If you have been here for a little while, you might be familiar with my matcha neapolitan cookies. I developed this recipe almost two years ago and so many of you still make it today. I shared this cookie recipe like I would any other recipe — hoping a few of you would make it and that it would inspire you to experiment with different flavour combinations in your own kitchen. What I didn’t expect was how it would become the most popular recipe from my blog and Instagram. I have a little album on my phone where I’ve saved all the photos of the matcha neapolitan cookies that you’ve made and shared with me.
Since that summer, I’ve tried really hard to create new cookie recipes that “top” the matcha neapolitan cookies. I created a version with matcha and hojicha for The Kitchn as part of their best cookies of 2020 package and that was a lot of fun for me. In my kitchen, I’ve experimented with other flavour combinations like mixed berry and with tropical fruits but I haven’t published any of those iterations because I don’t think they’re as good as the original. I’m happy to report back that I’m ready to share a new cookie recipe that is a nice. little cookie companion to the matcha neapolitan. I’m not saying it is better than the original. Instead, you will have a much tougher decision now when you want to bake some cookies with fun flavours. If you are a newsletter subscriber (thank you!), you would’ve received this recipe in your inbox last month. I encourage you to sign up for it so you get all the fun recipes first!
From my (hopefully monthly) newsletter:
I want to use this newsletter to share special recipes before they get shared on the blog and little sneak peeks of any upcoming bakes. It is my way to say thank you for the support and that this blog would not exist without each and every one of you. Today, I’m sharing the recipe for Marbled Ube Cookies, is a soft and chewy sugar cookie much like my Matcha Neapolitan cookies. A fragrant ube dough is marbled with a classic vanilla dough for a vibrant cookie that is unlike any other. For the ube flavour, I use a mix of ground ube (or purple yam) powder and ube extract, both can be found at Asian grocery stores or speciality kitchen stores. If you have never had ube before, it is a purple root vegetable with a nutty, vanilla-like flavour. I love it in all desserts but there’s just something about a bright purple cookie that catches my attention.
Marbled Ube Cookies
Ingredients
- 227 g (1 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 250 g (1 1/4 cup) granulated sugar, and more for rolling
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 270 g (2 1/4 cup) all-purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp ube (purple yam) powder, see note
- 1 tbsp ube extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C). Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Set the baking sheet aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat together the butter and 11⁄4 cups (250 g) of the sugar on medium speed until they are smooth, about 30 seconds. Add the egg and vanilla and beat to combine.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix on low speed until just combined and no more streaks of the flour mixture remain, about 45 seconds.
- Divide the dough into two equal portions and leave one portion in the mixer. Add ube powder and extract to the mixer bowl. Mix on low speed until combined.
- Take a heaping tablespoon of each dough and combine the dough by rolling between the palms of your hands.
- Toss the dough balls in a bowl of granulated sugar until dough ball is coated.
- Place the dough balls on the prepared baking sheet, leaving 2 inches between each ball. Bake the cookies for 11 to 14 minutes, until the edges of the cookies are light golden brown. Optional: right before the cookies are ready to come out of the oven, tap the baking sheet on the oven rack a few times to create the ripple edges. Do not overbake the cookies.
- Remove the cookies from the oven and allow them to cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely. Enjoy!
