Ube is Painting the Town Purple

From violet-hued ube mochi waffles at The Duchess to the lavender Yaki-lmo flat white with ube, hojicha, and honey at Café Dear Leon, the color purple is everywhere these days. That’s thanks to the naturally vibrant shade of ube, a yam from the Philippines that’s reminiscent of a sweet potato.

While the superfood is known for its antioxidants and inflammation reduction when eaten on its own, it’s also commonly found in sweets. Case in point: the ube doughnut strewn with “disco dust,” or edible glitter, at Kneads Bakery in Harbor East, pictured above.

Executive pastry chef Matthew Schneck was inspired to create the confection in 2023 after working at Lady Wong Patisserie, an award-winning Southeast Asian bakery in New York City.

“Ube is popular in this country, as are a lot of Asian flavors,” he says. “The whole trend is fusion.” The interest in ube is also a result of our widening palates. “Everyone has been eating the same thing for years,” he says. “But now you have a foodie scene with younger people who appreciate food at another level.”

Ube doughnuts contain only a few ingredients, including white chocolate, cream, powdered sugar, salt, and concentrated ube imported from Indonesia.

“In Asian culture, they don’t like sweet things as much as other countries,” says Schneck. “Everything they try to do has a balance of savory. Ube holds sweetness well and gives you that buttery flavor, but chefs are balancing it in a way where it can be both savory and sweet.”

On busy days, among their three locations, Kneads sells some 700 doughnuts, but on Ravens game days sales spike closer to 1,000, which isn’t surprising given the birds’ official team colors.

“That was intentional,” says Scheck. “We wanted to make sure the purple was something we could cross-utilize here in Baltimore.”