One soft, chewy keto chocolate chip cookie, made in under 10 minutes with no eggs — just 2.5g net carbs. Bake it in the oven, the air fryer, or even the microwave.
I created this single serve keto chocolate chip cookie because sometimes you just want one cookie. Not a batch. Not leftovers calling your name from the counter. Just one, made fresh, eaten warm.
I tested this recipe more times than I want to admit before landing on the almond flour and coconut flour combination. Almond flour alone crumbles apart. The coconut flour binds everything and gives the dough an actual chew that holds together. If you have tried other single-serving cookie recipes and ended up with a pile of crumbs, this is probably why.
Three methods work here, and I have made this cookie all three ways more times than I can count. The air fryer gives you golden, crispy edges with a soft center that I cannot replicate in the oven. The oven is more forgiving if you are not watching the clock. The microwave is pure speed (45 seconds and done) but you need to pull it when the center still looks underdone. It firms up as it cools. Give it an extra 10 seconds and you get rubber. I learned that one the hard way.
One variation I keep coming back to: browning the butter first. One tablespoon browns in about 60 seconds, and it changes the whole cookie. The dough has this nutty smell all the way through baking, and with the chocolate chips it goes almost toffee-like. It adds maybe a minute to the process and I think it is worth it every time. If you like my full-batch keto chocolate chip cookies, this is the same flavor profile scaled down to one.
I use Kirkland almond flour (1g net carb per 2 tablespoons) and ChocZero chocolate chips, which is how I get 2.5g net carbs per cookie. If you use a different brand, your count will be different. That is the most common question I get on this recipe, and it always comes down to brands.
This is eggless, so you do not need to worry about binding agents or flax eggs unless you are making it dairy-free (more on that in the FAQs). The butter does the work. If you want to try a low carb cookie that does not need eggs at all, my 3-ingredient almond flour cookies use a similar approach.
For the air fryer version specifically, I wrote up a more detailed guide in my air fryer keto chocolate chip cookies recipe. And if you are in a peanut butter mood, swapping the chocolate chips for peanut butter chips turns this into something close to a Reese's. My keto peanut butter cookies scratch that same itch in a full batch.
This dough bakes up three ways: in the oven, the microwave, or the air fryer. The photo shows all three side by side, and each method below tells you what to expect.
One bowl, one fork, one cookie. Nothing left on the counter to tempt you back for a second.
Oven Method
Heat the oven to 350°F while you mix the dough, then bake the cookie on a parchment lined tray for 6 minutes. This is the method for a classic looking cookie: soft, chewy, golden at the edges.
Microwave Method
Microwave on high for 45 seconds and let it sit a full minute before you touch it. It spreads more than the oven version because of the intense heat. Drop the power to 70% if you want a thicker cookie.
Air Fryer Method
The air fryer works like a small convection oven. Set the dough on the grilling tray and bake at 350 to 360°F for 6 minutes. You get crisp golden edges and a soft center, which is my favorite result of the three.
In a small bowl, add all the ingredients listed above. Mix together using a fork until combined.
2
Mold & refrigerate
Mold into 1 or 2 cookies. Place in the refrigerator for 5-10 minutes so the dough hardens and the flavors develop.
3
Bake it
Place cookie on a parchment lined baking tray and bake at a 350 degrees for 6 minutes or until the edges start to brown. Remove from oven and let cool completely before handling.
4
Microwave it
Place cookie on a piece of parchment paper and microwave at 100% or high for 45 seconds. Let cookie cool completely before handling.
5
Air fry it
Place cookie on the pre-greased air fryer grilling tray. Bake at 350-360 degrees for 6 minutes. Let cookie cool completely before handling.
Nutrition
Per serving: 1 cookie
Calories
225
Fat
20.8g
Protein
3.8g
Total carbs
7.3g
Net carbs
2.5g
Nutrition is an estimate calculated from the ingredients listed. Brands vary, so check labels if you track closely.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why did my cookie turn out flat or crumbly?
I have seen both problems and they come from different places. Flat usually means the butter was too warm or fully melted. I soften mine to room temperature but never melt it. Crumbly means the dough did not bind, and every time someone tells me this happened, they skipped the refrigerator step. Those 5-10 minutes in the fridge let the coconut flour absorb moisture and hold everything together. If your cookie spread in the oven, take a butter knife while it is still warm and push the edges back into a round shape. I do this all the time and it works perfectly.
Can I make this nut-free?
