Rich, savory-sweet keto maple bacon cookies at just 1.1g net carbs each. I created this dairy-free treat around two of my favorite things: bacon fat and sugar-free maple syrup.
I've been making these maple bacon cookies for a while now, and the thing that sets them apart from every other keto cookie on my site is the fat source. No butter. No coconut oil. Pure rendered bacon fat. It gives the dough this subtle, savory richness that you can't get any other way.
I render mine from about 1.5 pounds of thick-cut bacon (I usually do a big batch in the oven and save the fat in a jar). One reader, Heidi, mentioned she used the full 1/2 cup of bacon fat and they came out rich without being greasy. That tracks with my experience. Thick-cut bacon renders a cleaner fat than thin-cut, and it makes a real difference in the final cookie.
The base is a mix of almond flour and coconut flour, which I landed on after testing several ratios. If you've made my almond flour cookies or my dairy-free flourless cookies, you know I like a blend. The coconut flour absorbs moisture and gives these a slightly denser, chewier bite. Without it, the cookies spread too thin and get crumbly.
I bake these at 325 degrees, not 350. I tested both temperatures multiple times, and the lower heat keeps the coconut flour from drying out the edges before the center sets. Ten minutes sounds short, but trust me on this one. They firm up on the tray as they cool.
The card calls for a two hour chill, and it is worth it if you have the time. I've made them both ways, and the chilled version has a more concentrated flavor (the maple and bacon fat really meld together). But if you're in a rush, they still come out great at room temperature. Similar to how my chewy keto peanut butter cookies work, the dough is forgiving enough to go either way.
These are one of the few keto cookies I make that are naturally dairy free without any substitutions. If you're avoiding dairy, you might also like my keto almond flour chocolate chip cookies (swap the butter for coconut oil) or my no bake cookies. But this recipe needs zero modifications. The bacon fat does all the work that butter would normally do.
These maple bacon cookies are a fun choice if you want something new to bake for Christmas.
How to Store Bacon Grease
Once you have strained out the bacon bits, store the grease in a glass jar or a stainless steel container. With all the meat removed, bacon grease stays fresh in the refrigerator for about six months, and you can freeze it too. You can keep it at room temperature, but it will go rancid faster, so use a dark, tightly sealed container. If it smells off, throw it out.
In a food processor, add dry ingredients and pulse until combined.
3
Make the dough
Add remaining ingredients and pulse until a smooth, stiff dough ball forms.
4
Optional: Refrigerate
Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours.
5
Make dough balls
Take a piece of dough and roll into a 1 inch ball and place on a parchment lined baking tray. Space each dough ball about 1.5 inches apart. Flatten each ball down with a spoon.
6
Bake it
Bake at 325 degrees for 10 minutes.
7
Cool down
Cool on the baking tray for 2 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.
Nutrition
Per serving: 1 cookie
Calories
87
Fat
7.4g
Protein
1.2g
Total carbs
5.5g
Fiber
4.4g
Net carbs
1.1g
Nutrition is an estimate calculated from the ingredients listed. Brands vary, so check labels if you track closely.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I add real bacon pieces to the dough instead of just using bacon fat?
I've tried this both ways. Fold in about 2-3 tablespoons of finely chopped, crispy bacon right before you form the dough balls. The pieces add a nice crunch, but make sure they're fully cooked and well drained. I prefer crumbling them small so every bite gets a hit of bacon texture along with the maple.
Do these cookies spread while baking or stay thick?
Mine stay pretty thick. The coconut flour absorbs a lot of moisture, so they hold their shape better than a pure almond flour dough. I flatten each ball with a spoon before baking because they won't spread much on their own. If yours are spreading too much, your bacon fat might be too warm when you mix it in. For a cookie that intentionally stays puffy, my keto pumpkin chocolate chip cookies use a similar coconut flour ratio.
What's the best way to render bacon fat for this recipe?
