Keto Sugar Cookies

by KetoFocus.com

The classic sugar cookie recipe has gone keto with a low carb sugar free sugar cookie!

4.6 Stars (17 Reviews) 36 Comments

A classic cookie everyone enjoys, this keto sugar cookie recipe has an incredible flavor with a keto friendly sweetener. With each bite, it's hard to believe they are low carb and are a must have for the keto diet. This best ever keto sugar cookie recipe produces a cookie that is soft, yet still has that crunch when you bite into it. They make the perfect cutouts too!

If there is one sugar cookie recipe you need to try, it’s this one! These keto sugar cookies have the same flavor and texture as a traditional sugar cookie and are a blend of almond and coconut flour and without the use of cream cheese. They are easy to punch out of cookie cutters and are fun to make. This is the perfect cookie recipe for any holiday; although, I love making these around Christmas time.

love printed on a pink heart shaped cookie

I feel good giving my kids these sugar free sugar cookies and we love cutting out different shapes. The favorite part for the kids is decorating the cookies, of course. And eating the icing.

 

Christmas cookies decorated with white frosting on a baking tray and on the counter.

How to make low carb sugar cookies?

Do you have 33 minutes?

To be honest, this recipe takes longer than that because the cookies need to be in the refrigerator for 2 hours, but the prep and baking times make this an easy, yet wonderful recipe that can be completed in around 30 minutes.

While you will find the ingredients below you will also need:

  • A large bowl
  • A sifter (for the flour) is ideal
  • Kitchen hand mixer or similar
  • Rolling pin
  • A baking sheet or baking tray
  • Parchment paper
  • A medium bowl
  • Whisk
  • Frost piping bag

With that understood – let’s go!

Keto Sugar Cookies Recipe Video

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Keto Sugar Cookies Ingredients

  • 1 3/4 cup blanched almond flour
  • 1/3 cup coconut flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
  • 2/3 cup powdered erythritol (as sweetener)
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1/4 teaspoon almond extract (optional)
  • 1 egg

Keto Royal Icing Ingredients

Keto Sugar Cookies Directions

  • Keto Sugar Cookies
  •  

      

    What kind of flour do these keto sugar cookies use?

    sifting keto flours together

    These recipe use a blend of almond flour and coconut flour!

    But wait! There is an important step!

    You need to sift the flours

    When making a delicate cookie, like a sugar cookie or a shortbread cookie, I highly recommend sifting the almond and coconut flours together.

    This will give them that almost flaky interior. I think it also helps the flavors meld together. Any sifter will work. Sometimes the almond flour can clog up the sifter. Just give it a good whack and the almond flour will fall out and start working again.

    keto sugar cookie cut outs on a baking tray

    Refrigerating the sugar cookie dough before rolling and cutting is a very important step of this recipe that should not be missed.

    Refrigerating the blended almond and coconut flour dough helps to harden the dough so it will be easier to roll out and cut shapes from. It will also make transferring a cut shape from the cookie cutter to the parchment lined baking sheet or tray a lot easier.

    Depending on how long it takes you cut punch out cookie shapes with the cookie cutter, you may want to refrigerate your cookie cutouts again right before baking. If the dough gets too warm, it may start to lose it’s shape when it bakes.

    Refrigerating cookie dough helps to meld the flavors together too.

    Even if you refrigerate your cookies right before baking, and your keto cookies still spread, you can easily fix this.

    Once you remove your cookies from the oven, they will still be warm and soft. You can push the edges in and mold the cookie to your desired shape. Then let the cookies cool completely on the baking sheet before transferring them to a wire rack.

    The cookies are very delicate when they first come out of the oven after baking and need to harden as they cool.

    Keto royal icing for sugar cookies

    thick keto royal icing

    This recipe for keto royal icing makes two different thickness of icing.

    • The thicker icing has 1/4 cup extra erythritol sweetener in it.
    • This thicker icing is used to add a boarder around the cookies.

