Picture a tray of cookies coming out of the oven with golden edges, a soft centre and a deep purple colour that raises every eyebrow around the table. That is exactly what a good ube cookie recipe promises: the comfort of a classic American cookie married to the spectacular shade of the purple superfood from the Philippines. At Ubedia we work with ube powder from the Kinampay variety, grown in the Visayas and known for its intense natural colour and its mild, almost vanilla-like flavour. No colouring, no artificial flavouring: the colour and the taste come straight from the dried, ground tuber. In this article we share our tried-and-tested ube cookie recipe, with the exact proportions, the steps in detail and every tip you need to get soft purple cookies right every time, even if you are new to baking.
The ingredient for this recipe: Plain Ube Powder 200 g — 16.90 € (≈50 drinks), 100% purple yam, no additives, shipped from Aix-en-Provence within 72 h.
Why bake ube cookies?
Ube (Dioscorea alata) is a purple yam that has won over social media and bakeries the world over thanks to its natural colour and its subtle taste. In an ube cookie recipe, the powder brings three things at once: a purple colour like nothing else, a mild, slightly nutty note that goes beautifully with butter and sugar, and a particularly melting texture. Unlike a colouring, Kinampay ube powder holds up in the oven: your cookies stay purple even after baking. It is a dessert that impresses visually while staying simple to make, with ingredients you almost certainly already have in your cupboards.
The ingredients for your ube cookies
This recipe makes around 18 cookies of medium size. Allow 15 minutes of preparation and 11 to 13 minutes of baking.
- 250 g wheat flour (T55)
- 3 tablespoons of Ubedia ube powder (about 20 g)
- 150 g soft butter
- 120 g soft brown sugar
- 80 g white sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
- 1 pinch of salt
- 150 g white chocolate chips (optional but recommended)
The white chocolate is not compulsory, but its creamy sweetness brings the flavour of the ube forward. For an even more indulgent version, you can replace some of the chocolate with crushed macadamia nuts.
The ube cookie recipe step by step
- Preheat your oven to 175 °C (fan) and line two baking trays with greaseproof paper.
- In a mixing bowl, beat the soft butter with the brown sugar and the white sugar until you have a smooth, airy cream.
- Add the egg and the vanilla extract, then mix again.
- In another bowl, sift the flour, the ube powder, the bicarbonate of soda and the salt together. Sifting prevents lumps and spreads the purple colour evenly.
- Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ones, mixing just enough to bring the dough together. Do not overwork it, or the cookies will turn out hard.
- Add the white chocolate chips and fold them in gently with a spatula.
- Shape balls of about 40 g and set them well apart on the trays, as they spread while baking.
- Bake for 11 to 13 minutes: the edges should be set and the centre still slightly soft.
- Leave to cool for 5 minutes on the tray before transferring to a rack. The cookies finish firming up as they cool.
Tips for perfectly soft ube cookies
The secret of a soft cookie lies in the baking: it is better to slightly underbake than to overbake. Take the tray out when the centre still looks a little raw — it will carry on cooking on the hot tray. For nicely thick cookies, put the shaped dough in the fridge for 30 minutes before baking: the cold stops the butter melting too fast and limits the spread. Finally, stick to the dosage of the powder: three tablespoons are enough for a fine colour and a definite taste without bitterness. If you want to adjust the quantities for other preparations, see our guide to ube powder dosage.
The white chocolate version: our favourite
This is the variation we show most often, and the one that draws the most comments: the ube cookie with white chocolate. On paper the pairing is far from obvious — two mild ingredients, two sweet ingredients — and yet that is exactly what makes it work. The white chocolate brings the cocoa butter and the milky note; the ube brings the vegetal depth and the slight tuber bitterness that keeps the whole thing from becoming cloying. Visually, the white flecks on the purple crumb do all the work: it is the contrast that makes these cookies so photogenic.
The adjustments compared with the basic recipe:
- Go up to 180 g of white chocolate instead of 150 g, and choose chocolate chopped with a knife rather than uniform chips: you will get both large visible shards and fine powder that melts into the dough.
- Reduce the white sugar to 60 g (instead of 80 g). White chocolate already sweetens a great deal; without this adjustment, the taste of the ube disappears behind the sugar.
- Take the pinch of salt up to half a teaspoon of fleur de sel, plus a few crystals scattered on top of the balls just before baking. That is the detail that makes the difference.
- Set aside fifteen or so chocolate shards to press into the tops of the cookies as they come out of the oven, while they are still hot.
Two things to watch. White chocolate burns quickly: do not go above 175 °C and keep an eye on things from the tenth minute, because the shards on the surface brown before the cookie is baked through. And let the dough rest for 30 minutes in the cold — with 180 g of chocolate the cookies spread more, and the resting makes up for it.
For an even sharper version, add 50 g of toasted macadamia nuts: ube, white chocolate and macadamia make the most balanced trio we have tested. The same pairing works, incidentally, in our ube muffins and in our ube banana bread.
How to get a beautiful purple colour
The colour of your ube cookies depends directly on the quality of the powder. A pale or cut powder will give a dull purple, whereas a pure Kinampay ube powder like Ubedia's gives a clear purple that stands up to the heat of the oven. Baking at 175 °C preserves the shade; above 190 °C, the colour can brown slightly at the edges. If you are after an even more intense purple, add half a spoonful more powder, but taste the dough to keep the sweetness in balance. To understand everything about this superfood and its uses, our guide to all our ube recipes gathers our best sweet ideas.
Keeping and varying your purple cookies
Your ube cookies keep for 4 to 5 days in an airtight tin at room temperature. The raw dough also keeps very well: shape the balls, freeze them, and bake them straight from frozen (adding 2 minutes to the baking time) for fresh cookies on demand. Fancy something different? This same base works for a soft ube cake or, as a breakfast version, for ube pancakes. Ube is a very versatile ingredient that lends itself just as well to biscuits as to drinks or spoon desserts.
Which ube powder to choose for your cookies?
To succeed with this ube cookie recipe, the quality of the powder makes all the difference. At Ubedia, our powder is 100% purple yam, a single ingredient, sourced directly from growers in the Visayas, with full traceability from field to pouch, batch by batch, and with no additives. The 200 g size — 16.90 € is ideal for regular baking: enough for several batches of cookies, but also for lattes and smoothies. If you are starting out and want to explore the flavours, the Duo Rituel — 29.90 € pairs a plain size with a flavoured powder of your choice. All our sizes and buying advice are on our buy ube powder page.
You now have everything you need to get your ube cookies right: a reliable recipe, proven tips and a quality powder. All that is left is to put the apron on. Order your 200 g of ube powder and start your first batch of purple cookies this weekend.