I have tested sunflower seed flour as a 1:1 swap for the almond flour and it works. The flavor shifts a bit (nuttier, slightly earthy) but the texture holds. One thing to know: sunflower seed flour can turn green when it reacts with baking soda. There is no baking soda in this recipe so you should be fine, but if you ever add some, a half teaspoon of lemon juice prevents the color change.
Which sugar-free sweetener works best for this cookie?
I use a granulated erythritol blend for everyday batches and it works well at 2 teaspoons. If you have had a bad experience with the cooling effect from straight erythritol (I hear about this a lot), try a monk fruit blend like Lakanto. It has almost zero cooling compared to pure erythritol. My personal favorite for this recipe is Swerve brown sugar. It adds a caramel depth that regular keto sweeteners do not have, and with the chocolate chips it tastes like the real thing. You can drop to 1.5 teaspoons if you prefer less sweet.
Can I double this recipe for two cookies?
I do this all the time. Double everything straight across and split the dough into two equal balls. Baking time stays the same since you are not making a bigger cookie, just two of them. Space them a couple inches apart on the tray. The air fryer fits both side by side on the grilling tray.
Can I brown the butter first?
This is one of my favorite variations. One tablespoon of butter browns in about 60 seconds in a small pan. Let it cool for a minute before mixing it into the dry ingredients (hot butter will melt the chocolate chips before you want it to). The browned butter gives the whole cookie an almost toffee-like flavor, especially with the chocolate chips. It adds one extra minute and one extra pan, but I think it is worth it.
Can I make this cookie vegan?
I have tested this dairy-free and the move is a vegan butter stick, same tablespoon measurement. I tried coconut oil and it made the cookie flatter and greasier than I wanted, especially at this small scale where you cannot average things out across a bigger batch. The recipe is already egg-free, so beyond the butter you just need to check your chocolate chips. Milk chocolate chips and some sugar free brands contain milk solids, so pick a dairy free dark chocolate chip. Vegan butter gets you very close to the original texture.
How do I know when the cookie is done baking?
I pull mine when the edges are lightly golden and the center still looks slightly underdone. It firms up as it cools, so do not keep baking until it looks done in the oven or it will be dry. For the microwave, same idea. At 45 seconds the center will look soft. Let it sit for a full minute before touching it. I learned this the hard way when I gave mine an extra 10 seconds and it went rubbery.
What are the best sugar-free chocolate chips for keto baking?
I use ChocZero chocolate chips in my kitchen. They melt well, hold their shape in the dough, and keep the carb count low (which is how I hit 2.5g net carbs for this cookie). Lily's is another solid option, though I find them slightly sweeter. For a fun swap, try mint chocolate chips or peanut butter chips. Peanut butter chips in this recipe taste almost like a Reese's.
Thanks for the honest feedback, Mia. Two teaspoons is where I landed for my own taste, but it cuts down fine. One teaspoon and the dough still binds and bakes the same 6 minutes. Which sweetener are you using? Some monk fruit blends measure sweeter than sugar, so a teaspoon of those gets you close.
The microwave version came out softer than I expected, almost like warm dough in the center. Eight batches in and I’d only ever done the oven, so I tried it last week out of curiosity. 45 seconds was right for mine. Let it sit two or three minutes before eating, though, otherwise it’s too soft to hold together. Still prefer the oven for the edge texture, but the microwave actually works.
Emily, the 10-minute part is what sold me too. Try it with browned butter sometime, one tablespoon takes about 60 seconds in a small pan and adds this nutty, almost caramel thing that makes it taste way less like a substitute.
Flat usually means the butter was too warm. Mine has to hold its shape when I scoop it, not pool at all. Even 10 extra seconds in the microwave is enough to make it spread.
Made this in the air fryer yesterday because it was 95 outside and I was not turning on the oven. Three minutes in the fridge instead of the full rest, then 5.5 minutes at 355 because my air fryer runs hot. The edge gets a caramelized crunch I’ve never gotten from the oven version, not even close. Also: Lily’s dark chocolate stevia chips hold their shape through the bake instead of spreading, so you get distinct chocolate pockets in the dough instead of a marbled mess. Pull it when it looks underdone. I can’t stress this enough. It firms up on the hot tray in about 90 seconds and if you wait for it to look done, you’ve overcooked it. This is the recipe I send people when they say keto desserts can’t kill a craving.
Yeah, that caramelized edge is an air fryer thing. Oven just doesn’t get there. And the pull-when-underdone note is the one tip I tell everyone , 90 seconds on the hot tray and it firms up completely, every time.