I lay about 1.5 pounds of thick-cut bacon on a sheet pan and bake at 400 degrees for 18-20 minutes. The fat collects on the pan, and I strain it through a fine mesh sieve into a mason jar. Thick-cut gives you cleaner, better-tasting fat than thin-cut. One batch gives me more than enough for these keto cookies plus extra to keep in the fridge for weeks.
Can I use all almond flour and skip the coconut flour?
I tested an all-almond-flour version early on and the cookies spread too thin and turned crumbly. The coconut flour absorbs extra moisture and gives them a chewier, denser texture that holds together. If you really can't use coconut flour, try adding an extra 1/4 cup of almond flour, but I'll be honest, the texture won't be the same.
How should I store these cookies, and can I freeze them?
I keep mine in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week. For freezing, I separate layers with parchment paper and they keep for about two months. When I reheat from frozen, I pop them in the oven at 300 degrees for 3-4 minutes. They taste almost as good as fresh that way.
Can I use a different sweetener instead of erythritol and monk fruit?
I've made these with allulose and they came out slightly softer, which I actually liked. Any granular low carb sweetener works, just match the volume. If you go with a liquid sweetener, you'll need to cut back on the maple syrup or add a bit more coconut flour to keep the dough from getting too wet. I'd start with half the liquid sweetener and adjust from there.
Does the bacon fat make these cookies greasy?
Not at all, and I was curious about this too when I first developed the recipe. Bacon fat solidifies at room temperature, so it behaves a lot like butter in baking. The cookies come out rich but not oily. The key is using the full 1/2 cup. I tried reducing it once and the dough was too dry and crumbly. If you enjoy that kind of rich, buttery cookie base, my keto german chocolate cookies have a similar fat ratio.
I gave the dough the full two hours in the fridge and it was worth it! Rolls into 1 inch balls without sticking to your hands at all. My whole kitchen smelled like a diner!
Out of coconut flour, can I just use all almond flour, or will the texture be off? I know coconut flour absorbs way more liquid so I’m guessing it’s not 1:1.
Rebecca, I tried that early on and they spread everywhere and fell apart. The coconut flour is what holds them together. Psyllium husk powder (about 1 tbsp) might help, but I can’t promise the same chew.
Wasn’t expecting 1.25 teaspoons of salt in a cookie recipe, almost cut it but went with it anyway. The salt’s actually doing something against the maple, you catch it on the first bite. First keto baking attempt, and the food processor step was easier than I expected. Annie, would these hold up for shipping? I want to send a batch to my sister but not sure the texture survives two days in a box.
Should hold up. Mine come out dense from the coconut flour, and they keep at room temp for a full week, so two days in transit isn’t an issue. I’d wrap them individually in parchment so they don’t stick together in the box.
I started making a double batch because I was already rendering bacon fat on Sundays and it felt wasteful not to use it all, so now I keep the dough in the fridge and just bake four or five off whenever I want them during the week. Made some on day four and honestly couldn’t tell a difference from day one.
Olivia, four days and still holding up is better than I’d expect from most doughs. The coconut flour probably keeps it stable longer than almond-only would. The Sunday batch idea is going into my rotation.
Jarred works fine. I render my own mostly because I end up with 1.5 pounds of bacon and the fat is just sitting there, but if you have the jarred stuff it bakes up the same.
My son has a tree nut allergy, so almond flour’s out. Since the dough uses both, I don’t want to mess up the ratio with a straight swap. Would sunflower seed flour work, or is there something that pairs better with the coconut flour?
Sunflower seed flour works 1:1 for the almond flour, but it turns green when it hits baking powder (harmless, just ugly). Add a teaspoon of lemon juice to the dough and it stops it. Pumpkin seed flour is honestly cleaner for nut-free baking, same ratio, no color drama.
I’d never cooked with rendered bacon fat before, so I was unsure going in. Had 1.5 pounds to use up and figured this was the recipe. The food processor step is really satisfying, dough came together into a tight little ball fast. Refrigerated mine the full two hours and rolling was easy. The flavor surprised me though. That combination of maple and salty bacon fat reads almost like shortbread but with something I can’t quite name. I probably made mine a bit thick because I only got about 16 out of the batch, which is why I’m holding off on 5 stars (still figuring out the size). First keto dessert I actually want to eat again, and that’s enough for me.
