Ube Crinkle Cookies

With its striking color and a unique nutty vanilla flavor profile, ube has taken over the world. Also known as purple yam, this beloved tuber has been a popular root vegetable in the Philippines for generations, later spreading to more places like Hawaii and Japan. In these ube crinkle cookies, the purple color is striking and intense. They're the perfect end to a Filipino dinner like sinigang (a tamarind-spiked one-pot stew), pork adobo, or pancit bihon (noodles with pork).

From halo halo and boba tea to more Western treats like brownies, ice cream, and pie, the uses of ube are endless. This recipe gives the classic crinkle cookie the ube treatment using ube halaya, a popular Filipino pudding made with ube and condensed milk, and ube extract.

While crinkle cookies are generally easy to make, one area that many struggle with is keeping the powdered sugar from absorbing into the cookie dough. This can be prevented with a simple assembly system that involves preparing the dough for the final bake in stages: You should first portion and roll all of the dough, then roll all the dough balls in granulated sugar (which creates a barrier that keeps the powdered sugar from melting into the dough), then roll them all in confectioners' sugar. Once all the cookies have been coated, bake immediately.

Did you try this recipe? Let us know how it went!