Batched these up for a spring cookout and my friend who constantly gives me grief about keto ate two, then spent five minutes reading the ingredient list like he’d been tricked. Scales up fine, though mine needed closer to 8 minutes to fully set.
Eating even two before checking the ingredient list. That’s the conversion I care about. Eight minutes works for bigger batches, more in the oven just changes how the heat spreads.
If you’re doing the air fryer version, pull it at 5 minutes and check. Mine was done at 5:30 and the full 6 would’ve been too far. Also found that letting the butter sit out for maybe 20 minutes before you start (not fully soft, just barely yielding) makes the fork mixing way easier and the dough comes together in like 30 seconds. Both made a bigger difference than I expected.
The oven version has a proper edge, slightly crisped with a soft center. Didn’t expect that from a cookie this size. I used Lily’s chips and they get that half-melted pocket thing that makes it feel real. Only thing: 2 teaspoons of sweetener runs flat. I bump it to a full tablespoon and it’s way better. Four stars, making this on repeat.
Yeah, sweetener type matters here. Straight erythritol has that cooling effect that dulls the sweet even when the amount looks right. I use a monk fruit blend and 2 teaspoons is plenty.
Browned the butter first instead of just softening it (I know, it’s a tablespoon, it felt almost absurd to bother), but the flavor difference is real. I use Lily’s dark chips, and with the browned butter they go from ‘pretty good keto cookie’ to something that actually tastes like it came from a bakery. I also let mine run a full extra minute past the 6-minute mark, closer to 7.5, and the edges pull slightly from the parchment, almost toffee-like at the border. Eight batches in now and I cannot go back to plain softened butter. The browning takes 90 seconds and it changes the whole thing.
Eight batches in you’ve basically found the ceiling on this cookie. The Lily’s dark specifically with browned butter is a combo I haven’t tested and now I have to. That edge pull at 7.5 sounds like exactly the right call.
Was skeptical that two tablespoons of almond flour could do much, but this is the first keto dessert that’s actually made me stop reaching for the Lily’s bar instead.
I mashed this recipe with your pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, making 4 cookies in silicone baking cups. I doubled this recipe, except for the butter (1.5 tablespoons )and added 1 tablespoon of pumpkin puree. I used golden monk fruit sweetener and Kroger brand sugar free chocolate chips. OMG! So good.(If anyone is interested, I microwaved for 60 seconds @ 70% power, then turned them so the center was towards the outside, another 40 seconds @ 70% power. They still looked a little too soft in the middle, so I did 15 seconds @ 100% power, and they looked perfect.)
Thank you for the inspiration.
Pumpkin puree in these — I wouldn’t have tried that, but now I kind of have to. And the rotation trick mid-microwave is actually smart. The center always drags.
Thank you for all the recipes that you have brought to the YouTube community. I really love this easy cookie recipe. I tried it in an air fryer, which was delicious.
I love these cookies. However when I did the calculations, even without any chocolate chips it was 2.66 net carbs. (Two for the almond flour and 2/3 of a gram of carb for the coconut flour). I added three little squares of chopped Lily’s milk chocolate which came out to .66 g of carbs. The total carbs for one chocolate chip cookie was 3.33, according to my calculations.
I’m glad you liked the recipe. It depends on what brands you use. I use Kirkland almond flour and it is 1 g net carb per 2 tablespoons. I also use choczero chocolate chips.
Omg I love this recipe! I’ve tried a few variations…. I substituted the flour with a keto butter biscuit mix (because it’s what I had) and it was fantastic. My favorite sugar is the swerve brown sugar and my favorite method was the airfryer. Definitely let it cool all the way, I put mine in the fridge for about 5 minutes to let it set, it was still warm but more solid. 10/10 on the texture and flavor.
Swerve brown is my go-to for this one. The caramel note it adds with the chocolate chips is hard to beat. Hadn’t thought to try a butter biscuit mix but clearly it works.
So good! I’ve been so hesitant to bake with erythritol again after ruining a batch of peanut butter cookies that had an overwhelming cooling effect we couldn’t get past. But a single cookie was the perfect test and I’m so happy to report my cookie turned out just perfect following the recipe to a tee (oven method). Definitely looking forward to making a full batch…and more baking with less worry about cooling effect. Thank you, I know you’ve worked hard on perfecting this recipe!!
Single cookie is smart for this exact reason. For the full batch, try a monk fruit blend. Lakanto has almost zero cooling compared to straight erythritol.
These were okay but super crumbly and didn’t stay together. I felt like they were missing an egg or something to help bind it all together (besides the butter).