    The thinner icing is used to flood the inside of the cookie between the border icing. I like to zigzag back and forth with this thinner icing to fill the inside of the cookie between the border.

    I recommend using pipping bags to help frost your sugar free cookies; however, Ziploc bags work in a pinch.

    You can dye your sugar free icing with different colors by adding food coloring to the icing.

    thinner keto icing dripping from a spatula

    How to store low carb sugar cookies

    Keto sugar cookie dough can be stored in the refrigerator for a few days or in the freezer until you are ready to roll out, cut and bake. Just store in the dough in a flat disc shape in a freezer safe Ziploc bag.

    Once baked, store your sugar free cookies in an air tight container.

    keto sugar cookies on a cooling tray

    Keto Sugar Cookies: FAQS

    My cookies crumbled when I picked them up. What did I do wrong?

    You didn't let these cookie cool completely before picking them up. These keto cookies will be very soft when they first come out of the oven but will continue to harden as they cool.

    How can I keep my cookies from spreading and losing their shape?

    To prevent your cookies from spreading a losing the shape that you punched out from the cookie cutter, you can refrigerate the cookies for 5-15 minutes before baking. If they still spread after baking, immediately help to reshape them but using a knife or a chopstick to push the edges back into shape.

    Nutritional information & Macros

    Nutrition Information

    Keto Sugar Cookies

    Servings: 12

    Amount Per Serving
    Calories 254
    Fat 24.4g
    Protein 5.5g
    Total Carbs 5.6g
    Net Carbs 2.7g

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    36 Comments

      1. I understand your concern; however, many recipes use raw eggs or raw egg whites and people have been consuming them for years. Royal icing recipes around the internet use raw egg whites. From the NY Times to the Food Network, you will see top chefs using raw egg whites to make their icing. As long as you are getting your eggs from quality sources and they are fresh, they are safe. I know you are worried about salmonella, but quality, cleaned eggs are less likely to contain salmonella. Healthy chickens get tons of sun exposure and are less like to transfer salmonella to their eggs.

      2. I would hope you have done more research…royal icing has been made with egg whites like this since the 18th century…

      3. You can use meringue powder in place of egg whites, but they do add some extra carbs (2 net per teaspoon.) Or, you can pasteurize egg whites in a sous vide pouch, which kills any of the nasties you may worry about.

    1. Since covid I gained some weight. I started the keto diet in February and I think these sugar cookies are as good as normal sugar cookies!

    2. Coconut allergy in the family. Do you have any recommendations for sub for the coconut flour?

      1. Bamboo fibre substitutes fairly well in recipes like this where there’s just a little coconut is just a little of the flour.
        Like coconut flour, it’s very thirsty. An equal volume works for me.
        Weights aren’t equivalent–the bamboo flour is very light and fluffy, but a little goes a long way. Don’t try to replace more than a quarter of the flour in a dish with bamboo flour; that just doesn’t work.

    3. Hi, I just tried the recipe but they came out extremely soft and fragile. I couldn’t pick them up without them falling apart.

      1. They are very delicate when they come out of the oven. You have to let them cool completely before handling. Once they are cool, you can pick the sugar cookies up and handle them just fine.

    4. The thinner we made these, the better they held together. And, quite frankly, the better flavor that developed with the more of cookie getting that caramel color to them. I’ve not made a lot of keto cookies, but these are far and away the best recipe I’ve made yet. Even my husband, who had very little interest in my keto foods, has enjoyed these cookies. This is going to be my go-to sugar cookie recipe! Thanks, Annie!!

    5. I am going to try these cookies for Christmas. Have you ever made royal icing with meringue powder? Basically it is powdered egg whites. Seems some people have issues with raw egg whites. How would I substitute this in the recipe?

      1. I haven’t tried using meringue powder. I will look into that next time I make these. Look up a recipe for icing using meringue powder and just substitute with powdered sweetener instead. I usually use a little bit less sweetener (1/4-1/3 cup because I think the powdered erythritol is too sweet).

