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:
- Ube Halaya (Ube Jam). I use Monika ube halaya anytime I make anything ube! In a pinch, you can also make your own with fresh or frozen ube—check out my recipe for Ube Halaya Jam For Baking.
- Purple Food Coloring. When developing this recipe, I found that I definitely needed to boost the cookies with food coloring. Without it, my cookies turned out a very light brown color with purplish tones.
For these cookies, I used a purple from this “Nifty Fifty” Americolor food coloring set. You can also buy as an individual bottle online. - Ube Extract. In the United States, there’s only a handful of brands that make ube extract: McCormick and Butterfly. I’ve used both and recommend either one!
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
Ingredients
For the Ube Crinkle Cookies
- 1 ¾ cups (7.85 ounces or 223 grams) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup (7 ounces or 198 grams) granulated sugar
- ½ cup (4 ounces or 113 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- ½ cup (4 ounces or 113 grams) ube halaya jam, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon purple food coloring
- 1 teaspoon ube extract
- ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup (4 ounces or 113 grams) confectioners' sugar
Equipment
- a 3-Tablespoon cookie dough scoop
Instructions
For the Ube Crinkle Cookies
- 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.
- Make the cookie dough. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
Notes
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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.
Just made this for the first time and it’s amazing!! Soft and perfect sweetness. Looked perfect too because I read all the important notes and some people’s comments. I used Ube hayala that I made from Ube powder since this was cheapest option and I couldn’t find it already made at my Asian groceries. I followed directions on YouTube using the powder, evaporated milk, coconut milk, sweetened condensed milk, sugar and Ube extract, cooking it till it became a thick paste. It worked wonderfully in the recipe! I will definitely make this again and again for everyone I know to share the love of Ube. I also used convection and it took 18 minutes.
These were so easy to make and I loved that they didn’t need to be refrigerated prior to baking! Flavor was absolutely delicious and texture was perfectly soft after 12 min in the oven. I’ve already made these twice and plan on making them again for my family this Christmas! Thanks for the recipe 🙂
These are amazing. I have made them for a year now and my son’s friends constantly request them (and we all know teenagers are picky). They are a hit every time I share them at work, parties, etc. They freeze well too! I make a triple batch and freeze half. Sometimes I freeze the dough to bake later. This is a delicious and easy recipe!
This is a hit every time! Kids love this purple cookies! However, I do not add colouring because the ube flavoring is already purple. This is an easy and delicious recipe.
Hi! I made this and the recipe was DELICIOUS but my cookies flattened out in the oven and the powdered sugar baked into the cookie so the layer of powdered sugar didn’t really “crinkle” up despite the really thick layer of powdered sugar I put it on. Any suggestions on how I can prevent it from flattening out and staying white/crinkly after baking?
Hm, how flat are we talking about? Flatter than the cookies in my pics/video? https://www.instagram.com/p/Cl9NlM-oPwq/
Just made my first batch after obsessing about these cookies for a year! I first tried these cookies from a Filipino baker in my town and fell in love. I’ve been craving them so often but she would only make special orders. I’m so excited to have found this recipe that seems to have produced the cookies I was hoping for! I used the Butterfly brand of ube flavor which has food dye in it, which was good because I didn’t use an other food coloring. They are a beautiful color and turned out great!
These cookies were okay. Not sure if I’d want to make them again. They are soft, chewy, but very doughy…like I don’t think there’s enough dry to wet ingredients. The dough is very sticky too so it’s not the easiest to work with. I made these cookies smaller (2T) and baked for longer at 17 min hoping it would be completely cooked though out but still ended up with a texture that seemed under baked. Visually, these are beautiful and eye catching. These cookies are for you if you like the underbaked texture.
These were a hit when I brought them to work. People who have never heard of or tasted anything made with ube flavor loved them. I like that they are easy to make. I did find that refrigerating the dough for at least an hour or over night made it easier to scoop and shape and roll in the powdered sugar. I have made these a few times now, and I am glad I have found this recipe. I followed the recipe as is and didn’t make any changes, it is definitely a keeper.
Hi! how can I make this with the ube vegetable I have? could food process it and then put it in? thank you!
