25 Days of Christmas in Cookies

Day 25!!

   Merry Christmas Everyone! I felt that the best way to close this year's '25 Days of Christmas in Cookies' would be with an original recipe. Throughout this month, I have used my own recipes as well as the creative recipes of others (and I gave due credit). Since this is a new tradition (I hope) of my own, it seemed more appropriate to close with an original recipe too. 
   I like the idea of making desserts into other forms; such as S'mores Cupcakes, Snickerdoodle Cupcakes, Kyleigh's 4th of July S'mores Pie, Carrot Cupcakes, etc. So this recipe I am perfecting is making Red Velvet Cake into cookies! While it is my goal to determine the science behind the cocoa reacting with the acid to make a reddish-hue (as it was originally done, without a bottle of red food coloring), I will be using red food coloring initially. These are by no means perfect and are a work in progress, so bear with me. :)

Christmas Red Velvet Cookies

      1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

      1/4 tsp baking soda

      1/4 tsp salt

      1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, not Dutch process

      1/2 cup butter, room temperature

      2/3 cup packed dark brown sugar

      1/3 cup Greek yogurt, plain

      1/3 cup buttermilk

      1 tsp vanilla extract

      1 oz red food coloring

   Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

   In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder. Set aside.

   In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter until it is light and fluffy. Beat in the brown sugar and Greek yogurt. 

   After scraping down the sides of the bowl, slowly beat in the buttermilk alternately with the flour mixture. Once the buttermilk and all of the flour mixture has been incorporated, beat in the vanilla extract and food coloring.

   Drop by rounded teaspoons onto the prepared baking sheets about 2 inches apart. 

   Bake at 350 degrees F for 12 minutes. Let stand on the sheets for a minute or so then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling completely.

     While the cookies are cooling, it is time to whip up the frosting! Yay frosting!

      1 cup milk

      1 1/4 cup granulated sugar

      1/4 cup all-purpose flour 

      3/4 cup butter

      1 tsp vanilla extract

   In a saucepan over medium heat, combine milk and flour. Stir constantly until thick, resembling a white sauce. Set aside to cool.

   In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Beat in the vanilla and cooled cream sauce. Beat until the icing becomes stiff, about 10 to 15 minutes.

   Put a generous amount of frosting in a Ziplock bag and snip off a corner. In a swirling motion, pipe the frosting on each of the cooled cookies.

   Yumm!! Enjoy!