Truly Decadent Red Velvet Black & White Cookies (Gluten-Free, Of Course!)

Aw, heck. I’m sucking it up and writing about Valentine’s Day, after the fact. Because this dessert is so good I can’t keep it in any longer.

Such a controversial holiday. But why? Why does a holiday have to be created by the church or government to be a “real” holiday? Why not one that’s just because we want to?

I know some people get upset that they “must” do something on Valentine’s Day. But see, when I was growing up, my dad loved to go out and get my mother sentimental cards and tell her how much he loved her, all while she told him it was a bullsh** holiday and – though she smiled – a waste of time and money.

It taught my impressionable little mind that in spite of having 14 kids who were hard to raise (to put it mildly) he still thought she was the ultimate woman, his dream woman. They were a united front in the world.

I decided that people who didn’t like Valentine’s Day maybe just didn’t feel the way he did about her.

I know, I KNOW it was built up by the greeting card companies, in sometimes uncomfortable ads like the one Hallmark ran this year. But isn’t it a good thing, that there are ads to counteract the animosity between the sexes created by auto and booze companies? Ones that bring us together to buy into something instead of creating tension between us?

There, I’ve said my peace, and will now divulge the most decadent Valentine’s Day dessert I know of, Red Velvet Black and Whites. No, these are not dry cookies with flavorless white and chocolate sugar coating, but the lightest, fluffiest soft cakes, with two helpings of frosting – rich chocolate and vanilla cream cheese.

The best part is that the secret to the cookie texture is that they are gluten free, so nothing in them to make them tough.

I make them this way because I always hated black & white cookies, the kind you get wrapped in plastic in New York delis, until I had the version at Lassen& Hennigs, a gourmet grocery and deli in Brooklyn Heights. The frosting is so decadent that they don’t wrap them in plastic but put them in their own containers, sinfully beckoning to one from the cash register. (They are wrong, wrong, wrong!)

This is one of the few recipes I recommend using a gluten-free mix. I’m someone who bakes mostly from scratch. The chocolate frosting here alone takes as long as the cookies themselves. And, I do make red velvet cupcakes from scratch. So you know I wouldn’t be recommending it here if it weren’t a good idea. In this case, the Better Batter all-purpose gluten-free flour really does make a fantastic whoopee pie cookie, with a harder top and soft inside. I just make their cupcake recipe and bake it in a whoopee-pie pan (or muffin-top pan, or to make them even smaller, the bottom of a muffin tin).

Decadent Red Velvet Black and Whites

Makes about a dozen large muffin-top sized cookies

Do make the chocolate frosting a day ahead and reheat in microwave or over a double boiler to frost.

The cookie and cream cheese frosting recipes are from Better Batter’s web site. The chocolate frosting is the Shiny Fudge Frosting from Carole Walter’s Great Cakes.

For the Cookies:

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup buttermilk

1 1oz bottle red food coloring

2 cups Better Batter Gluten Free Flour

1/3 cup cocoa

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 tablespoon white vinegar

For the Cream Cheese Frosting:

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

8 oz cream cheese

3 cups powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the Chocolate Frosting:

½ cup sugar

¼ cup water

2 tablespoons light corn syrup

4 oz unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped

5 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

2 cups strained confectioner’s sugar (measured after straining)

2 tablespoons very hot water

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Make the chocolate frosting (a day ahead, if possible):

Assemble ingredients before proceeding. Put a kettle on to boil separately, for the hot water you will need later in the recipe.

Combine the sugar, water and corn syrup in a medium sized saucepan. Stir briefly, cover, and bring to a slow boil. Brush sides of saucepan occasionally if necessary with clear water to prevent crystals from forming. When sugar is completely dissolved, simmer syrup about 3 minutes.

Remove the sugar syrup from the heat and add the chocolate all at once, stirring continuously with a metal spoon until the chocolate is dissolved. Beat the butter into the chocolate mixture, then add the confectioner’s sugar alternately with the hot water, dividing the sugar into two parts and the water into two parts. Blend in the vanilla and beat again until smooth and shiny.

Keep chocolate frosting in an airtight container until ready to use. Reheat in microwave oven or over a double boiler but only just til soft, do not let it get excessively hot. This frosting must be kept warm to spread easily onto cookies.

Make the cookies:

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a muffin-top pan, or whoopee-pie pan. Beat butter or margarine in bowl, then add sugar, on medium speed, for about 4 minutes or until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, and vanilla.

Meanwhile, stir together buttermilk and food coloring in a small bowl. In another bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa and salt. Turn mixer speed to low. Alternate between the buttermilk and flour mixture, about a third at a time, until just combined.

In a small cup, stir together vinegar and baking soda. Allow to fizz before adding to the batter.

Fill pan, just enough to make a cookie, in each hollowed out area. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until tops lightly spring back when you touch them. Allow to cool on a rack.

Make the cream cheese frosting:

Cream butter and cream cheese together until smooth. Add vanilla extract and beat till very smooth. Add powdered sugar, and beat until frosting consistency.

When cookies are cooled, frost half with chocolate frosting and half with cream cheese frosting.