      1. You could. You could also just mix it with a wire whisk. The sifting just creates a light fluffy flour which yields a delicate cookie crumb when you bite into them. Not necessary to sift the ingredients but I just love the texture.

    6. Question about not cutting out. Could you just put them in balls and smash with a glass to avoid the pain of cutting out??

    7. I have a cute stamp & punch set (SQHOHO Animal Cookie Cutters) that I’d like to use, but am concerned the dough will stick to the cutter/stamp…normally would dip in flour. Does the dough usually stick? Any ideas for what to dip the cookie cutters in to prevent sticking?

      I’ve made the dough and it’s in the fridge 😊

      Fingers crossed!

      1. The dough will probably stick with a stamp cutter. Try to freeze the dough or get it very cold and go from there.

        1. I had a similar problem when I made keto circus animal cookies and just dipped the cookie cutter in coconut flour so the dough wouldn’t stick to it. That may work with a cookie stamp, too.

    8. Made these cookies yesterday and iced them today. Lovely taste. I was wondering if I could use granulated sweetener in the cookies rather than powdered?

      1. You could use granulated. I like powdered as it gives a more delicate crumb. Sometimes granulated sweetener doesn’t dissolve all the way.

    9. I have a couple suggestions that may make it easier to work with this dough.
      1. Wrap in plastic wrap to refrigerate the first time.
      2. Roll out on pasty cloth or surface dusted with coconut flour. Dust top of dough with coconut flour as well, & add more if it sticks to surface or rolling pin.
      3. Dip cookie cutter in coconut flour so dough won’t stick to it.
      4. After cookies are cut out & placed on baking tray lined with parchment, refrigerate 20-30 minutes. Then cookies won’t spread. You will need to bake 2-3 minutes longer.
      4. Use baking tray without sides so you can slide the parchment paper onto cooling rack after cookies are done baking.

    10. The cookies are the best I’ve found so far but the frosting is much to runny. I used all my erythritol on this and it still won’t stay on the cookie, it also tastes like pure powdered sugar which isn’t bad it’s just very strong and I would have been better off sprinkling the erythritol on the cookies than making runny frosting. Nothing about this in other comments so maybe everyone is using small eggs? I know my measurements weren’t off…

      1. Yes, it could be the size of the eggs. I usually use medium to large eggs depending on if I get them from friends who have chickens.

    11. I made these yesterday and am very disappointed. Christmas cut outs are my favorite! I had the dough in the frig overnight and put them back in each time I had to reroll the batch. Even put them in the freezer for a bit. They didn’t turn out well. I did let them cool completely…for a very long time. They are so fragile, they completely fall apart. I am eating them in small pieces, because you can’t even pick them up without the cookie falling apart. Wondering what I did wrong! They taste good…but…I made a buttercream frosting and I can put a little on the small pieces, but no way to actually frost/decorate them.

      1. I’m sorry you had trouble with the dough. A couple things when it comes to baking in general & keto baking…
        Yes, you have to keep the dough cold when rolling or cutting the shapes or else it will be difficult to roll or cut the cookies out. So returning the dough to the fridge when it starts to get too soft is necessary as explained in the video. I’ll update the instructions to reflect this as well. This is true for most cut out cookies (keto or not).

        The cookies will keep their shape and not crumble when cooled completely. Couple reasons why they wouldn’t other than not letting them cool before handling include…
        1. Adding too much almond flour. When measuring flour (keto or not) for baking, it’s important to spoon the flour into the measuring cup rather than scoop it out. That way you aren’t packing in the flour resulting in too much flour.
        2. They were overbaked.
        3. The butter and sweetener weren’t creamed long enough (2-3 minutes) or were overmixed.

        I hope that helps. Keto baking can be tricky!! Glad they tasted good.

    12. These are the best keto sugar cookies on the internet! I have tried many of the top recipes – they are okay. But these have the best flavor. Thank you!

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