"Mmm. I love this ̶b̶u̶r̶g̶e̶r̶ cookie, it’s so delicious. One of the best ̶b̶u̶r̶g̶e̶r̶s̶ cookies I’ve ever had. In my universe, this place closed six years ago. I don’t know why. I really don’t. Mmm."
Ube crinkle cookies! I made these as a garnish for my birthday cake, but I ended up liking them more than the cake itself. It's so fun and vibrant, I love it!
I got the recipe from Kawaling Pinoy, with a few tweaks. I'll list my version down below.
Making these cookies was a lot of fun. I didn't read the recipe ahead of time so I didn't realise there was going to be some freezing/chilling involved. So yeah, read the recipe ahead of time, saves you rolling cookies out at 10:30pm even though you started at 2pm. (It won't take you 8 hours, I'm just really slow and also forgot about it in the fridge for a couple of hours)
I've gone on for long enough, it'd be super annoying to read through all this when you're trying to bake so I'll save the stories for after the recipe!
Ube Crinkle Cookies
Prep: 4.5 hrs (30mins prep, 4 hrs chilling - alternatively, 2 hrs in the freezer)
Bake: 10-12 mins
150g sugar
55g of plain oil (canola, sunflower, vegetable, anything with a neutral flavor)
1 egg
350g of ube halaya (ube jam, I used store bought but you can definitely make your own. The original recipe called for 680g but I only had 350g on hand, it worked out fine for me and I felt like going past 350g was going to mess with the consistency as my batter was already starting to turn runny that point. I'll try out what 680g looks like in another attempt)
2 tsp ube extract
250g flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
Violet food coloring, to your shade of preference (optional)
60g of icing sugar (for coating)
In a large bowl, cream together the oil and sugar
Add the egg and beat until it's frothy and pale
Add the ube extract and halaya and beat until well blended. If you want to, add the food coloring here. My halaya was already a striking color and the ube extract was a bright violet so I didn't feel the need to add extra colouring
Gradually add the dry ingredients and mix. You can use a spatula and mix by hand, or use a stand mixer with the paddle attachment. The original recipe recommended a dough hook but I felt like my batter was too runny for that to work
Cover and chill it in the fridge for 4 hrs or overnight, or put it in the freezer for 2 hours. Regardless of the consistency of your cookie dough, don't skip this part! It helps with forming the defining cracks and making the dough workable
Preheat the oven to 180°C and prepare a baking tray with baking paper or a silicone baking mat and set aside.
Place the icing sugar in a zip-lock/resealable bag or a small container. Tbh, I didn't actually measure my icing sugar, I just dumped a whole heap into a snack bag and stopped when I felt there was enough sugar to cover a few cookies.
Use a small cookie scoop or two spoons to scoop a spoonful and drop it into the bag/container. Close it up, give it a few shakes, and voila. A perfectly formed, sugar-coated, mess-free crinkle cookie! You can also just roll it in a bowl but I'm too messy for that. I also like rolling the dough in my hands before dropping it in the icing sugar so it's extra round, but that part is completely optional and I only do it because I think it makes the cookies look nicer.
Place them at least 5cm apart from each other. In my experience, 12 is about as many as you can fit in before it gets too crowded. Try to work fast so the cookies don't "melt" or start spreading too much, or put the tray in the fridge for 5 minutes before you bake
Bake in the oven at 180°C for 10-12 minutes. I love sitting by the oven and watching the cookies, you can see them spread and the cracks forming. It's straight up food porn. To test if the cookies are done, poke a toothpick through the centre (thickest) and check that there's no raw dough clinging to the toothpick when you pull it out.
Let the cookies stand on the tray for 5mins before resting it on a wire rack. Or, you could be lazy like me and just leave the baking tray on the stove so it still gets proper ventilation (make sure all the burners are off, also this would only work with gas stoves since electric is flat)
Get a few for yourself before your family comes and takes a whole bunch and your mom gives the rest to the neighbours
Grab a cookie and some tea, let's chat!
Making these cookies brought back a lot of fond memories. My mom used to make the chocolate version, and tbh, I liked it better than her choc chip cookies. Those choc chip cookies were so hard. For some reason though, the icing sugar on her cookies would sort of melt or set into the dough so it wouldn't be powdery white, more Krispy-Kreme glaze than anything. It was a lot neater to eat, these ube cookies make a mess when you bite into it. My mom was telling me that she didn't get to have it that often, they were a rare treat for her growing up. When she learned how to bake them herself, she sent some to my uncle in the army. He thought the icing sugar on them was mould! It was really sweet hearing about her childhood and her life in the Philippines before we moved to Australia. I liked being able to get lost in these cookies. There were a lot of grounding type of experiences that I appreciated, like rolling the dough around in the icing sugar and making sure that it was completely covered. Or even rolling the dough so that it was perfectly round. I've been really anxious and scared and nervous and all sorts of things recently, so it gave me some respite to just focus on the cookies spreading in the oven and watching the cracks form.
Since quarantine was still in full-effect at the time of my birthday, all that negativity was just bubbling up in me. It's hard not being able to see anyone. My boyfriend and I have tried to do some Zoom dates but it doesn't stack up. We tried watching movies on Netflix, as well as something I'd bought on Google Play but Google wouldn't allow it to be watched from two separate devices so that was really annoying.
In case you're not a big fan of Spider-Man, I was quoting Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse earlier. It's one of my favourite movies. I love everything about it; from the animation to the soundtrack to the storytelling and cinematography, everything is so beautifully well-done that it makes my heart swell. I could write an entire essay about it. There's a big theme in the movie that some might say is quite generic and shallow-Pinterest-board-wall-quotes-esque but it's so gorgeously done in the film:
Miles Morales: When will I know I'm ready? Peter B. Parker: You won't. It's a leap of faith. That's all it is, Miles. A leap of faith.
(I'm not doing the movie any justice, please do see it)
There's a lot of things that I've always been too anxious, too scared, too nervous to do. This blog is one of them. But I'm hoping that it'll be alright, and here you guys are, reading my blog now! This is my leap of faith. I hope it works out alright in the end. :)
Comentarios