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Red Velvet Sprinkle Cookies

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These beautiful Red Velvet Sprinkle Cookies have a delightful surprise filling inside.  Take one bite to reveal the colorful red velvet filling covered with a simple sugar cookie and pretty red, white, and pink sprinkles.  Bake for Valentine’s Day or for any day you want a sweet and colorful cookie.

Red velvet sprinkle cookies on a white towel.

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Valentine’s Day is on February 14, just in case you forgot and this cookie makes the perfect Valentine’s Day treat. Who said you need to give your special someone chocolates?  Bake a batch of these easy to make and pretty-as-can-be cookies for your celebration. 

The base for this cookie is a simple sugar cookie recipe that is divided into two batters. Keep one plain, and flavor and color the other dough for the red velvet filling.  The fun part in making thee cookies is you get to make a lot of dough balls and roll them in the nonpareil sprinkles.  

Why these are a favorite cookie

  • You can change the color of the sprinkles for any occasion
  • The middle layer can be different flavors or colors
  • Once you bake these cookies you can freeze them for later.
  • These cookies are perfect for gift giving and they travel well.

Try these other Surprise Inside Sprinkle Cookies

Let’s start with the cookie ingredients

Ingredients for sprinkles cookies.

For these cookies, I prefer to use the nonpareil sprinkles which are just tiny round sugar balls. This type of sprinkle sticks to the dough better keeps its color when baked. and they just look super pretty on a cookie. The Valentine Nonpareil Sprinkles are what you need. You can use liquid or gel food color, today, I am using McCormick Red Food color that works well in this recipe. The vanilla flavor of the outer cookie layer really tastes great with the red velvet layer so make sure to add the flavor to that dough with vanilla extract.

Ready to bake with me? This cookie recipe is very easy to make, no chilling required, yeah for that! The dough for these cookies is super simple to make, just beat with a mixer and you will end up with one vanilla-flavored dough and a smaller red velvet dough.

Let’s Bake Cookies

Step 1.   Mix the butter and shortening to combine then add the eggs and vanilla and mix thoroughly. Mix in the flour, baking powder, and salt. This is the basic dough.

Step 2. Remove 3/4 cup of the dough and put that into a smaller bowl.  Next, add melted butter, cocoa powder, powdered sugar, and the red food coloring, and mix this with a spoon to create the red velvet middle layer for the cookie.

Cookie dough, butter, cocoa powder and sugar for cookies.

Step 3.  Prepare two cookie sheets with parchment paper and turn your oven to 375 degrees F. 

Step 4. Now the fun begins, not that mixing the dough and turning your oven on wasn’t fun, but this is way more fun.  Using a tablespoon, scoop the vanilla-flavored dough and roll it into balls, then using a teaspoon, scoop the red velvet dough and roll it into balls. I made 25 of each.

cookie dough balls on a baking sheet.

Step 5.  To make the complete cookie ball with the red velvet center take the vanilla-flavored dough and flatten it into a round disk.

Step 6. Take the red velvet dough ball and place it in the center of the disk and then wrap the plain dough around the red velvet dough to form a larger ball.

Rolling cookie dough into ball,

Step 7. Put your sprinkles in a nice big bowl so you can roll the cookie dough balls around. After you roll the two cookie dough balls together, you need to roll the dough ball between your hands several times to warm the dough up so it will get sticky enough for the nonpareils to stick to.  Immediately roll the dough balls in the nonpareils.

Cookie dough balls in sprinkles.

Step 8. Place on your baking sheet, and when ready, bake for 12 minutes.

sugar cookies on baking sheet.

While your cookies are baking go get the broom and dustpan to sweep up all the sprinkles that landed and the floor and rolled clear to the next room.

Now when you open that oven door be prepared to say “Oh how cute.” I swear I say that every time.

