Taro White Chocolate Chip Cookies

Yay! Cookies!! This is my first year participating in the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap. What's better than receiving 3 dozen cookies from bloggers across the country!? Let me tell ya...nothing! :)

I received a dozen Peanut Butter Chippers from Sara at Sara Ran Away with the Spoon, a dozen Peppermint Mocha Cookies from Lauren at Making Life Sweet, and I received a dozen Hot Fudge Thumbprint Cookies with Caramel Drizzle from Meghan at The Tasty Fork.

So when you guys looked at the photo of my cookies…were you like…why are they purple? Or was the color a clue for some of you?

Have you guys ever heard of taro? What about bubble tea?

I fell in love with the taro flavor by drinking bubble tea. Bubble tea is a drink either iced or blended, available in many different flavors, and include little tapioca pearls (bubbles). Taro is my favorite flavor of bubble tea and it comes in this lovely shade of purple. Taro is actually a root vegetable and has a natural light purple color, to me it’s kind of like a nutty vanilla flavor. Bubble tea was created in Taiwan and it is available in some restaurants, there is a great little Thai place next to my office that has a small bubble tea room in the back, but you can also find it in some coffee houses and cafes.

Source

I used a taro powder that I ordered off the interwebs in my cookies. It’s actually a mix that I can make my own taro bubble tea with. I also have some tapioca pearls and fat straws in case I ever get a craving. This is what the taro powder looks like.

This is not the same brand of taro powder I used, as I can't remember where I ordered it from, but I found a pretty picture to show you from a company (Bossen) that sells it. 

Taro White Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, room temperature

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 eggs, room temperature

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp almond extract

2 cups flour

1 cup taro powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt
1 cup white chocolate chips

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 325 degrees, and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

2.  In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, or in a large bowl using a hand mixer cream together butter and both sugars until light and fluffy.

3.  Add eggs one at a time and then beat in vanilla and almond extract.

4.  In a large bowl sift together flour, taro powder, baking soda, and salt, then add it to the wet mixture in three additions, then stir in white chocolate chips.

5.  Place about a tablespoon on batter about an inch apart on the prepared baking sheets. Bake for 8-12 minutes until the edges start to brown. Cool on sheet about 5 minutes before placing on a wire cooling rack until cooled completely.

If you would like to participate in next years cookie swap go here and sign up for notifications. :)