Ube Cookies Recipe: Soft Ube Crinkle Cookies

01 // The recipe

Ube cookies recipe (about 20 crinkles)

The dough is soft and sticky when you mix it, and that's how it should be. Two hours in the fridge firms it up enough to roll into balls. We roll them in granulated sugar first and icing sugar second, which gives the sharpest white cracks.

Prep time
20 minutes

Chilling
at least 2 hours

Baking time
12 minutes per tray

Makes
about 20 cookies

Ingredients

Ube paste

20 g Big Moca ube powder (about 2 scoops)
30 ml whole milk, warm

Dough

200 g plain (all-purpose) flour
6 g (1 1/2 tsp) baking powder
1/4 tsp fine salt
100 g unsalted butter, soft
150 g caster sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract

For rolling

50 g granulated sugar
60 g icing sugar

Method

Bloom the ube. Whisk the ube powder into the warm milk to a thick, smooth paste. Leave it for 10 minutes so the powder can soak up the milk.
Mix the dry ingredients. Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together in a bowl.
Cream the butter. Beat the butter and caster sugar for 2 to 3 minutes until pale and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then the ube paste and vanilla. The mixture may look a little split at this point; the flour brings it back together.
Add the flour and chill. Fold in the dry ingredients with a spatula until you see no more streaks. The dough will be soft, closer to a thick cake batter than a cookie dough. Cover the bowl and chill it for at least 2 hours, or overnight.
Shape and coat. Heat the oven to 180°C (350°F), or 160°C with fan, and line two baking trays with baking paper. Scoop the dough into balls of about 30 g, roughly a heaped tablespoon. Roll each ball in the granulated sugar, then give it a thick coat of icing sugar.
Bake. Put the balls on the trays with 5 cm between them. Bake one tray at a time for 10 to 12 minutes, until the cookies have spread and cracked and the edges are set. The centers should still look slightly underdone.
Cool. Leave the cookies on the tray for 5 minutes, then move them to a wire rack. They firm up as they cool.

Buy ube powder Ube cheesecake recipe

A baker dusting a tray of purple ube crinkle dough balls with icing sugar

A thick coat of icing sugar before baking

02 // The crinkle

Why crinkles crack.

The sugar coating dries out the surface of each ball while the inside stays soft. When the baking powder lifts the cookie in the oven, that dry skin tears open, and the purple dough shows through the gaps.

Cold dough is what makes it work. Warm dough spreads before the surface has time to set, and you end up with flat purple discs under a grey haze of sugar. If your kitchen is warm, put the shaped balls back in the fridge for 15 minutes before they go in the oven.

The layer of granulated sugar underneath matters too. It draws moisture from the dough, so the icing sugar on top stays white instead of melting into the cookie.

03 // Tips

Color, storage and a chewy version.

Take the cookies out while the centers still look soft. Browning dulls the purple, and ube shows its color best in a cookie that hasn't dried out.
Our ube powder is unsweetened, so don't cut the sugar in the dough. It carries the flavor and keeps the cookies soft.
For chewy ube cookies without the crinkle coat, skip the sugar rolling, stir 80 g of chopped white chocolate into the dough and press each ball down a little before baking.
The cookies keep for 4 days in a tin. You can also freeze the dough balls before rolling them in sugar. Let them sit for 10 minutes, coat them and add a minute or two to the baking time.

04 // The ube

Start with pure ube powder.

Our ube powder is dried purple yam, ground fine, with nothing added. A 100 g pouch makes five batches of these cookies. You can order it on our ube powder product page, or read our guide to buying ube powder first.

New to ube? What is ube? explains where it comes from and how it differs from taro. Our guide to baking with ube has the ratios we use for other cookies and cakes.

100% pure ube powder

05 // Questions

Ube cookie questions.

What are ube crinkles?

Ube crinkles are soft cookies rolled in icing sugar that crack open in the oven, so the purple dough shows through a white coating. They are popular in the Philippines, where they are usually made with ube halaya. This version uses pure ube powder, so you don't have to cook a jam first.

Why didn't my ube crinkles crack?

The dough was probably too warm, or the sugar coating was too thin. Chill the dough for at least 2 hours, roll the balls in granulated sugar before the icing sugar, and only bake them once the oven is fully heated.

How much ube powder goes into ube cookies?

About 10% of the flour weight. In this recipe that is 20 g of ube powder for 200 g of flour, which makes around 20 cookies. A 100 g pouch is enough for five batches.

Can I make the cookie dough a day ahead?

Yes. The dough keeps for up to 2 days in the fridge, covered. It gets quite firm, so let it sit at room temperature for about 10 minutes before you roll it into balls.

Ube crinkle
cookies