Baking tips

  • Roll each of the dough into balls, I usually get 25 of each. Sometimes I have to pinch dough from one or two balls to get enough dough to make 25.
  • Make sure the nonpareil are in a large bowl so you can roll the dough ball around.
  • Once you make the big dough ball immediately roll that in the sprinkles while it is still warm and a bit sticky. If you wait to roll the balls the sprinkles will not stick.
  • You do not have to chill this dough, but if you find it to be too soft, pop the dough in the fridge for 15 minutes to firm it up.  
Print Pin
5 from 28 votes

Red Velvet Surprise Inside Valentine's Cookies

These pretty as can be Red Velvet Sprinkle Cookies have a tasty surprise filling and with the red, white and pink sprinkles, these cookies are perfect for a Valentine's Day celebration.
Course Cookie
Cuisine American
Keyword cookies, Sprinkle Cookies, valentine's day cookies
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 12 minutes
42 minutes
Servings 25
Calories 179kcal
Author Jere' Cassidy

Equipment

Cookie Sheets
Parchment Paper
Measuring Spoons
Kitchen Aide

Ingredients

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 375°F, and prepare two cookie sheets with parchment paper or a Silpat
  • In a large bowl beat the butter and shortening until fluffy on medium speed.
  • Add the sugar, the egg and egg yolks and vanilla then mix until combined, scraping the sides of the bowl.
  • Mix in the flour baking powder and salt on medium speed until combined, forming a soft dough.
  • Remove 3/4 cup of the dough to a small bowl and add the sifted powdered sugar, cocoa powder, red food coloring, and melted butter. Mix well to combine.
  • Measure out 1 tablespoon of almond-flavored dough and make 25 balls with the dough
  • Measure out 1 teaspoon the red velvet dough into 25 1" balls.
  • Flatten the vanilla-flavored dough balls into a disk and place a red velvet dough ball in the center and mold the dough around it to make a round ball.
  • Roll the dough ball several times in your hands to warm the dough up. The dough ball needs to be warm for the nonpareils to stick to the dough.
  • Roll the ball in the nonpareil sprinkles and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
  • Bake for 12 minutes at 375 degrees. Remove and let cool for 5 minutes then move to a cooling rack.
  • Store the cookies in an airtight container for several days.

Notes

Measure out all the dough balls to make sure you have 25 of each.  If you have too many or not enough of one just pinch some dough off another dough ball to make 25 of each.
After you roll the two dough balls together, roll the ball in you have several times to warm up the dough to get a bit sticky and immediately roll in the nonpareils.  
If you let the dough balls sit and then roll in the nonpareils the dough won't be sticky enough and the sprinkles will not stick to the dough.

Nutrition

Serving: 1cookie | Calories: 179kcal | Carbohydrates: 25.2g | Fat: 8.4g | Cholesterol: 33mg | Sodium: 30mg

First Published: February 05, 2017… Last Updated: Feb 1, 2021

cookies with a cup of tea and red roses.

 

Have a Happy Valentine’s Day.

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About Jere’

From learning to cook on a farm in Indiana to culinary school in California, my passion for food is never-ending.  Turning on my oven to bake something for friends and family is my happy place, and I am glad to be here at One Hot Oven sharing both sweet and savory recipes with all my baking friends.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  3. Ramona

    5 stars
    Wow, these cookies will be real fun to make for this Valentines. They sound easy to make and they’re so beautiful too. My kids will love these and might even join me making them. Thank you for sharing!

    Reply

  9. Lesli Schwartz

    5 stars
    These are just the prettiest, most romantic cookies! I love that they’re layered and that red velvet middle is just perfect! ❤️

    Reply

  12. Emily

    5 stars
    What an adorable Valentine’s day treat! My six year old and I love to bake and we are going to make these again on Valentine’s day.

    Reply

  15. Sonila

    5 stars
    Sprinkles, red velvet cookies!! Yes, definitely these can be the best valentine’s cookies ever. Such a great idea and they look amazing. Have to make them, thanks for the recipe.

    Reply

  27. Helena

    5 stars
    These are incredible! The way you made them, the way you presented them… Everything shows how passionate you were about making these cookies. Thank you for sharing the result of your passion.

    Reply

  37. Vanessa

    These look so good! I’ll have to add these to my Christmas cookie list! (Although, I’ll need to practice making them before that because they look so good!)

    Reply

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