Michelle Lopez’s Ube Crinkle Cookies

Christmas in the Philippines, where I was born, is a wonderful thing. Although the tropical country doesn’t ever get cool enough for a stereotypical snowy white Christmas (in fact, I’m pretty sure the coldest it ever gets in Manila is a balmy 75°F), it definitely makes up for it in style. There are plenty of Christmas trees, wreaths, fairy lights, and nativity scenes, but there are decorations that are unique to the Philippines, too — like the Filipino parol, a star-shaped lantern made from bamboo and paper. During the holiday season, many houses and businesses hang these colorful lanterns, turning Manila into a riot of color. In fact, when I immigrated to the United States from the Philippines, a typical, colorful Filipino Christmas was one of the things I was most homesick for.

I quickly came to embrace the Christmas traditions of the United States, too. Specifically, I fell in love with Western holiday desserts and the tradition of holiday baking. Many Western Christmas desserts — like pumpkin pies, Christmas Bundts, and plentiful batches of holiday cookies — are all-day affairs. I loved having the oven on all day, with its heat protecting me from the cold of a winter’s day. I loved the coziness and warming flavors of baked goods like gingerbread and chocolate crinkle cookies. 

In contrast, it never gets cool enough in the Philippines to leave your oven on all day. So Filipino Christmas desserts tend to be iced (like the iconic Filipino halo-halo, a shaved ice pudding made with tropical fruits and jellies), steamed (like biko, a sticky rice cake), or cooked quickly over the stovetop (like leche flan, a steamed flan similar to creme caramel). Similar to the Philippines’ colorful Christmas celebrations, these desserts are colorful, flavored with bright tropical flavors like mango, ube, pandan, and more. 

Every year, I visit my family in the Philippines and get nostalgic for the tropical Christmas desserts of my childhood. I always come back from Manila inspired, wishing I could incorporate more of my Filipino heritage into my adopted American one. Some of the recipes on Hummingbird High are a direct result of that fusion, like these ube crinkle cookies!

I’ve taken the chocolate crinkle cookie — a traditional holiday cookie here in America — and replaced its chocolate flavor with the beloved Filipino dessert flavor of ube. Ube, pronounced ooh-beh, is a purple yam often used in Filipino desserts. It has a natural, deep purple color and tastes delicious, too! Many folks describe ube’s flavor as a mix between vanilla and pistachio. It has a wonderfully earthy and almost nutty flavor. These cookies are the perfect marriage between my love for Filipino tropical flavors and more traditional Christmas baked goods.

Everyone I gave these cookies to were so impressed by their vivid purple color! If you can’t find purple food coloring, I think the ube jam and ube extract will still give a good dose of color, just one not as bright. These soft, cake-y cookies have a slightly earthy flavor from the ube and are a welcome change from butter or chocolate-heavy cookies. Definitely roll the dough balls a few times in powdered sugar so that there’s enough to coat and stay on the cookies as they bake. — Christine Gallary, Food Editor-at-Large