Check out this recipe on how to make ube halaya jam with fresh ube! https://www.hummingbirdhigh.com/2022/10/best-ube-dessert-recipes.html
I have used this recipe about 3-4 times now and has been a hit each time. I can’t remember the brand of ube extract I used previously but it was good! This time I used Butterfly brand and I didn’t realize until afterwards that there is already food coloring in the Butterfly brand extract so my cookies are a darker purple than usual since I used twice the amount of coloring! They were still very pretty anyways. Also, when the recipe says THICK layer of powdered sugar, it should be REALLY THICK. I prefer this recipe over some cookies that I’ve had in store. The cookies are sooo soft! One of my coworkers compared the consistency to a soft brownie. I think that’s a good thing.
These are the BEST ube crinkles so far from all the ones I’ve tried making. And my SIL loves them and she’s picky…this will be my go to recipe from now on..Thank you so much for sharing!
So I made these before and I believe they worked fine, however this time I halved the sugar and they didn’t spread out when baked. They stayed round. Do you think it’s because I used less sugar, or did I probably do something else wrong? I smashed them a little with bottom of a pint glass and they were fine overall, but just curious what you thought. I would think they would spread less if I used less butter or something like that, but not less sugar. Perplexed!
Yes, because in addition to adding flavor to recipes, sugar helps baked goods like cookie dough and batter spread evenly when baked. If you want to reduce the sugar in the recipe and still have the cookies come out like they would the original recipe, you’d need to adjust the amount of flour in the recipe as well.
Came out perfect but the ube flavor is not as strong as I’d hoped. They are very sweet, I’d describe them as a very soft and sweet sugar cookie with a hint of ube flavor.
And as instructed, be very generous with the powdered sugar coating.
I’m so excited to make these cookies for my grandson‘s graduation party and I’ll definitely post pictures and send review.
My question is how many cookies does the recipe make?
The recipe makes 18 cookies!
These came out great and taste amazing! A bit on the sweet side but it may be explained by my complaint below. I made my own powdered sugar, but wasn’t able to blend it fine enough. As a result, the contrast on my cookies are a bit pale, but it still took on this signature crinkle cracks!
I am a bit confused on the servings and measurements for this recipe, however. I followed the weight measurements (i.e. 223 grams of flour instead of 1 3/4 cup) as I like being precise. I ended up with only 8 cookies total out of the proclaimed 18 cookie serving. Does this actually make 18 cookies? I used an ice cream scoop that i measured to be about 3 tablespoons– which i used in place of a 3 tablespoon cookie scoop.
I notice that when you move the slider around to adjust the amount of cookies you want to make, ONLY the imperial measurements change– not the weight measurements. So even if I change it to 1 cookie or 70 cookies, the weight measurements still end up being 223 grams of flour. Does this have anything to do with it? I understand 18 seems to be the default so maybe 223 grams of flour, for example, corresponds to an 18 cookie batch. This also may be why my cookies were on the sweeter side? The website as a whole seems to be a bit buggy on mobile.
Ugh, yeah, the slider thing is a tech issue I’m trying to figure atm. Right now, only the volume measures will change while the weight measures stay the same.
These were delicious!! I finally found a jar of vegan ube halaya and was so excited to make these. I used a flax egg instead of egg, and didn’t need purple food coloring because the extract had purple coloring in it already. I experimented with rolling some in sweetened coconut shreds instead of powdered sugar and oh my goodness!! They got toasty and added an almost savory-sweet flavor, like toasted almonds. It was a perfect compliment to the light sweet ube flavor. The texture of these was to die for, chewy and soft but crisp on the outside to bite into. Thank you!!
I never leave reviews. This is the best cookie recipe I’ve ever made im so happy. Fantastic. Used the Trader Joe’s ube jam and it was perfect + ube flavoring I bought in the Philippines. I didn’t blend my sugar enough so it was mostly regular sugar granulates on the outside- but still was really good- made it sort of a caramalized texture on the outside. Thank you!
The flavor of these cookies is great but they don’t cook right. I’ve tried twice and both times they come out uncooked. I even tried 360 degrees for 17 minutes.
