Ube crinkle cookies are so addictive: super soft, slightly chewy, and packed with the sweet and nutty flavor of ube. I dare you to only eat one. If you love ube and love fresh baked cookies rolled around in powdered sugar, these will be dangerous around you.
I’ve baked dozens and dozens of ube crinkle cookies for my family and I’ve finally found the recipe with the right balance of chewy and soft consistency. What’s great about this Filipino version of crinkle cookies is that you can make extra batches and freeze for later, that is if you can help yourself!
Background
Betty Crocker once stated that she was served a molasses crinkle cookie from Ms. Helen Fredell from Minnesota in the 20th century and since then, they’ve become a Christmas classic. Interestingly, it’s become especially popular in the Philippines in the form of chocolate crinkle cookies, but this ube version is a modern take and super easy to make at home.
What is ube?
If you haven’t heard of ube by now, I’m afraid you may be living under a rock. But I’m here to tell you that it’s simply a purple yam that is indigenous to the Philippines. You can find ube flavored anything these days, from ube ice cream on top of halo halo to ube waffles and ube cake.
Ube tastes similar to other yams–a nutty and sweet vanilla flavor–and it also ranges from light to a very vibrant purple center. If you can’t find fresh ube from your local Asian or Filipino grocery store, you can use frozen ube puree or ube halaya jam. For this recipe, I used frozen ube puree because it keeps in the freezer well, and is much faster than using fresh ube.
Baking tips
- Add glutinous rice flour for a chewy texture. It’s important to note that you cannot substitute regular rice flour for glutinous rice flour. Glutinous rice flour will give you the chewy texture because it’s the same flour as mochiko or mochi flour, but using rice flour will emphasize a crispy texture. You can find mochiko at your local grocery store in the Asian or international aisle.
- Sift all the dry ingredients. Glutinous rice flour has a tendency to clump and stick together, so sifting will make it easier to mix all the ingredients together.
- Freeze the dough before scooping with a disher! Freezing the dough will give your cookies more height and prevent them from melting in the oven. I like to put the entire bowl of dough in the freezer for about 20 minutes and scooping them with a disher to make it easier.
- Use more powdered sugar than you think. I know it might sound insane to use more sugar, but what makes these crinkle cookies is the crisp and white crinkle crust. Roll the balls of dough in a bowl of powdered sugar and place them at least one inch apart. If you don’t use enough powdered sugar, the white crust may melt too much and turn transparent.
- If you want a soft, light, and airy cookie texture, replace the glutinous rice flour with AP flour. To get a completely opposite texture and make light and fluffy crinkle cookies, you can replace all of the glutinous rice flour and replace it with all-purpose flour.
Freezing the dough for future use
What’s great about this recipe is that you can make a generous amount of cookies ahead of time and freeze them (before adding powdered sugar) in an airtight container for over a month. To prep cookies for the freezer, use a disher or ice cream scoop to make even balls of cookies and place them on a baking sheet lined with wax or parchment paper.
Freeze the balls for at least 30 minutes, then transfer the balls into a ziplock bag or airtight container. When you’re ready to bake them, just remove them from the freezer, roll them into powdered sugar directly and bake. What’s great about this recipe is that you don’t need to defrost them!
I like to place them on a cooling rack to have the cookies set for about five minutes before serving, but you can also serve fresh from the oven–just make sure you share!
How do you use frozen ube?
While you can find fresh ube at Filipino stores like Seafood City, it still may be hard to get a hold of especially because of it’s rising popularity. I was able to find Pamana brand frozen ube puree. I was able to add frozen ube (in addition to a few drops of ube extract) in this ube crinkle cookie recipe. Please note that the Pamana brand frozen ube puree has added sugar, so you can also use it in the same way as ube halaya.
What does ube extract taste like?
Ube extract is often artificially made so it will have a warm, nutty, and vanilla smell and flavor that is concentrated.
