About These Ube Crinkle Cookies
These ube crinkle cookies are a unique and special take on classic, chocolate crinkle cookies. They are soft and cakey but with a little chewiness, with subtle vanilla and pistachio flavors from the ube.
The cookie recipe below is also INTERNET FAMOUS. In 2020, they were featured in The Kitchn‘s Quarantine Cookie series highlighting the best holiday cookie recipes online.
Cookies Inspired By A New York Bakery!
When I lived in New York City, I befriended Autumn, the owner of Brooklyn Kolache, a bakery in my neighborhood that sold ube kolaches. It turned out that her husband Dennis is Filipino. He had gotten her hooked on ube. So much so that she developed an ube crinkle cookie recipe to sell at his bar, Swell Dive.
To this day, I maintain that her cookie is one of the best ube crinkle cookies I’ve ever eaten. But eventually, I decided to develop my own recipe. And that’s the one I’m sharing with you guys today!
Looking for more ube baked goods? Check out these 5-star rated Chewy and Fudgy Purple Ube Brownies!
Ingredients and Substitutions
Let’s talk about some the key ingredients in these ube crinkle cookies:
Sources, Recommendations, and and Substitutions
Let’s Fix Puffy and Patchy Cookies
Help! My ube crinkle cookies came out patchy. They don’t look anything like yours! Instead, they absorbed a lot of the confectioners’ sugar while baking and have big purple spots. What did I do wrong?
Ah, yes. To get the signature crinkle cookie look, you need to coat the ube crinkle cookies in a LOT of confectioners’ sugar. Like a lot, lot. There should be no visible purple spots. You should be uncomfortable with the amount of confectioners’ sugar around each dough ball! This is the secret to the classic crinkle cookie look!
Best Recipe Tips
Ingredient Tip
- Most baking recipes instruct you to sift confectioners’ sugar before using in the recipe. Confectioners’ sugar tends to clump when stored; sifting removes these lumps. However, you don’t need to sift the confectioners’ sugar for these ube crinkle cookies. Why? I find that the lumps in the confectioners’ sugar help coat the cookies more thoroughly. The lumps also break up into interesting crinkles when baked!
Technique Tips
- In the recipe, I instruct you to scoop the cookie dough with a cookie dough scoop. I then instruct you to drop the dough balls directly into the confectioners’ sugar and toss to coat. Don’t skip this step! If you drop the dough onto a sheet pan without coating them first, it’s likely that they’ll stick to the sheet pan. If you don’t plan on coating them immediately, I recommend chilling the dough for an hour first. Chilling the dough will make it easier to work with.
- Coat the cookies generously with confectioners’ sugar. I mean it. Ideally, you don’t want any purple spots showing on the cookie dough balls. These show up as “bald spots” on the cookies, ruining their crinkle effect. Additionally, the cookies will absorb some of the confectioners’ sugar as they bake. So err on the side of caution and cover them with a THICK layer of confectioners’ sugar!
Video: Making Ube Crinkle Cookies, One Step At A Time
Use the video player below to watch my Instagram Story tutorial on how to make ube crinkle cookies! Clicking the left or right side of the frame allows you to move through the different steps:
Get the Recipe:
Ube Crinkle Cookies Recipe
Prep: 5 minutes
Cook: 15 minutes
Bake Time: 12 minutes
Total: 32 minutes
Servings: 18 cookies
Ube crinkle cookies are a beautiful, Filipino-American twist on the classic crinkle cookie! Ube is a purple yam frequently used in Southeast Asian desserts. It is naturally purple in color, with a subtle flavor that tastes like both pistachio and vanilla. These ube crinkle cookies get their vibrant color and flavor from both ube halaya jam and ube extract!
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For the Ube Crinkle Cookies
For the Ube Crinkle Cookies
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Prep your oven and pans. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Line two half sheet pans with parchment paper.
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Make the cookie dough. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
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In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the sugar and butter. Beat on medium-high until light, fluffy, and doubled in volume, 3 to 5 minutes. Reduce the mixer to low and add the egg; beat until just combined. Use a rubber spatula to scrape down the bottom and sides of the bowl. With the mixer on low, add the ube halaya jam, purple food coloring, ube extract, and vanilla extract, beating until combined and completely purple, 1 to 2 minutes. Gradually add the dry ingredients and beat until just combined. Scrape down the bottom and sides of the bowl once more, and beat on low for an additional 30 seconds.
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Coat the cookies. Place the confectioners’ sugar in a medium, shallow bowl. Use a 3-Tablespoon cookie dough scoop to portion the cookie dough into balls, dropping them directly into the bowl with confectioners’ sugar. Toss until the cookie dough balls are completely and generously coated. Place the cookie dough balls at least 3 inches apart on the prepared sheet pans.
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Bake the cookies. Bake one pan at a time for 12 to 15 minutes, or until the edges have set but the centers are still soft.
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Serve and store. Serve warm, or at room temperature. The cookies can be stored in an airtight container or zip-top bag at room temperature for up to 3 days.
Loosely wrap the sheet pan with plastic wrap and freeze for 1 hour, or until the cookie dough balls are solid. Place the frozen cookie dough balls in an airtight container or zip-top bag. Freeze for up to 3 months.
When ready to bake, there’s no need to thaw the dough balls! Simply place on a lined sheet pan to thaw slightly as you preheat the oven. Then, once the oven is preheated, toss each cookie dough ball in the confectioners’ sugar. Bake for 15 minutes, or until the edges have set but the centers are still soft.
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Weeknight Baking:
Recipes to Fit your Schedule
Over the past several years of running Hummingbird High, I kept a crucial aspect of my life hidden from my readers: I had a full-time, extremely demanding job in the tech world. In my debut cookbook, Weeknight Baking, I finally reveal the secrets to baking delicious desserts on a tight schedule.
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