Pinterest Challenge: Red Velvet Cheesecake Cookies

Red velvet is one of those things my husband loves. So every time I see a recipe for Red Velvet Something, I  pin it or save it for the next time I need to make something special.

So of course Culinary Couture's Red Velvet Cheesecake Cookies was an instant addition to the pin board.

This weekend I had a few people over - we're making our way through the Harry Potter movies while waiting on Game of Thrones to start up again - and it seemed like the perfect time to start on these. Since the dough and the cheesecake filling both require two hours of time in the fridge and freezer respectively, a movie marathon seemed like a great time (especially since our kitchen looks into the living room, so I didn't have to miss out on a moment).

My movie-watching friends were also perfect test-subjects. They'll try just about anything - which is good, because I was in search of something to bring to a family reunion picnic the next day.

The recipe is fairly easy since it starts with a box of red velvet cake mix. The dough was whipped up and resting in the fridge, wrapped up in some festive red plastic wrap, in about fifteen minutes.

The cream cheese/powdered sugar filling didn't take any longer to mix:

My favorite part of making frosting. 

But spooning it out for freezing took a while:

After freezing for 2+ hours

The recipe called to use a quarter cup of dough for each cookie. I just pinched off what seemed like a decent amount and flattened it to pieces that filled the palm of my hand.

The first three: before baking

I suspect these aren't as big around as the recipe intended them to be. Not only because of their actual size, but because they didn't spread nearly as much as I'd expected them to. Now, that could be the size, and that could be the higher altitude. Either way, I had no unusual spreading and eventually was doing nine of this size on a cookie sheet.

The first three: after baking

The moment they were cool enough to handle, I went ahead and bit in. And yes, the filling inside retains heat a bit better than the outside dough. So, if you're like me and want to try these right away, be prepared. Or let them cool slightly longer than you think you should.

Red Velvet Cheesecake Cookie - with filling

So, each of the first three cookies went out to be taste tested - the weight of the rest of the batch resting on the results. Which were favorable. Very.

I had two cookie sheets lined with parchment paper and waiting to go - and by doing nine cookies per sheet, I was more or less able to put one sheet into the oven, prep the second, pull the first out of the oven, put the second in, put the dough back in the fridge for 3-5 minutes while I wait for the first batch to cook enough to safely transport the cookies to a cooling rack, then start prepping the empty cookie sheet again. Which made it a rather endless project, but it took less than an hour to get them all through, which wasn't bad.

In those few minute breaks, I worked on writing up what I wanted to do differently for the next batch.

I haven't gotten brave enough to bring my netbook or smart phone into the kitchen - so new recipes always require either a notebook or a post-it with the directions. I love this notebook for it because I can flip the cover closed and still see the writing beneath it - which helps protect my notes a bit when my hands are that greasy! You can kind of see I've already started writing tips and things to try for the second batch.

For the second batch, I used slightly less oil than the recipe called for. Not enough to make a difference though, sadly. I understand the dough needs to be workable, but the most discerning of my tasters first comment was about there being too much oil - and as the cookies cooled off a bit, I began to agree with her.

I also wanted to make the second batch significantly smaller cookies, which called for smaller centers. Rather than spooning them out, I went in a slightly easier (though, more clean up required) direction and used a piping bag.

Not left handed, just posing. 

This worked much better - both for serving out and freezing. But I actually wound up with something like twice the number of frosting/filling dots as I needed.

This time I tried to keep the dough something like quarter or half-dollar size - I wanted much smaller cookies. It's hard to tell - but they are smaller. I did have more cracking through this time, probably because I was rolling the dough so thin. I didn't mind the cracking, but some people might. With the smaller size, I got about 50 cookies out of the batch.

The cookies were a winner with my husband and our friend, mixed reviews from my parents, but popular at the family picnic. Whew.

If I do them again (cue my husband making puppy-dog eyes at that if ) I would still like to cut the oil, or possibly find a substitute. I'm not sure I could sub anything in and still be able to work it/roll it as needed, but I'd be interested in trying.

Piping the frosting dots for freezing worked fairly well - so well I would try skipping the freeze and pipe directly into the rolled out dough. I'll probably also half the frosting recipe, and use a greater cream cheese to powdered sugar ratio. These cookies are sweet enough, I think I could go for just a bit more cream cheese. It'd also be interesting to try these with pre-made 'cheesecake' filling (like I see on the shelves near the cream cheese).

Overall, these were well-received - but I want to try some more tweaks to see if I can make them a little better, or at least feel like they're a little better for me...