Amazingly Soft Ube or Purple Sweet Potato Crinkle Cookies

Amazingly soft and gooey crinkle cookies with a hint of ube or purple sweet potatoes are HUGE hit in our house. It’s hard to stay away from them.

Amazingly Soft Ube Crinkle Cookies

PURPLE CRINKLE COOKIES

These amazingly soft ube or purple sweet potato crinkle cookies have become one of our family favorites every year. I like the crusty cookies on the outside but the inside is soooo soft, gooey and just melt in your mouth!! It has that hint of purple sweet potato that I love. Even if you don’t think you will like purple sweet potato or ube, you will not mind it in these cookies. For Real!
*Please note that I will mention both Ube or purple sweet potatoes in this post, but they are not the same thing. I tried the recipe with ube and two different types of purple sweet potatoes. The recipe can be made with any of the three*

You can read about the different purple sweet potatoes and ube in this purple sweet potato chiffon cake.

WHAT TO SUBSTITUTE FOR FRESH UBE OR PURPLE SWEET POTATO

If you can’t find fresh ube (I couldn’t), you can get the frozen grated ube and then steam it and mash. Another option is to use ube jam (ube halaya). This is usually has been sweetened, so you may need to cut down on the amount of sugar. I have yet to try it with ube jam.

Frozen Grated Ube

DISCLOSURE: This post contains affiliate links, which support this site at no extra cost to you. I only recommend products that I've personally used or liked. It's also a good way to show you how the products look like and you can always purchase at your local stores or wherever the cheapest. Learn more.

WHY MY COOKIES TURN GREEN OR OTHER COLORS BUT PURPLE

I started getting comments from some of you who have tried this recipe and let me know that your cookies have turned green, or has green-blue speckles, some even brownish in color. Here’s the reason:
USE THE RIGHT PURPLE SWEET POTATO
I’ve made these crinkle cookies several times with ube, purple sweet potatoes (Stokes purple sweet potatoes), and Okinawan purple sweet potatoes and here’ what I found:
1. Ube dough
-The color of the dough remains very light purple after beating with butter and adding regular baking powder or aluminum-free baking powder. So, you can use either baking powder, that doesn’t cause the color change in this case.
-The color change to light brown after adding an egg. This is probably due to the purple and yellow from the yolk forming that light brown color.
2. Okinawan purple sweet potato dough
-The color of the dough remains purple after beating with butter and adding regular baking powder or aluminum-free baking powder. You can use either baking powder, that doesn’t cause the color change in this case.
-The color of the dough change to light brown to after adding an egg.
3. Purple sweet potato dough
The dough simply doesn’t change color even after adding an egg or after baking. This is the purple sweet potato I highly recommend to use in baking. They turn slightly darker after baking, but purple color is still vibrant. In the U.S. here known as Stokes purple sweet potatoes.

Stokes Purple Sweet Potatoes. They have brownish purple skin. I recommend using these.

IF YOU USE UBE OR OKINAWAN PURPLE SWEET POTATO

If you use ube or Okinawan purple sweet potato for this recipe, you will need to add food coloring or ube extract. With ube, which the color of the purple is s much more subtle and weaker IMO, it’s hard for the natural color to shine through. SOOOO, I added food coloring for a consistent result. I know it’s not an ideal solution, considering some people, including myself, trying to stay away from artificial coloring as much I can, but if you want to consistently get nice purple color cookies, food coloring will come in handy. There are too many variables or unknown to me and I wish I’m a chemist to be able to tell you what could have gone wrong or didn’t happen!
I’ve read other recipes and wondering how they can get the color to be consistent and all of the recipes that I’ve seen, calls for use of ube extract, which will deepen the purple color of the cookies. I don’t have ube extract, and so I use mixture of blue and red to make the purple color.

Food colorings are added to ube dough (left) and Okinawan purple sweet potato dough (right)

IF YOU USE STOKES PURPLE SWEET POTATO (WITH BROWNISH PURPLE SKIN)

You don’t need additional food coloring. The natural coloring is deep enough and your cookies will not change color. They may turn slightly darker after baked, but the inside will have nice purple color.

The cookies have that light taste of ube or purple sweet potatoes in it, which is really nice! Kids really are digging these cookies. I have to actually hide these cookies away from them LOL!

Now let’s go straight to how to make these purple crinkle cookies, shall we?

HOW TO MAKE SOFT AND GOOEY CRINKLE COOKIES

1. Mix the dry and wet ingredients separately
This will make sure things get mixed evenly and no funny taste on some spots and we prevent overmixing of the flour too
2. Chill the dough
The cookie dough is very sticky and need to be chilled for at least 4 hours or overnight is fine too. The dough may change color slightly to greenish or brownish (I notice this if I use purple sweet potato, but not on ube), this is normal. The inside of the dough is still purple
3. Let the cookie dough soften
Let the dough out at room temperature for about 15 minutes and it will soften and you can start scooping and shape the dough
4. Shaping
If the dough is getting to soft or wet after you are done shaping them into balls, put the tray back into the freezer for about 15 minutes. Don’t dip them in the powdered sugar yet. The refrigeration will prevent the cookie dough from spreading too much while baking. Then coat them in powdered sugar and bake immediately
5. Bake at low temperature
The recipe calls for baking at 325F. This will yield very soft cookies. Don’t be shocked by how soft they are when just out from the oven. Let them cool down for 1 minute and then transfer to cooling rack to let them cool down completely

