together butter, cream cheese and sugar in another bowl till light and fluffy. Add eggs one at time, beating till combined. Add milk, vanilla extract, lemon juice and red food colour and mix.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and beat on very low speed till just combined. Cover the dough and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
Pre-heat: Pre-heat oven to 350F/175C.
Fill a plate or wide bowl with powdered sugar or icing sugar. Use a small ice cream scooper to scoop out balls of dough the size of limes and roll them with your hands in the powdered sugar till they are covered. Don't worry if there is extra sugar in a few places. Work quickly because the dough soaks in sugar quite quickly.
Bake: Place them on a silicon mat lined cookie sheet and bake for 12-13 minutes. Let them cool for a few minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
In case you are using salted butter, you can skip the additional salt in the recipe
It's important to chill the dough in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours, but the dough can also be made up to 8 hours ahead
The crinkle in these crinkle cookies come from rolling the individual cookie dough into powdered sugar. As the cookies bake and expand, the powdered sugar creates a natural crinkle. But the cookies absorb powdered sugar really quickly so it's important to work fast when rolling the cookie dough in powdered sugar and placing them on the baking sheet to bake
These cookies are pretty soft and chewy and are baked for 12-13 minutes, but if you want them to be slightly crisper, increase the baking time to 15 minutes