Giant, Bakery-Style Ube Cookies
I don’t have the biggest sweet tooth, but I do have two major weaknesses: a really good cookie and just about anything involving ube.
I’ve spent years perfecting my ideal cookie — big, buttery, slightly crisp around the edges, chewy in the middle, and absolutely never cakey. I don’t mean to brag (much), but I’ve gotten pretty dang good at making a delicious cookie.
In that time, I’ve also become completely obsessed with ube desserts. I had a slice of ube Basque cheesecake in NYC over a year ago, and I still think about it at least twice a week.
So when I started seeing those enormous, craggy, Levain-style cookies everywhere, it was only a matter of time before my two obsessions collided. The idea of a ridiculously thick (but still chewy!) ube-packed cookie was too good to resist. Not that anyone should want to.
These massive six-ounce cookies are packed with white chocolate and macadamia nuts, but the real star is the rich ube flavor.
What Is Ube?
Ube (pronounced oo-beh) is a vibrant purple yam that’s especially popular in Filipino desserts. It has a naturally sweet, earthy, slightly nutty flavor, often described as a cross between vanilla and pistachio, with a slight hint of coconut.
You’ve probably seen it popping up in everything from ice cream and cakes to donuts and lattes, thanks in part to its vibrant purple color that piques everyone’s interest. But ube is much more than a pretty ingredient — its unique flavor is what makes it especially delicious in desserts.
Wait, is ube the same as taro?
Nope! Ube is a purple yam, while taro is a completely different root vegetable. Ube has a sweeter, nuttier flavor, while taro is generally milder and starchier. And despite those purple taro drinks you’ve probably seen, taro itself usually has white or pale flesh, not ube’s vibrant purple color.
For these cookies, we’re using ube in two forms:
THE INGREDIENT SPOTLIGHT
Ube, Two Ways
Ube Halaya
A thick, sweet purple yam jam that adds ube flavor and creates the soft centers hidden inside these cookies.
Ube Extract
A concentrated flavoring that boosts the ube taste and gives the cookie dough its signature purple color.
Where to find them: Look for both ingredients at Filipino grocery stores, some Asian markets, or on Amazon.
Using both gives us more pronounced ube flavor without loading the dough with so much halaya that it gets overly soft. And a bonus: using ube halaya in these cookies doesn’t just add great flavor — it also does some of the textural work for us! In my usual cookie recipes, I sometimes add a little cornstarch to help keep the centers soft and tender. But ube is naturally starchy, and the halaya brings extra moisture to the dough, too. That means we can skip the cornstarch and still get that thick, soft, satisfyingly chewy texture I’m always after.
How to Make Thick and Chewy Ube Cookies
These cookies are a little different from your typical cookie recipe, but they’re surprisingly easy to put together. The biggest differences are how we handle the butter, shape the dough, and freeze the cookies before baking.
Freeze the Ube Halaya
Scoop tablespoon-sized portions of ube halaya onto a parchment-lined plate or baking sheet and freeze until firm.
Freezing the halaya makes it much easier to stuff the cookies without making a sticky mess. Plus, it helps keep that delicious filling right in the center.
Make the Ube Cookie Dough
Start by briefly beating butter with brown sugar and granulated sugar until combined. Unlike traditional cookie recipes, you don’t want to cream the butter and sugar until completely light and fluffy. We’re going for a dense, chewy cookie, not a cakey one, so we don’t want to over-incorporate air!
Mix in the eggs, ube halaya, ube extract, and vanilla. Then add the white chocolate and macadamia nuts, followed by the dry ingredients, mixing just until everything comes together.
The dough will be thick and very tacky, but it should be firm enough to handle without chilling first.
Stuff and Shape the Cookies
Divide the dough into large portions, aiming for approximately 150g (5.3 ounces) of dough per cookie, plus the frozen ube halaya filling. Use about two-thirds of each portion to form a base, nestle the frozen filling inside, then cover with the remaining dough and pinch the edges to seal completely.
Don’t roll the cookies into smooth balls! Instead, shape them into tall, irregular mounds, pinching and pressing the dough to create craggy peaks and ridges. Finish by pressing a few extra pieces of white chocolate into the tops.
Freeze the Dough
Arrange the shaped cookies on a parchment-lined baking sheet and freeze until completely firm.
This is an important step! Starting with frozen dough helps limit spreading as the butter melts, giving the cookies a better chance of maintaining their height while baking.
Bake & Cool
Bake the cookies straight from the freezer at 375°F, no more than four at a time, leaving plenty of room between them. I also recommend doubling up your baking sheets by stacking one inside another. This helps insulate the bottoms from the oven’s heat so they don’t get overly browned during the longer baking time these giant cookies require.
Because the cookies are purple, you can’t rely on golden-brown edges to tell when they’re done. Look for set edges and tops that no longer appear wet, while the centers remain soft.
Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet until the pan reaches room temperature. These are enormous cookies with soft, gooey centers, and they need that extra time to firm up before you move them.
And while baking in batches adds some time to the process, it’s worth it! Always make sure your baking sheets have cooled completely before adding the next batch of frozen dough. Placing cold cookie dough onto a hot pan starts melting the butter immediately, encouraging the cookies to spread before they even make it into the oven. We want to keep these babies as thick as possible!
Ube Cookie Variations
I love the combination of white chocolate, macadamia nuts, and gooey ube halaya, but there’s plenty of room to experiment! The subtly nutty, vanilla-like flavor of ube pairs beautifully with all kinds of chocolate, nuts, and creamy fillings.
| White Chocolate & Macadamia Nuts | My personal favorite! Creamy, buttery, crunchy, and the perfect complement to ube’s slightly earthy flavor. |
|---|---|
| Cookies & Cream | Swap the macadamias for roughly chopped Oreos, keeping some white chocolate for extra creamy sweetness. |
| Dark Chocolate | Use semisweet or dark chocolate chunks for a richer cookie that’s a little less sweet. |
| White Chocolate & Coconut | Try toasted coconut flakes for a tropical twist that pairs especially well with ube. |
| White Chocolate & Cream Cheese | Swap the ube halaya filling for a spoonful of sweetened cream cheese to create a tangy, cheesecake-like center. |
When swapping the mix-ins, aim for roughly the same total weight as the original recipe, and keep the pieces fairly chunky for that signature lumpy, bakery-style appearance.
Storing and Freezing Ube Cookies
Storing Baked Cookies
Refrigerate cooled cookies in an airtight container for up to 3–4 days, or freeze for up to 2 months. Let them come to room temperature or warm briefly before serving.
Freezing Cookie Dough
Freeze stuffed, shaped dough until solid, then transfer to an airtight container for up to 2 months. Bake straight from frozen, adding extra time as needed.
Thick & Chewy Ube Cookies
- Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes
- Yield: 9–10 cookies 1x
Ingredients
- 100g (roughly 1/3-1/2 cup) ube halaya, plus 10 tablespoons for filling
- 430g (roughly 3 1/2 cups) all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled if measuring by volume
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 5g (about 3/4 teaspoon) fine salt
- 225g (2 sticks / 1 cup) unsalted butter, cubed
- 170g (about 3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon) packed light brown sugar
- 70g (about 1/3 cup) granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons ube extract
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 225g (roughly 1 1/3 cups) chopped white chocolate, divided
- 120g (roughly 1 cup) roasted macadamia nuts, roughly chopped
Instructions
- Freeze the ube halaya filling. Line a small baking sheet or plate with parchment paper. Scoop 10 tablespoons of ube halaya onto the parchment, keeping the portions separate. Use your hands to gently roll the portions into individual balls. Freeze until firm enough to handle and wrap in cookie dough.
- Combine the dry ingredients. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
- Mix the butter and sugars. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the cubed butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar. Beat until well combined, scraping down the sides as needed. Avoid overly creaming the mixture so the cookies don’t wind up cakey.
- Add the wet ingredients. Beat in the eggs, 100g ube halaya, ube extract, and vanilla extract until incorporated. Scrape down the bowl as necessary.
- Finish the dough. Add the flour mixture and mix on low speed just until combined. Reserve about 25g of the white chocolate for topping, then fold the remaining 200g of white chocolate and the chopped macadamia nuts into the dough. Avoid overmixing.
- Portion and fill the cookies. Divide the dough into 9–10 large, equal-sized portions, weighing roughly 150 grams each. Flatten each portion into a thick disk, place a frozen ube halaya ball in the center, and carefully wrap the dough around the filling, pinching the seams closed to seal it completely.
- Shape and freeze the dough. Gently work each stuffed portion into a tall, irregular mound rather than a smooth, flattened ball. Leave the tops slightly craggy, with little peaks and ridges. Press half of the reserved white chocolate into the tops for extra bakery-style appeal. Arrange the dough mounds on a parchment-lined baking sheet and freeze until firm.
- Bake the cookies. Preheat the oven to 360°F (182°C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and place it on top of a second baking sheet to help prevent the bottoms from overbrowning. Arrange no more than 4 frozen cookies on each sheet, leaving plenty of space between them. Bake for approximately 25 minutes, or until the edges are set and the tops look baked but the centers remain very soft.
- Cool completely. Press extra white chocolate pieces on the tops of the cookies, if desired, to give more of the bakery-style look to the top. Leave the cookies on their baking sheets to cool and set before transferring. The cookies will continue to firm up as they cool, and the ube halaya centers will thicken from slightly gooey to rich and fudgy. When the baking sheets have fully cooled, remove the cookies and continue baking the next batch until all of the cookies have been baked.
Equipment
Buy Now → - Prep Time: 40 min
- Cook Time: 25 min
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
