red velvet cookie attempt

My child asked for Red Velvet cookies as a snack for having friends over to watch a horror movie. The RED is an important part here. You know, like blood. 

So I did the thing where I didn't really follow the recipe and am now disappointed. At least I'm self aware? 

I didn't have a printed recipe in any of my cook books - not even the ones which are expressly just cookies. 

So I browsed recipes online. One with high ratings and good reviews was essentially a chocolate cookie recipe I've had for a long time, but with red. It suggested liquid dye, gel, or beet root powder. I thought that sounded fun, so I ordered the powder. And asked my husband to pick up white baking chips from the store.

I used margarine, set in the bowl overnight. I used the cocoa powder substitution for baking chocolate, as I've always done. No buttermilk, so I used coconut milk rather than water. Put in the beet powder with the flour. Hand stirred the "white cream morsels" in at the end. 

Used the little scoop tool to plop them on the baking tray. 

They needed the full 10 minutes. See this one? I tried to take them out at 8 minutes and it was NOT ready. 

They taste good. Cookies a success, but red velvet they are not.