Brown Butter White Chocolate Ube Cookies
I have an obsession with ube right now because I love how it tastes and I love the purple color it gives everything. This week I decided to experiment with some white chocolate ube cookies. These cookies have a bright purple color and an earthy ube flavor. They’re also soft and tender in the middle and a little crispy on the outside. That’s the perfect texture in my opinion!
What is ube?
Ube is a dessert made from boiled and smashed purple yam and is typically found in the Philippines. When you have desserts like ube ice cream, ube cake, or ube donuts, ube is what gives the dessert its purple color and flavor. Traditionally when you make ube, you combine grated purple yam, condensed milk, and butter together in a pan and cook until thickened to the consistency of mashed potatoes. That is then added to your dessert for flavor and color.
For this recipe, I used both ube extract and ube halaya as I did in my ube ice cream and ube crinkle cookie recipes to give these cookies the most pronounced ube flavor. Both ingredients give the cookies their ube flavor and its pretty purple color.
Ingredients, Substitutions & Adjustments
- Ube extract – Adds both the purple color and ube flavor.
- Ube halaya – Add more ube flavor to the cookies and also adds to the pretty purple color.
- All purpose flour – AP flour is the main dry ingredient in these cookies. Make sure to use a spoon to scoop your flour into the measuring cup. Using your measuring cup to scoop out the flour will compress the flour which results in more flour in the dough. Too much flour causes the dough to not spread properly.
- Baking soda – Baking soda helps the cookies rise and give it that airiness.
- Butter – Adds a bit of a nutty flavor to the cookies. Those nutty flavor is further enhanced by browning the butter.
- Granulated sugar & light brown sugar – Both add sweetness to these cookies and help the cookies spread/rise. Granulated sugar helps the cookies spread, and brown sugar helps the cookies rise. Brown sugar also adds a bit more sweetness and moisture to these cookies because it has molasses.
- Eggs – Adds richness to these cookies. Make sure to use room temperature eggs for this recipe.
- Salt – The salt helps balance out the sweetness of these cookies.
- Vanilla extract – I am now a vanilla paste convert, but vanilla extract works for these cookies. You can also use 1 vanilla bean.
- White Chocolate chips – Use a lot of white chocolate chips because they’re just that good. I think it balances out the ube flavor really well. You can also use regular chocolate chips if you want! I tried this in testing, and it’s also good!
How to make brown butter white chocolate ube cookies
First, brown your butter. Melt the butter over medium heat in a small sauce pan until it melts. Lower the heat to low and cook until brown bits start to appear at the bottom of the pan and the butter is a golden brown color. Remove from the heat and set aside.
Combine all purpose flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. Mix and set aside. In a separate bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, combine browned, butter, granulated sugar, and light brown sugar. Using a stand mixer with paddle attachment or hand mixer, whisk the butter, sugar, and brown sugar together until a uniform brown color and the texture is fluffy.
Add the egg and mix until it is a light brown color. Next, add the ube extract, ube halaya, and vanilla extract. Mix until incorporated. Add the dry ingredients from step 1. Mix until just combined. Lastly, add the white chocolate chips and mix until just combined. Cover and let it rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C). Prepare a baking sheet by covering it with parchment paper. Use a 2 tablespoon (medium sized) cookie scoop to scoop your cookie dough onto the prepared baking sheet. Make sure there are 2 inches of space between each cookie. Bake for 10-12 minutes until the edges are light brown. Rest for 10 minutes on the baking sheet and then another 10 minutes on a cooling rack before serving.
White Chocolate Ube Cookies Video!
Tips on how to make the perfect white chocolate ube cookies
Scoop your flour into your measuring cup
This is such an important tip. If you are using US measurements (ie. cups) make sure to spoon your flour into your measuring cup. Don’t use your measuring cup to scoop out the flour. When you do this, you are actually compacting the flour into the measuring cup, meaning you will be using more flour than you’re are intending to.
