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INTRODUCTION

I have a red velvet cupcake post but I prepared them rather uncomfortably due to the large amount of red colouring used. Since then it is always in my mind to look out for natural colours that can substitute the red colouring.  Items  that comes to my mind are beet root, dragon fruit and red yeast rice.

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I remembered steamed some buns prepared using beet root juice and the colour just become dark brownish after steaming. As for red dragon fruits, some used it in the preparation of chiffon cake, the colour also disappeared after baking. For these two natural colour, just like my matcha post, I honestly believed that lemon juices or other acidic medium may need to be added to prevent the colour changes.

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When I was shopping in a Singaporean baking shop, I saw some red yeast rice powder being sold. I have intended to buy some to prepare my char siu or Chinese barbecue pork. For those who are interested to understand more about red yeast rice, Per Wikipedia:

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"Red yeast rice ( simplified Chinese : 红曲米 ; traditional Chinese : 紅麴米 ); pinyin : hóng qū mǐ; literally: "red yeast rice"), red rice koji (べにこうじ, lit. 'red koji') or akakoji (あかこぎ, also meaning 'red koji'), red fermented rice, red kojic rice, red koji rice, anka , or ang-kak , is a bright reddish purple fermented rice, which acquires its colour from being cultivated with the mold Monascus purpureus. Red yeast rice is what is referred to, in Japanese , as a koji, meaning 'grain or bean overgrown with a mold culture', a food preparation tradition going back to ca. 300 BC.[1] In both the scientific and popular literature in English that draws principally on Japanese, it is most often known as "red rice koji". English works favoring Chinese sources may prefer the translation "red yeast rice"." (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_yeast_rice )

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On second thought, I might experiment these red yeast powder in some common bakes. Unwilling to invest too much in this experiment, i have looked out for recipe for red velvet cookies,  a rather common bright red chocolate cookies in the America, Europe and Australia. In fact, last year, my neighbour just bought me some red velvet cookies when she visited Australia.

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The original recipes called for 1 tablespoon of red colouring, however, I have substituted it with 1.5 tablespoon of red yeast rice powder. The results were encouraging, though not as red as the original recipe, it is acceptable to me since there are some cocoa powder in the cookies that had darken the colour shade.

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WHAT IS REQUIRED

Recipes adapted from: Red Velvet Chocolate Chip Cookies.

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  • 200 grams of plain flour or all purpose flour

  • 180 grams of white chocolate chips

  • 115 grams of unsalted butter, soften at room temperature (you can substitute half of the butter with vegetable shortening to enhance the crispiness)

  • 120 grams of light brown sugar (original recipe is 150 grams but it is too sweet for my taste bud)

  • 50 grams of castor sugar

  • 30 grams of cocoa powder

  • 1 teaspoon of baking soda

  • 2 teaspoons of vanilla essence (optional)

  • 1 tablespoon  of milk

  • 1 egg, at room temperature

  • 1/4 teaspoon of salt

  • 1.5 tablespoons of red yeast rice powder

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STEPS OF PREPARATION

  • Pre-heat the oven to 175 degree Celsius and line some baking trays with parchment paper.

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  • In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add it the egg and vanilla essence, beat until well combined.  Sift in the cocoa powder, baking soda, salt, plain flour and red yeast rice flour. Either manually fold in the flour or use the machine's lowest speed to mix the batter until well combined. Add the milk in between the folding.

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  • Add the white chocolate chip and stir until well mixed. Scoop a tablespoon of the batter to the baking tray and repeat the same for the remaining batter. If desired, you can transfer the batter to a piping bag and top the batter with additional chocolate chips. There is no need to press the cookies as the cookies will spread when baked. Therefore, please leave adequate space for the cookies to expand during baking (at least 1-1.5 cm spacing).

  • Bake in the pre-heat oven of 175 degree Celsius for about 10-12 minutes and let it rest in the baking tray for additional 5 minutes before transferring to wire rack for cooling. If you want the cookies to be crispier, you can bake for additional 3-5 minutes at lower temperature of 150 degree Celsius. When completely cooled, store in an air tight container.

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CONCLUSION

If you are wondering how these cookies taste? It is a red colour chocolate cookies. It is rather addictive but I feel more comfortable with this natural colour alternative…It will definitely become outstanding in a tray of common colour cookies.  You can get these red yeast powder in most Asian bakery shops and do expect more "red colour" post from me in the near future. Ha-ha

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Hope you like the post today. Cheers and have a nice day.

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  • For more recipes, you can refer to my RECIPE INDEX (updated as at 8 June 2014)  here and you can follow me at PINTEREST or visit the blog's FACEBOOK PAGE to keep abreast of my future posts.

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