These purple sweet potato linzer cookies consist of a homemade Okinawan sweet potato jam sandwiched between macadamia nut shortbread. If you don’t want to make your own jam, you can always substitute store bought ube halaya for another purple filling. Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links.

After last week’s butter mochi recipe, I’m circling back with more purple sweet potato. Have you all been enjoying this purple dessert series? I’ve still got more coming, but if you’re not a huge fan, don’t worry. I’ll make my way back around to yuzu in the next few weeks.

For now, enjoy this recipe for Asian-ish linzer cookies! Linzer cookies are sandwich cookies that have a design cut out of the front. Sometimes you find them stamped with patterns and dusted in powdered sugar. The most common iteration is with a red jam in the middle, which you might see frequently around Christmas. This purple sweet potato version, however, is great year round!

How to Make Purple Sweet Potato Filling

This recipe calls for my homemade Okinawan sweet potato jam for the filling between the shortbread. I know, it’s a hassle to go to a recipe and realize you need to make another recipe prior to the one you actually want. I promise you, though, if you love purple sweet potatoes, it’s really worth it.

purple Okinawan sweet potato jam with spoon in jar

My homemade purple jam is based off an ube halaya recipe, and it’s really easy. Simply blend cooked sweet potato (I cook mine in the microwave) with some sugar and coconut milk. Then you reduce it down on stovetop until you get a jam. You can make this days ahead of time and keep in the fridge.

You also only need a small amount of the jam for these cookies, so you can use the rest for toast or some of my other recipes, like purple sweet potato pop tarts!

Tips for Making Macadamia Nut Shortbread

The macadamia nut shortbread in this recipe is based off my Honolulu Cookie Company copycat recipe. If you love Honolulu Cookie Company but can’t get them where you live, definitely check it out.

The one tricky thing about this recipe is that it absolutely MUST be chilled right before baking. Especially with cutting out the small shapes in the cookie dough, the edges will not hold the shape without chilling.

If you don’t want to use macadamia nuts, you can also substitute with 1/2 cup all purpose flour for plain shortbread.

Cutting Out Linzer Cookie Shapes

I used these small pastry cutters from Amazon for these cookies. Feel free to use whatever small cookie cutters you like.

Make Them Ube Cookies

If you’re looking for a shortcut to get purple sandwich cookies, you can use store bought ube halaya for the filling. Halaya is a jelly or spread, so it’s basically the same as an ube jam and can be found online or at many Asian grocery stores. If you substitute more all purpose flour for the macadamia nuts and add a little ube extract, your cookie can even be purple!

Just an FYI: ube is a purple yam from the Philippines whereas Okinawan sweet potato is, clearly, a sweet potato from Japan, so they are different vegetables! But they have some similarities in color and taste. You should definitely try both!

More Purple Desserts

Like this recipe? Check out my other purple desserts!

purple sweet potato linzer cookies
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Purple Sweet Potato Linzer Cookies with Macadamia Nut Shortbread

Mochi Mommy
These linzer cookies are made with a macadamia nut shortbread with Okinawan sweet potato jam sandwiched in between.
Servings: 24 small sandwich cookies
Prep Time: 40 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Chill Time: 40 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
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Ingredients
  

  • 1 cup softened unsalted butter
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 egg
  • 2 cups all purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup macadamia nuts
  • 1/2 cup Okinawan sweet potato jam, See notes for substitutions
  • additional flour for dusting

Instructions
 

  • Using a food processor, pulse macadamia nuts into a sand-like powder. Be careful not to overdo it or you get macadamia nut butter. You should have around 1/2 cup. Set aside.
  • With an electric mixer, cream butter, sugar, and salt.
  • Add egg and mix until homogenous.
  • Add flour and ground macadamia nuts. Mix until just combined.
  • Wrap dough in plastic wrap and stick in the fridge to chill for 15-20 minutes.
  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line baking trays with parchment paper.
  • When dough is chilled, sprinkle some flour onto a clean surface to prevent sticking. Roll out dough to about 1/3-1/2" thick, adding more flour as necessary if dough is sticky. Cut out your cookies using cookie cutters. For the cookies in these photos, I used a circular cookie cutter about 1 1/2" in diameter, which resulted in about 48 cookies, making 24 cookie sandwiches. Use a smaller shaped cutter to cut out the center of half of the cookies. Roll out the scraps and repeat until all the dough has been used up.
  • Place the cut out cookies onto your baking trays and put back in the fridge to chill for another 15 minutes at minimum. After chilling, bake for 10 minutes or until the bottoms of the cookies are just turning brown.
  • Let cookies cool to room temperature. Then spoon about a teaspoon of Okinawan sweet potato jam (or other filling) onto half of the cookies. Top with the remaining half (with the center designs cut out) to complete your cookie sandwich. Keep leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge.

Notes

  • If you don’t want to use macadamia nuts, you can replace with 1/2 cup all purpose flour.
  • Chilling is VERY IMPORTANT for this recipe, especially if you are cutting out designs! I recommend following the instructions to chill the dough prior to cutting and chill again prior to putting it in the oven. If you do not chill this dough, the melting butter will completely flatten your cookie and lose any cut out shapes you have made.
  • My homemade Okinawan sweet potato jam is easy and SO GOOD with this mac nut shortbread. It tastes like an Okinawan sweet potato haupia pie in a cookie form. If you really don’t want to make the jam, you can substitute with store bought ube halaya instead for an ube linzer cookie. It is similar in appearance, but with a different flavor. For additional ube-ness, you can also add a teaspoon of ube extract to the shortbread dough.
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