Thick cookies means fewer but bigger, so that trade-off usually works out fine. Flatten each ball with a spoon before baking next time – I press mine to about 1/4 inch, that’s where the crisp edges come from too.
The bacon fat in these is doing something genuinely compelling, a savory-sweet depth I haven’t found in any other keto cookie. One gripe: if your bacon drippings are already salty, the full 1 1/4 teaspoons of added salt will push these over the edge. Cut it to 3/4 teaspoon and they’re a different cookie entirely.
Batch six of these and I finally feel like I understand the chill step. Skip it and they spread — still fine — but the 2-hour rest gives you that thick, shortbread-like bite that holds when you snap it apart. I’ve also started adding 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon with the dry ingredients in the food processor and it rounds out the ChocZero maple without fighting the bacon fat. Worth trying if you’ve made these a few times.
My son watched me add bacon fat to cookie dough and gave me a full side-eye. Like I’d lost my mind. He tried one mostly to prove a point and went quiet for a second before saying ‘okay, that’s actually good’ in this very reluctant tone. Said it all. I do wish the maple came through stronger, so next time I’m brushing a little extra ChocZero on top before they go in the oven.
Reluctant kid approval is the hardest kind to earn. Try warming the ChocZero a little before brushing, it spreads thinner and you get more coverage. The maple gets stronger once it bakes.
Added a pinch of cinnamon to the dry mix and it did something unexpected to the maple-bacon combo, almost like a morning pastry instead of a dessert cookie. The sweetness and the salt just sort of clicked together differently. Going to try smoked cinnamon next.
Bacon fat in a cookie felt like a fever dream when I first read the ingredient list, but I had some sitting in the fridge from a big breakfast weekend and figured I had nothing to lose. The dough came together in the food processor faster than I expected, and once they hit the oven the maple smell alone was worth it. I was bracing for weird and got something I would actually bring to someone’s house. Four stars because I skipped the refrigerator step and I think that one is on me.
My son won’t go near anything coconut-flavored (he can always taste it, or so he claims), so I expected him to completely skip these. He ate four before I even got one. The bacon fat must really cover it because he had no idea. I’d probably go a little lighter on the maple syrup next batch since they came out sweeter than I expected, but that’s minor.
Four cookies from the kid who can always taste coconut. That’s a better result than I expected. For the sweetness, try pulling the maple syrup back to 3 tablespoons instead of the full 1/4 cup. Should balance it out without changing the texture.
Maple and bacon fat together. It works. One note: 1 1/4 tsp salt reads high for this batch size, and I pulled it to a teaspoon on my second try with noticeably better balance. ChocZero maple comes through without being cloying. The refrigerating step is worth doing too (held their shape much better after two hours). Made exactly 18. Salt is the only thing I’d adjust.
Two hours in the fridge makes a real difference with these. And yeah, fresh out of the oven the salt reads higher than it does a day later – 1 tsp same-day makes sense.
My 9-year-old was hovering around the kitchen the whole time because of the bacon smell, and when he found out the cookies were actually made with bacon fat he went from skeptical to completely on board. That reaction kind of made my week. The maple comes through really clearly, more than I expected, and the texture is almost shortbread-y. My only note is they tasted pretty salty fresh out of the oven but mellowed completely by the next day, so maybe plan for that.
Salt reads high right out of the oven with these. Overnight is when they settle. A 9-year-old converted by bacon smell is the best quality control there is.
Bacon fat in cookies sounded genuinely unhinged to me. Made them anyway because I had a cup of grease sitting in the fridge with no plan for it, and the ChocZero maple syrup actually pulls everything together into something that tastes like a proper dessert.
Cup of grease, no plan. ChocZero maple syrup has a caramel depth the other keto syrups don’t, which is what turns bacon fat into a cookie ingredient instead of a mistake.