Be careful about over mixing your dough
After you add the flour, make sure to stir only until just combined. As you mix the flour into the wet ingredients, gluten will start to form with each subsequent mixing motion. Gluten formation will make your cookies tough.
Why it’s important to rest cookie dough?
Resting the cookie dough is important because it helps to solidify the fat (ie. the butter). This is important because as the cookies bake, the fat will take longer to melt. The faster the fat melts, the more the cookie will spread.
Use an oven thermometer for even temps
This is perhaps my #1 tip for baking in general. Most ovens, even nice ones, don’t have accurate temperatures. The oven I’ve been using has a 25 degree discrepancy between what it says on the oven and the internal temperature. So an oven thermometer has been a life saviour for me.
Use a cookie scoop for even sized cookies
Not only does a cookie scoop make your cookies look uniform, they also help your cookies bake evenly. I used a medium sized (~2 tbsp) cookie scoop for this recipe.
How do you bake frozen cookie dough?
This is a common question I get a lot. Preheat the oven to ~20 degrees below the listed temperature. Place the frozen cookie dough on a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake for 2 to 5 minutes longer than the listed bake time so 12-15 minutes until the edges are light brown.
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Get the Recipe:
Brown Butter White Chocolate Ube Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cup all purpose flour
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp salt
- ½ cup unsalted butter
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup light brown sugar
- 1 egg, room temperature
- 1 tsp ube extract
- ¼ cup ube halaya
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- ½ cup white chocolate chips
Equipment
Instructions
- First, brown your butter. Melt the butter over medium heat in a small sauce pan until it melts. Lower the heat to low and cook until brown bits start to appear at the bottom of the pan and the butter is a golden brown color. Remove from the heat and set aside.
- Combine all purpose flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. Mix and set aside.
- In a separate bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, combine browned, butter, granulated sugar, and light brown sugar. Using a stand mixer with paddle attachment or hand mixer, whisk the butter, sugar, and brown sugar together until a uniform brown color and the texture is fluffy.
- Add the egg and mix until it is a light brown color.
- Next, add the ube extract, ube halaya, and vanilla extract. Mix until incorporated.
- Add the dry ingredients from step 1. Mix until just combined.
- Lastly, add the white chocolate chips and mix until just combined.
- Cover and let it rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C).
- Prepare a baking sheet by covering it with parchment paper. Use a 2 tablespoon (medium sized) cookie scoop to scoop your cookie dough onto the prepared baking sheet. Make sure there are 2 inches of space between each cookie.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes until the edges are light brown.
- Rest for 10 minutes on the baking sheet and then another 10 minutes on a cooling rack before serving.
really disappointing. I’ve made a ton of cookies so this definitely wasn’t user error in terms of baking. No where did the recipe say to use homemade halaya so I used what was available at my local Seafood City. I was concerned it had 1/4 cup sugar of each type, usually recipes like these have at least 3/4 to a cup of sugar EACH! But I went with it, knowing that the halaya I got had lots of sugar. The result? Literally zero sweetness. AND ZERO UBE FLAVOR!!! So I added extra halaya to try and fix it and it just broke the cookie. Now I’m trying to roll it in sugar but the structure is still a thin and easy to melt cookie, despite chilling it overnight. I’ve made sooo many cookie and they’re always a hit but this truly has disappointed me and my christmas party guests. Should’ve known better to add more sugar or better yet, not listen to this crap recipe. Bad.
I’m sorry these cookies didn’t work out. Thanks for sharing your experience.
I made these using the metric measurements, and though they were beautiful and tasty, there was not enough flour. They lacked structure. I would make these again but I think ill add more flour
Thanks for making the recipe and sharing your experience!
Can I substitute the ube halaya with ube jam/spread (BUENAS brand)? I don’t have access to purple yam where I live.
Yes you can!
I made these today, they came out great and the color was on point too. I did have to bake for longer though, I was having a hard time determining if they edges were browning due to the deep purple color they had. Also, do you recommend the middle rack to be the best location to bake them at? My cookies also didn’t spread that much because I pu the dough in the fridge for the recommended 30 min. Next time I will skip that step and see if they spread more.