I love a cookie with crisp edges and soft middle but these are just raw and mushy in the middle. The dough is very wet so my guess is the ratio of wet to dry ingredients needs to change.
I entered them in the state fair and did really well! Added white chocolate chips to mine. And altho I had purple food coloring, it did not need it. They were stunningly purple without coloring!
These were soooo good! The only thing I would suggest is only a few drops of food coloring vs a whole teaspoon. My tongue was black!
This recipe is amazing!! The flavor was perfect.. however I did find that 3 tablespoon for a ball was huge! I don’t make cookies often so maybe my judgement is off. I followed the directions anyways but ended up having to bake them closer to 18 minutes. I just pulled them out despite them still being mushy because I didn’t want to overtake them. I made the jam before that and I was already losing my motivation! I am happy to say that they turned out great, I’ll just make them half the size next time.
Followed recipe exactly as is and turned out great!! Didnt even need to make adjustments for high altitude since im 7000+ above sea level. Thank you for this wonderful and easy recipe. Everyone loved the ube crinkles. Big hit for the fam and friends.
I made this 3 times already, just with minor revision. I reduced the sugar from 1 cup to 1/2 cup and it was perfect. I usually don’t like anything too sweet, (my personal preference). I also reduced the size of the cookies so I have smaller cookies. Thanks for the recipe, so yummy.
Used this recipe for a work bake off and everyone loved it but I didn’t win because they didn’t believe that I baked it myself and thought I bought it. I’ll take that as a compliment! Great recipe!
I plan to make these this weekend. I was wondering if I can split the dough and make red bean paste with the other half. Rowan
I really like this recipe but mine came out cakey. It’s really soft and moist like a cake rather than a cookie. Taste is really good but would’ve loved it if it were more like a cookie texture if that makes sense
Absolutely the best cookie I ever ate – I under bake for 10-12 minutes, let stand on cookie sheet 5 minutes , then let stand on wax paper for 30 minutes. Shared my cookies with over a dozen friends – all RAVED about them! ONE PERFECT COOKIE!! Thanks Michelle
These were delicious, but my cookies didn’t crinkle 🙁 There was no crust, the sugar just melted. I did a very thick layer on chilled dough! What went wrong?
The first one I made was too sweet for my liking. The second one I put 3/4cup of sugar instead of 1 cup and left out vanilla extract. On my second attempt what happened is that the crinkles are tall and not flat at all. What exactly happened? Temp was at 350f consistently.
Removing the sugar kept the crinkles tall and puffy; sugar helps cookies (and other baked goods) spread.
I loved this recipe, will definitely make these again! The cookies were delicious and fluffy. I didn’t add food coloring because the jam and extract were purple enough.
I luckily already had some ube hayala in my pantry so this recipe was so simple and easy to make and it’s not too sweet!
Can these cookies be made gluten free? Can you suggest substitution amount for gf flour or almond flour? Thank you!!
Hi! I tried freezing the cookies before baking it the next day but it came out lumpy and have huge bumps. What went wrong here?
These cookies are definitely yummy, and I’d make them again.
I followed the recipe as is other than omitting the food colouring since the ube extract and halaya already made them quite vibrant. The ube flavour was a bit mild, so I’d add a bit more in the future.
It would be nice to have the weight of each cookie/scoop listed in the recipe since my 3 tbsp scoop only.yieled 24 cookies instead of 36 (doubled recipe). I read comments from others with the same issue. I used weight where provided, so it should be similar to the recipe amount. I increased the time to 15 minutes to account for the larger size.
For those saying they were undercooked, crinkle cookies usually taste a bit doughy when they first come out but firm up as they sit for a few hours. I will often make them 1 or 2 days in advance for improved flavour and texture.
Thanks for the recipe!
Have made this 2x so far and it disappears almost immediately each time. I used the Butterfly brand ube extract, and omitted the colouring as the extract is highly pigmented, and it came out beautifully purple. Not that anyone noticed in the time it took for my family to inhale these cookies. The first time I made it I rolled the dough in the icing sugar then knocked off the excess sugar with a light tap, the second time I heavily coated as suggested in this recipe. I much prefer the light coating of icing sugar, as you really taste the earthy ube flavour that way. Also tried different types of ube jam, and hands down go with the traditional kind that you can get at Good Shepherd in Baguio. It seems there is more ube in those.
