Ube or Purple Sweet Potato Crinkle Cookies (with Egg or Eggless)

Ube or Purple Sweet Potato Crinkle Cookies (with Egg or Eggless)

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Prep Time: 30

Cook Time: 13

Chilling the dough: 4

Total Time: 4 43

Servings: cookies (depending on size)

Calories: 132kcal

Author: Marvellina

Amazingly soft and gooey crinkle cookies with a hint of ube or purple sweet potatoes is a HUGE hit in our house. The recipe can be made with egg or without egg. All the tips you need to know to get the perfect crinkles and to prevent the powdered sugar from melting.

Print Recipe

US Customary - Metric

Equipment

Ingredients

Dry ingredients:

200 grams all-purpose flour See notes 1 for gluten-free version
1 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp fine sea salt omit if you use salted butter/vegan butter

Wet ingredients:

110 gr mashed ube see notes 2 for substitute
113 gr butter unsalted, softened. or vegan butter
100 gr granulated sugar
50 gr light brown sugar
1 tsp ube extract or use purple food coloring if you can't find ube extract
1 large egg room temperature, omit for eggless version
1 egg yolk room temperature, omit for eggless version

For eggless ube crinkle cookies:

2 Tbsp finely ground flax seeds
6 Tbsp water

To roll the cookie doughs:

120 grams confectioners’ sugar 1 cup, for rolling & dusting cookies
50 grams granulated sugar 1/4 cup

Recommended equipments:

Instructions

For eggless version:

Mix ground flax seeds with water and let it sits for 10-15 minutes. The mixture will thicken like a loose gel

Prepare ube or purple sweet potatoes:

If using fresh ube, Okinawan purple sweet potatoes, or Stokes purple sweet potatoes, peel the skin and then cut into small 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.
If using frozen grated ube, thaw and pour off any excess liquid. Steam for about 10-15 minutes or until easily mashable. Pour off any excess liquid if any. Transfer to a food processor to blend until smooth consistency
Get 113 grams of ube or purple sweet potatoes to make cookies, you can keep the rest for other use
If you want to use ube powder, you need to rehydrate/reconstitute the powder. You can also use ube halaya/ube jam. If you use ube jam, you can omit the egg yolk

Prepare cookie dough:

Place the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl and whisk to mix. Set aside. Use an electric mixer to cream the butter and sugar until creamy and pale on high speed, about 2 minutes. Add room temperature egg and egg yolk (for egg version) or soaked flax seeds (for eggless version). Cream again until just combined. Add ube or purple sweet potatoes, food coloring or ube extract and beat until just combined
Add the flour mixture in 3 batches. You can switch to a spatula and let it mix until just combined. Don't overwork the dough. The dough will be very sticky at this point. As long as you don't see any more pockets of flour, you are done mixing

Chill the cookie dough:

Cover the mixing bowl and chill the dough in the fridge for at least 4 hours or in the freezer for about 2 hours. It is best if you can do it overnight. The longer you chill, the flavor will be more intense and it's easier for you to work with the dough too

Shape the cookies:

Preheat oven at 350 F (180 C) for a conventional oven. You may want to lower the temperature by 20 degrees if you use a convection oven. When the oven is done preheating, scoop about 1 1/2 Tbsp (about 30 grams/scoop #40) of the cookie dough out. With your lightly oiled palms, roll the dough into a round dough ball. The cookie dough is still sticky but easier to work with because it's cold. Place it on a lined cookie sheet, about 2 1/2 to 3 inches apart. They will spread
Cover each one in granulated sugar first and then generously roll them in icing sugar. This step prevents the icing sugar from being absorbed by the dough and you won't get the crinkle effect. Roll them about 2-3 times in the icing sugar to make sure each ball is well-coated, like HEAVILY coated (you get the point!) or the confectioners' sugar will not show much after baking. Get them into the oven immediately after that

Baking:

Pop them into the oven, 3rd rack from the top. Let them bake for 12 minutes for really soft cookies or 13-14 minutes if you want them crispier on the outside. The edge will set but the center is still soft when you pull them out from the oven. They look undone but they are still continue to cook even after out of the oven. You don't want to overbake if you want a soft and chewy texture. Overbaking these cookies will give you a cakey texture. Let them cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack.
They taste better the next day onwards as I find that the texture is slightly chewier compared to when just freshly baked on day one IMHO

Storing:

Let the cookies cool down completely and then keep in air-tight container. They can be kept at room temperature for about a week. If you want to keep them longer, freeze them. Simply thaw at room temperature before serving
I notice that after chilled in the fridge or kept frozen, the cookies have an even "chewier" texture (if you enjoy that!). My kids like them that way :)

Video

Notes

A reader has reported substituting this with King Arthur Flour's Gluten-Free mix and has success with it in case anyone wants to try
If you use mashed purple sweet potatoes instead of ube, the texture is going to be drier because purple sweet potatoes has less moisture. In this case, you want to add a about 1/2 teaspoons of milk or water as needed if the dough is dry. The cookie dough is supposed to be moist and sticky

Nutrition