![day two: sparkly matcha neapolitan shortbread cookies ✨
the instructions might seem confusing, but if you watch the video to see how the different flavour layers are stacked, it will make much more sense! these slice and bake cookies freeze extremely well so you can make the dough now and bake them off when you want to gift them. (makes 40-44)
vanilla dough:
85g (1/3 cup + 2 tsp) unsalted butter, room temp
45g (6 tbsp) powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla
90g (3/4 cup) all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
matcha dough:
85g (1/3 cup + 2 tsp) unsalted butter, room temp
45g (6 tbsp) powdered sugar
90g (3/4 cup) all-purpose flour
2 tsp culinary matcha powder
1/4 tsp salt
strawberry dough
85g (1/3 cup + 2 tsp) unsalted butter, room temp
45g 6 tbsp) powdered sugar
90g (3/4 cup) all-purpose flour
2 tbsp freeze-dried strawberry powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg white
coarse sanding sugar
for the vanilla dough, combine butter and powdered sugar in a bowl. mix until smooth. add vanilla. add flour and salt and mix until no dry streaks remain. do the same for the matcha and strawberry doughs in separate bowls
place one portion of the dough between two pieces of parchment paper and roll into a 5 x 9-inch rectangle that is about 1/4-inch thick. slide rolled out dough onto a baking sheet and freeze for 10 min until firm. repeat this step with the other portions of dough
remove the top piece of parchment from each slab and stack the strawberry, vanilla, and matcha dough layers. cut the slab down the middle the long way to form two 2.5 x 9-inch rectangles. with one half, carefully swap the order of the layers (example: if the first half of the dough is stacked svm, swap the second half so it’s msv. this will ensure that same flavour squares don’t stack on each other). stack the halves. press the layers gently to adhere them. return the stacked dough to the freezer for another 10min
[recipe cont’d in comments]
#christmasbaking #christmascookies #holidaybaking #holidaycookies #cookiedecorating](https://constellationinspiration.com/wp-content/plugins/instagram-feed/img/placeholder.png)
jenny says
that colour is sooo good
i am going make them for kids birthday next week
carol says
sweet
form the making to the end cookie they look soo appealing
JohnyLynn says
Hello! Can I use ube jam if I can’t find ube powder? If so, how much of the texture would change?
Arlene says
I substituted 2 tbsp ube powder with ube jam and it came out great!
Danielle says
Tasty and beautiful cookies! I weighed out each ingredient and found the dough to be a bit loose before rolling. I added about 2 tbsp extra flour (1 tbsp into each color batch) in order to have a better texture for rolling and a semi-denser cookie. Really simple recipe with a gorgeous outcome. Thank you!
Chris says
What a fun recipe to bake with my nine year old! He has a growing interest in baking and his Filipino heritage making these cookies a must-try. He especially enjoyed the process of hand marbling the cookies. We chilled the dough after rolling in an effort to get beautiful cookies with rippled edges. We’ll keep working on it and, I’m sure, enjoying many cookies along the way.
Sandy says
Do I need to rehydrate the ube powder before adding into mixer? The ube powder package states to rehydrate.
Clarissa says
Good question! Curious about reydrating the ube powder as well!
Victoria says
Did you end up rehydrating?
Shyanne says
No need to rehydrate, just use the powder =)
Ida says
The color didn’t come out as bright as the picture. Any suggestions?
Vanessa says
Can I use taro powder for this recipe?
Emily says
I was curious to know how many cookies are in one batch.
Shyanne says
Twelve 3oz cookies
Grace says
Just made these and they came out beautifully! They’re perfectly soft with slightly crisp edges. This makes me so happy because it’s not everyday I come across a great cookie recipe. According to my sisters, these were out of this universe!
EK says
Cookies came out flat; theres not enough flour. The base is basically a chewy sugar cookie base; I would recommend using a sugar cookie recipe that you know has worked for you in the past and adding the ube as directed here. Great idea; the recipe here needs to be reworked/retested.
Mai says
for the ube neapoliton cookies, will I still be adding in the ube powder? or will that be cut out completely?
Emme says
Hi! Do you have an ube extract that you recommend? I keep making these cookies, but find that the extract I got has too much food coloring in it, so they have a chemical aftertaste that I don’t care for. Thanks!
Kelly says
I made these cookies yesterday. Your recipe states 1 TABLESPOON of Ube Extract.I thought that sounded like an awful lot, but I did it anyway. They are VERY strongly flavored, and a very dark eggplant-purple, not the bright purple your cookies show. Today, I was rereading your recipe and at the bottom where you have the ‘neapolitan ube’ option, you say to divide the dough into 3, with 3/4 TEASPOON in one and 1/4 TEASPOON in another. Making a total of one TSP not one TBS for the recipe as a whole. Might want to correct this in your recipe and instructions, to save someone else the mistake.
Danielle says
I just made the same mistake with three batches of dough ugh 🙁