Sweet and soft cookies that pack an ube punch, these Ube Crinkles are a perfect alternative to your regular chocolate crinkles!

The story of these Ube Crinkles begin with leftover ube jam. You may remember that I shared my favorite ube halaya brand and my favorite ube cupcakes recipe at the start of the year. After making that, I had forgotten about the small amount of ube jam I had left over in the fridge– until my mother started using it as a spread on her toast. I quickly jumped in to tell her to leave me a little bit just so I could make a half recipe of the cute-as-buttons Ube Crinkles I came across from the Bake Happy blog.

I know that a lot of people love Chocolate Crinkles, but I think this is definitely a good change-up. Frankly speaking, I haven’t eaten a store-bought version of Ube Crinkles as good as these. It could just be my bad luck, but discovering this recipe feels like a victory for ube-lovers like myself who are always looking for ways to make good use of ube halaya.

In truth, I’m not a big crinkles girl because I am all about the chocolate chips, but I had to make these Ube Crinkles for two reasons: First, I like ube. Second, these look too yummy to pass up! How can you not love these cookies just from the color of them alone? In the end, I actually ended up enjoying these more than I expected.

The first thing that popped into my mind right after I had my first bite of these Ube Crinkles is that I wish I did not halve the recipe. In true crinkle cookie fashion, these are the type of cookies you want to pack with a pretty bow and dole out for everyone to try. They have a soft, almost cake-like center, plus a yummy ube flavor that cuts through the sweet shower of confectioner’s sugar on top.

Some people may argue that crinkles look nicer a little flatter, but I like the way these chubsters came out. I like the way I can bite into them feeling like I’m biting into soft, chewy puffs of ube goodness. To highlight that feeling is a trail of white powdery sugar falling from my fingers once I’m done. I know it sounds dramatic when I say it like that, so I’ll just say it straight: These are some delightful cookies!

Because I halved the recipe, I didn’t have enough cookies to give away to my extended family and close friends like I usually do when I make a full batch. I’m actually contemplating including these Ube Crinkles into the box of Christmas cookies I am planning to HOPEFULLY put together this year. They will definitely add color and a local flair to the set.

Recipe notes

As mentioned, the ube halaya I used for this recipe is from Bahay Pastulan. I recommend it both for eating and baking! If you happen to have other ube jams around, feel free to use that. 1/4 cup is all you need to set aside to make a half batch of these, but the recipe I included in this post is for a full batch of 36 cookies. It will make enough to share or to last you an entire week! (Maybe.)

This recipe is not at all difficult to put together. You can get the dough ready in a jiffy although it does need time to set in the fridge. I’m not sure if the fatness of the crinkles is caused by my leaving the dough to refrigerate for days before baking. I made the dough and left it to chill overnight, but I became busy the following days so I couldn’t bake it until two days after.

I reckon all that time spent in the fridge caused the dough to stay rounded through the baking process. Refrigerating the dough is actually the trick for when you don’t want your cookies to spread too much while baking. In this case, it might have been too much refrigeration lol.

The only tricky part about this recipe is when you prep the dough for baking. Once you scoop out the dough, you have to roll it in your hands really really quickly to keep it from softening too much. Immediately coat with the confectioner’s sugar. I find that the dough tends to absorb the confectioner’s sugar when it is left sitting on the baking tray for too long, so do this step ASAP and pop those suckers into the oven before all the sugar gets sucked in.

If the cookie mounds do absorb the sugar, don’t be tempted to re-roll the dough into the sugar. We don’t want these cookies to be sweeter than they should be. Just sift some confectioner’s sugar over the cookies once they’ve baked and cooled for a truly crinkle-y look. The Ube Crinkles will spread and crack on top, catching some of the powdered sugar in the small crevices. Now that’s some crinkle aesthetic for ya!

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Ube Crinkles

Sweet and soft cookies that pack an ube punch, these Ube Crinkles are a perfect alternative to your regular chocolate crinkles!

Ingredients

1½ cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup 1 stick unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
¼ cup brown sugar
½ cup sugar
1 egg, room temperature
½ cup ube halaya, ube jam
1 teaspoon ube flavoring
1/2 cup powdered sugar, for rolling (add more as needed)

Instructions

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg.
3. Add in the ube jam and flavoring, then mix until well combined.
4. Gradually add in the dry ingredients. Use a spatula to mix the dry ingredients in, just until incorporated. Cover the bowl with cling wrap and chill for at least 4 hours, or overnight. Once ready to bake, preheat oven to 350°F (180°C).
5. Using an ice cream scoop that measured 1-1/2 teaspoons, scoop out balls of cold dough and quickly roll into balls with your hands. Drop the balls into the confectioner's sugar and coat. Work on this step as fast as you can, making sure to space the pieces of dough 2 inches apart to allow room to expand.
6. Bake cookies for at least 7 minutes, or until firm around the edges but still a bit soft in the center. It will set as it cools.