Red Velvet Cookie Bars

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.

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