THE BEST WAY TO STORE COOKIES

1. STORE FRESHLY BAKED COOKIES: Let them cool down completely.Store them in an air-tight container (make sure it’s really air-tight) or zipper lock bag with a piece of bread, no more than half size of the bread, at room temperature for 3-4 days. This will help to keep the cookies fresh longer.
For longer storage, I would suggest placing them in a freezer bag and freeze them. They can be kept up to 6 months. They can be re-crisped in the oven at 425 F for 4-5 minutes.
2. FREEZE COOKIE DOUGH: You can either roll the dough up into logs or I just roll them into little balls. I place the balls on a baking sheet and then place in the freezer for 30 minutes or so. They will firm up and then I transfer to freezer bag to save space. They can be thawed in the refrigerator overnight, then dip in confectioner sugar and then baked according to recipe.

These crinkle cookies are made with purple sweet potato (with brownish purple skin).

These crinkle cookies are made with ube.

UPDATES:
*I decided to update this post based on inputs from people who have tried this recipe but does not get purple color cookies. This recipe has been tested with ube (purple yam), Okinawan purple sweet potatoes, and regular purple sweet potatoes (Stokes purple sweet potatoes)*

Amazingly Soft Ube or Purple Sweet Potato Crinkle Cookies

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Cook Time: 16 minutes

Chill cookie dough: 2 hours

Servings: 26 -30 cookies

Author: Marvellina

Amazingly soft and gooey crinkle cookies with a hint of ube or purple sweet potatoes is a HUGE hit in our house. It’s hard to stay away from them.

PRINT

INGREDIENTS:

Dry ingredients:

• 280 grams all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ¾ tsp salt

Wet ingredients:

• 200 grams mashed purple sweet potato or ube or ube jam (ube halaya) See notes
• 1 stick butter (about 113 grams) unsalted, softened
• 200 grams granulated sugar
• 2 tsp ube extract if not using food coloring, not needed for Stokes purple sweet potatoes
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 large egg

Other ingredients:

• 120 grams confectioners’ sugar for rolling & dusting cookies

Food coloring (if not using ube extract and not needed if using Stokes purple sweet potatoes):

• Start with 4 drops blue food color
• Start with 6 drops of red food color

Recommended equipments:

• Cookie sheet
• Cookie scoop
• Stand mixer

INSTRUCTIONS:

Prepare ube or purple sweet potatoes:

1. If using fresh ube, Okinawan purple sweet potatoes, or Stokes purple sweet potatoes, peel the skin and then cut into large chunks and steam for about 15 minutes or until easily mash with fork. You can also microwave on high for 8-10 minutes or until soft.

2. If using frozen grated ube, steam then for about 10-15 minutes or until easily mashable

3. Get about 200 grams of purple sweet potatoes or ube to make cookies, you can eat the rest 🙂

Prepare cookie dough:

1. Place the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl and whisk to mix. Place mashed potatoes or ube and butter in a stand mixer bowl and fix the paddle attachment to the mixer to cream them until smooth and creamy. Add sugar, vanilla extract, and mix until combined. I need to scrap the side of the mixing bowl halfway to make sure it gets everything. Add in eggs and continue to mix  for another 2 minutes on speed

2. Turn the speed to low and gradually add in the flour mixture and let it mix until combine. Add food coloring or ube extract (if using) and continue to mix until the color is even and you are happy with the purple color.

Chill the dough:

1. If you use ube or Okinawan sweet potatoes, the dough is very sticky at this point. Stokes purple sweet potatoes don't have as much moisture and the dough is actually not as sticky. I could actually skip chilling the dough with it. Otherwise, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 1 hour. I let it refrigerate overnight. Don't be alarm if the dough changes color to darker green or brownish on the outside after refrigeration, the inside is still purple

2. Let the cookie dough out on the counter for about 15 minutes to let it soften a bit. Mix the dough a bit and the Preheat the oven to 325 F. Line the cookie sheet with parchment paper

Shape the cookies:

1. Scoop about 1 Tbsp of the cookie dough out. Roll it into a ball and place them on lined cookie sheet. If you feel that the dough is getting too sticky and wet by the time you are done shaping them, pop the whole tray in the freezer for 15 minutes. This will prevent the cookies from spreading out too much when you bake them.  Only get the tray out when you are ready to bake them. Then generously roll them in confectioners' sugar. Roll them several times to make sure each ball is well-coated

Baking:

1. Pop them into the oven. I bake them one tray at a time because my oven is just weird. You'll know your oven better. Let it bake for 14 minutes (my oven took about 16 minutes). They appear to be still very soft when you pull them out from the oven, but they will toughen up a bit as they cool down. The inside is still so soft and gooey

RECIPE NOTES:

*If you use frozen purple sweet potato or frozen grated ube, make sure you steam them and mash. The water content will affect the consistency of the dough. 

*If you use ube jam, you may need to adjust the amount of sugar as usually ube halaya (ube jam) is usually sweetened.