Ube Crinkle Cookies
Ingredients
Dry ingredients
- 120 g (1 c) all purpose flour
- 55 g (1/2 c) glutinous rice flour
- 4 g (1 tsp) baking powder
- 2 g (1/4 tsp) salt
Wet ingredients
- 113.4 g (1/2 c) unsalted butter melted
- 50 g (1/4 c) white granulated sugar
- 54 g (1/4 c) dark brown sugar
- 1 large whole egg room temperature
- 1 large egg yolk room temperature
- 160 g (8 tbsp) ube puree or ube halaya jam
- 1 tsp ube extract
Dusting
- ¼ c powdered sugar
Equipment Used
- spatula
- large mixing bowl
- dry measuring cups and spoons
- liquid measuring cups
- #50 disher optional
- parchment paper
- sheet pan
Instructions
- In a small mixing bowl add all dry ingredients (flours, baking powder, salt) and whisk to combine. Set aside.
- In a larger mixing bowl for wet ingredients, combine the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar until fully incorporated.
- Add the eggs into the wet ingredient bowl. Then, add the ube puree and ube extract. Combine until the dough mixture color is homogenous.
- Slowly add dry ingredients into the wet ingredients while mixing until incorporated.
- Chill the bowl of dough in the freezer for about 20 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 350 °F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- Remove dough from the freezer and scoop about 1 tablespoon (I used a #50 disher to scoop) of dough and roll into a ball.
- Roll the ball of dough in a bowl of powdered sugar until it’s well coated–I roll it around until it’s completely white on the outside. Place dough on a baking sheet and give one-inch space between each cookie.
- Bake for 12-15 minutes or until the cookies are firm. Remove from the oven and place the cookies on a cooling rack for five minutes. Serve and enjoy.
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8 oz is 1 cup not 1/2 cup so are we supposed to use 1/2 or 1 cup of halaya? The measurement equivalent doesn’t match.
Hey Jennifer, thanks for pointing that out! Yes it’s supposed to be 1/2 cup. I’ve updated the conversion as well as listed by weight and tbsp to make it clearer.
Is it necessary to use that extra egg yolk, or can I omit it?
Hi Ann, I recommend keeping it.
Thank you Huy for your reply. I made it as is.
I made these as per your instructions, they’re so good! Definitely will be making again. But I was curious, if I wanted more mochi, chewy consistency, can I use more glutinous rice flour? 1 c gl rice flour and 1/2 of flour instead?
Any mods can result in drastically different results than what I intended here. They can be good too, but the ratios matter so much its very hard to tell you exactly. Glad to hear it worked for you!
Thank yo so much for sharing this great recipe! Do you mind sharing the link for the cookie scoop you use? I’m planning to make big batch and don’t plan to round it by hand lol!
Yes let me add that now Mimi!
We are serving a large cookie table at my daughter’s wedding to a wonderful Filipino man. The cookies will all have to be baked and frozen a few weeks prior to the wedding. Can you tell me if these cookies freeze well AFTER being baked?
Thank you in advance!
Vicki
TBH Vicki I haven’t tested freezing after baking, only before.
Thank you for this recipe. Is there a difference if i use a rice flour instead of glutinous rice flour? I baked some already, delicious!! But i want to bake more but just ran out of glutinous flour. 🥺 all i have is rice flour and i googled and its not the same. 😵💫😵💫
The flours are not interchangeable, don’t do it 🙂
Make them! I made them tonight and my family loved them!!! So good! 10/10
Cookies were delicious! I followed the recipe to the T but noticed they have a cakey texture and are not very chewy. Why would that be?
Hey Patti, when adding in the dry ingredients, try not to overmix the batter because this will make a cakier texture. I also let the cookies sit on the counter for about 10-15 minutes after baking-–I find waiting a bit lets them settle and get chewier.
I tried making a double batch for a party and the dough got ruined…it became too soft even though I followed the weights accordingly and froze the dough for 2 hours…
Hi Gabriel, I have some guesses as to what may happened, but can’t be sure. Our recipe says to freeze for only 20 minutes–so it’s still scoopable afterwards. If you froze it for 2 hours I imagine you would have had to wait for it to defrost to be able to scoop. I wonder if this could affect the texture. Another possiblity is if the ube puree’s consistency is too different than what we used.