Yes I recommend the middle rack as the best location to bake them. Thank you for making them and sharing your experience!
Can I make these gluten-free and vegan? How? Pls advise regarding substitutions
Hi Kathy. Unfortunately, I am not sure how to make these gluten free or vegan since I have not tested it for those options. The blog Bojon Gourmet has a great vegan and gluten free matcha cookie recipe.
I use just egg and vegan butter as a substitute and my cookies turn out great
Thank you for making the recipe and sharing your experience! I’m so glad they turned out great!
These are fantastic! I’ll be making them for a friend for her 50th and her party theme color is purple!
Happy birthday to your friend! I really hope she likes them 🙂
Hi! Is it possible to make the cookies without ube halaya? From reading the comments it looks like you may have originally made it without that ingredient. All I can buy where I live is the extract.
Yes you can make it without the ube halaya!
Hi Rebecca,
I normally love your recipes but this one didn’t really have that distinct Ube flavor based on your measurements. I also used the butterfly brand ube. What do you recommend to get the flavor?
Hi Sylvia. Thank you for the feedback. I would say adding more ube extract is the easiest way to increase that ube flavor.
Any thoughts about substituting coconut oil for butter?
Hi Markela! I think that you can substitute coconut oil for butter, but since I didn’t test this recipe with coconut oil, I am not sure how much to substitute. After doing a quick Google search, it seems you can substitute 1:1 with coconut oil. If you do try it, let me know!
Cookies were great and tasted yummy but missing the ube richness. Do you think its possible to add powdered ube? Also, my foodies didnt spread as much, any tips? Thanks’
I think it’s definitely possible to add ube powder or even ube halaya. I can’t say how much without testing it though. (I am actually going to retest this recipe using ube halaya within the next few weeks, so if you want to wait a few weeks to try this recipe again, I can tell you!) If you want the cookies to spread more, I would put them into the oven without cooling them in the fridge. Another option is to add less flour. If your dough is softer/more wet, it should spread more. Putting them in the fridge hardens the dough and makes your butter more solid, causing it to spread less. Adding more flour makes your dough drier. I hope that helps!
Very tasty cookies, but the actual color was nothing like in the picture here. It was much grayer, and in some lights, hard to even tell it was purple. That part was disappointing, because that was the main reason for trying this recipe, for me.
Hi Valerie. I’m sorry the color didn’t come through. Did you use Butterfly Ube Extract? I find that extract works really well because I use it all the time. I can’t speak to the quality of other brands however. I know some other brands produce the gray color because it doesn’t hold well in the oven.
Hi Becca, which brand did you use for the ube extract? Butterfly? I used a brand Bakersfield my mom bought me in the Philippines and it turned gray.
Oh no! I use the Butterfly brand. That’s the only one I’ve ever used. The purple color as well as the flavor holds up really well.
These are delicious! I like to add 1/4 cup of ube halaya (jam) for more flavor and makes them more gooey! If you don’t have an Asian market near you you can find it on Amazon! You can also roll them in powdered sugar for an ube crinkle cookie, just freeze the dough first so it’s easier to handle.
That sounds amazing! I definitely will try this! If you have a recipe you like for ube halaya please share!
I’m going to give this five stars because I love how simple and easy it was to whip these up. I made them according to the directions and they are absolutely beautiful! I do think that the recipe makes the cookie a bit “cakey”, which some people like, but I like a more gooey cookie. (Rated based on recipe, but personal preference differs with everyone!). I made a few according to directions but then I had an idea and I put a white chocolate lindt ball in the middle and baked it and got a gooey white chocolate center of this delicious cookie. Thanks for this simple, delicious recipe!
Thank you so much Arianna! If you want a more gooey cookie, try baking it for less time!
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Delicious cookies. Love using white chocolate chips too. Yum.
Thank you for making this recipe! I’m so glad you enjoyed them!