I didn’t have ube extract on hand, so I subbed pistachio extract and almond extract (a shy quarter teaspoon of almond and a shy half of LorAnn SS pistachio). Came out well! Probably not 100% spot on flavor-wise compared to ube extract but I’d say pretty close. Baked for 15 minutes and they were very soft, a bit denser than your typical cakey cookie.
Made these just now, so good and easy!
Wish I could attach an image of them cause they came out perfect! They taste so so good too. I followed the recipe to the exact measurements and it paid off! I will be making these again for sure
These are perfect. Exactly like the ones I had in Hawaii. Soo good!
I’ve been searching for an Ube Crinkles recipe for so long. I’ve tried several & they just didn’t satisfy me. One had a good ube taste but not chewy. One was chewy but the taste wasn’t enough. I have tried & tried until I saw yours. And I loved it! Thank you!!!
One of our family’s favorite! Thank you for sharing! These cookies are so addicting and my go to for birthday celebration.
I used a 3 tablespoon cookie scoop but only got 10 cookies total instead of the 18 cookie serving size. I baked all the 10 cookies at once and took it out after 14 mins but noticed it was still very underbaked. I baked it again for another 7 ish minutes and it came out just right, light around overall but with a slight dense fudgy center bursting with ube flavor.
These were super easy to make, gorgeous and completely delicious! Our entire family loved them. Thank you so much for the recipe!
This cookie recipe is super tasty! Everyone who has tried it, has loved it. But I feel like mine always comes out pretty flat. What am I doing wrong? Help!
My best guess is that you need to chill it. I noticed most crinkle recipes require you to chill it for 4 hours or overnight.
I’m just wondering if I can leave the crinkles in the fridge to chill before baking. I noticed some crinkle recipes do this. Can I do that or is that going to ruin the crinkles??? It would be chilled for about 4 hours.
No chilling necessary!
Love this recipe, I switch 50g of my sugar to brown sugar and also add ube halaya in the middle of the cookie before baking!
Thanks for the recipe! My friends and I mostly enjoyed these cookies; I did feel that the ube flavor could’ve been stronger. I also experimented with two batches — one I baked on a pan lined with aluminum foil and another with silicone nonstick pad. The former I baked for 15 min, and the texture was just right but the flavor tasted a little doughy. The second I had to bake longer and ended up doing 22 min; the flavor was more normal but it was crunchier than I liked. They also didn’t flatten out as much as I expected—I might melt the butter in the future if I make this again.
These cookies look amazing and I can’t wait to try them. Can I use a smaller cookie scoop? 3 Tbs is too big. Has any tried making them smaller? (1.5 tbs?)
Made this today and everyone love it!Thank you!
Unfortunately, these are waaaaay too sweet for me. And based off other reviews, reducing the sugar isn’t a good way to remedy since it will affect the spread of the cookies. Super bummed because the ube flavor is yummy and the texture is great. Wondering if maybe mixing in dark chocolate would help cut through the sugar.
This recipe was a hit!! They were gone the same day I baked them! Is there a way to make the ube flavor stronger?
Hi, Michelle – I haven’t made the cookie yet, but I have a question. Where I work, at Penzeys Spices, we have freeze-dried ube chips (which we call Potato of Love). Do you think it would work to use them in place of the ube jam? I’m guessing not, but wanted to see if they would potentially work in any way in the recipe. Thanks for your thoughts!
Hi Suzanne, I don’t think the ube chips would work—ube jam has a lot of extra moisture that would affect the rest of the recipe. You can make your own ube jam (I have a recipe here: https://www.hummingbirdhigh.com/2022/10/best-ube-dessert-recipes.html) or try and find another ube crinkle cookie that uses ube powder? There’s a world in which you could pulverize the chips into a powder and use it in a recipe that uses ube powder.
Great ideas. Thanks!
such an amazing recipe thank you!!!
i made it for my school back sale and it was the first sold out!!