No-Spread Ube Cut-Out Sugar Cookies (Holds Their Shape)

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2026 Update: I went back to the drawing board, redeveloped, tested, and retested a new recipe based on your feedback. This recipe is a brand new and revamped one made with ube halaya in addition to ube extract. What you get is a cut-out style sugar cookie that keeps its shape with a perfectly balanced texture, light, and flavorful!

Jump to:

• What Happened to the Old Recipe?
• Learning Lessons
• Which Brand of Ube Halaya and Extract to Use?
• What Coconut Milk Do I Use for Ube Desserts?
• Hydration Checks When Making the Dough
• Tips for Rolling and Cutting
• How to Make the Ube Flood Icing
• When to Serve
• Ube Sugar Cookies with Ube Icing
• Have You Tried This Recipe?

Update Disclosure: This post has been updated for one or more of the following reasons: easier reading, updated photos, clearer instructions, and just plain ol' improvements to the recipe (as noted).

What Happened to the Old Recipe?

There were people reaching out to kindly let me know how the sugar was wayyy too much for the flour used in the first recipe. Indeed, it just made a goopy dough. I apologize and I have learned my lesson in getting my ratios mixed up and double-checking my work.

Now that I've grown and learned - I really, really want to make this up to you. This is no longer the frustrating recipe it once was. This new recipe is fail-proof, made with real ube halaya that is easy to roll and cut out.

Learning Lessons

First of all, agreed. It was way too much sugar and butter that ended up being an oily mess.

• Fixed the Moisture Levels: So I went much lower with the sugar and butter this time. I also left out the egg white too. Why? Because I added in spoonfuls of ube halaya or ube jam. Halaya has actual ube (purple yam) in it, which retains moisture and keeps the cookie soft inside.
  
  It works on the same principle as adding mashed potatoes to potato rolls or European Kartoffelbrot where the tuber starches hold onto hydration, creating a soft, tender crumb.
  
  
• Reinforced the Ube Flavor: Many ube recipes out there don't have coconut milk in them. There's nothing wrong with that, but the problem with the lack of coconut is that these recipes miss an important aspect of capturing that traditional ube flavor from the Philippines. Most Filipino recipes that paired ube and coconut created a signature flavor that made ube very popular. If you want that authentic, dreamy, deep flavor of ube, you're gonna need to add a bit of coconut milk, so this is what's used in the cookie recipe to make a rollable dough.
  
  
• Updated the Icing Recipe: I changed the recipe completely to create a flood-type frosting that you can easily drizzle over the cookies or straight up 'flood' the cookie with. You can also control how thick or thin you want depending on how much coconut milk you add.

Which Brand of Ube Halaya and Extract to Use?

I'm not that particular with what brand to use, but you should check the ingredients section on the back of these jars. Just make sure there are no weird artificial flavors on the list. The brand I used for this recipe is called Mabuhay and their jam simply has purple yam (English name for ube, wow original), sugar, and water.

Given that it's rare to find actual, real ube in the United States, the next best thing is jarred ube halaya. Ube halaya is basically mashed ube with sweeteners, cooked down to make a delicious starchy jam. Though it's mostly used as a spread, it can be added as an ingredient for many bakes!

The brand Butterfly is a go-to for ube extract. It is easy to find online, but just be careful when you open that top cause if it pops open you could stain everything.

What Coconut Milk Do I Use for Ube Desserts?

Full. fat. It's just the best and tastiest and creates a lot of richness and depth! There are a lot of really, really great Asian brands that are commonly found in the Asian section of a grocery store. My pantry currently has cans of Chaokoh and Aroy-D.

The coconut fat separates from the water after sitting on the shelf for a while. Make sure to shake the can a few times to reintegrate the layers again before opening it.

Hydration Checks When Making the Dough

After creaming the sugar and butter, you'll need to add the ube halaya, extract, and egg yolk. There are real yams in ube halaya, so the creamed butter won't look perfectly smooth, but just a little bit grainy. This is the texture you want because you want to show you have bits of ube in your cookie.

Once you add the flour, it's going to look dry and dusty like the image above. You will want to add all the coconut milk at once, but do not panic! Start with just 1 tablespoon first and then mix again. It will slowly go from dusty to crumbly. Add more coconut milk 1 teaspoon at a time and remix until you get large crumbs.

At this point, you should be able to make a ball with the dough.

Tips for Rolling and Cutting

You can roll this dough out immediately on a clean work surface. In my image above, you can see that I put it on a silicone mat. Please remember *not* to use flour! To keep the dough from sticking to the rolling pin, place a sheet of parchment paper on top of the dough and roll out the dough to ¼" - ⅜" thick.

Using a metal cookie cutter, simply cut out shapes on the rolled dough and remove the excess first before lifting the cookies themselves. You can use an offset spatula to help you lift the cookies.

Create a ball with the excess dough, wrap in clingwrap, and place in the fridge for 5-10 minutes before rolling it out again.

How to Make the Ube Flood Icing

Slowly add the coconut milk 1 tablespoon at a time while mixing until you get your desired consistency.

For flooding and drizzling, you are looking for medium to high viscosity and icing that disappears into itself after 10 seconds. To test the consistency, bring a spoonful of the icing above the bowl and drip it back into the bowl. The drips should sit on top of the icing's surface and then slowly disappear into it. Use a piping bag to decorate the cookies with this thickened icing.

To dip the cookies instead, use more coconut milk until you get a loose glaze texture. Gently dip the cookie upside down into the icing, gently lift, and let the excess drip down completely before turning it right side up.

This frosting will develop a smooth, non-sticky outer shell in a couple of hours, but it will be softer than the snap-like crust of a royal icing.

When to Serve

I let these cookie sit out overnight before stacking them up and packaging them as gifts. My personal opinion is that these cookies taste better the next day. They gave off more of the ube flavor and got just a teeny bit more tender. One generous feedback from my friends is that it was the perfect coffee cookie.

But my favorite feedback of all is that,"it was not too sweet!"