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Keto Butter Cookies (Only 4 Ingredients)
DESCRIPTION
INGREDIENTS
- 1 cup
blanched almond flour (113 g or 4 oz wt.) (cannot be directly substituted with coconut flour) - 1/4 cup
powdered erythritol (36 g or 1.3 oz wt.) or 3 tbsp confectioners swerve (27 g or 1 oz wt.) - 3 tbsp
salted butter (43 g or 1.5 oz wt.), softened to room temperature - 1/2 tsp
vanilla extract
INSTRUCTIONS
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Prepare a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat. - In a mixing bowl, combine all ingredients, thoroughly stirring until they form a dough. As you stir, it will initially be crumbly, but will then form a cohesive dough. If your butter isn't soft enough, it may be difficult to fully combine by stirring; instead, try mixing the ingredients using your hands.
- Use the dough to form ten 1-inch balls, placing them on the baking sheet about 2 inches apart from each other.
- Flatten each dough ball using a fork, then rotate 90 degrees and flatten again, forming a criss-cross pattern. Or form into your desired shape and pattern. Note that these cookies will maintain their shape during baking and will not spread.
- Bake at 350 F until the cookies are golden around the edges, about 10 minutes depending on the thickness of the cookies.
- The cookies will be very soft when they come out of the oven. Let them cool completely before removing from the baking sheet. Store leftovers in a covered container at room temperature for up to a few days.
NUTRITION
| Makes 10 Servings |
| Amount Per Serving (1 cookie): |
| Calories 100 | |
| Total Fat 9g | 14% |
| Saturated Fat 3g | 13% |
| Cholesterol 9mg | 3% |
| Sodium 30mg | 1% |
| Net Carb 1g | |
| Total Carb 2g | 1% |
| Dietary Fiber 1g | 5% |
| Sugars 0.5g | |
| Protein 2g |
These cookies are also very versatile. They can be an everyday dessert, or a shortbread-like cookie that you might serve at brunch or with tea (perhaps with a London Fog Tea Latte). You can dress them up with flavors like lemon or almond extract, sprinkle with cinnamon, or top with blueberry jam to make healthy Christmas thumbprint cookies during the holidays.
Recipe Development
This recipe was designed to be as simple as possible, keeping the ingredients list short (just almond flour, butter, sweetener, and vanilla) and using just enough softened butter to bind everything together. For convenience, salted butter is used so you don’t need to separately add salt.
Everything can be done by hand, which includes mixing ingredients and forming the dough. All you need is a mixing bowl and a sturdy wooden spoon or similar utensil, no special equipment like an electric mixer.
Sweeteners
Pure erythritol is about 70% as sweet as sugar. I typically buy the granulated form of erythritol online, and use my Nutribullet blender to pulverize it into powdered form, which is easily incorporated into dough. I recommend using 1/4 cup for a standard, sweet cookie and 3 tablespoons for a barely sweet version.
You can also use sweeteners that measure the same as sugar, such as swerve or lakanto monkfruit, both of which are erythritol blends. Verify that they are powdered or confectioners (not granulated) and that they are a 1:1 sugar substitution since these brands sell multiple versions. For these sweeteners, use 3 tablespoons for a standard, sweet cookie and 2 tablespoons for a barely sweet version.
Note that erythritol-based sweeteners are sugar alcohols. When calculating net carbs, subtract out the sugar alcohols as you would do for fiber. Since they are non-impact, the nutrition information below does not include them.
Baking Time
The baking time is about 10 minutes, and it will vary depending on your oven and the thickness of your cookies. The cookies are done when they’re golden around the edges, which has taken me anywhere from 8 to 12 minutes when testing with different ovens.
After the baked cookies have cooled completely, do a taste test. If they’re soft or have an odd texture, then they are likely underbaked. These cookies are perfectly baked when they have a crisp, shortbread-like texture.
Flavor Mix-ins
Since these keto cookies are like a blank canvas, readers have shared some creative ideas in the comments section:
- Replacing some of the almond flour with finely ground pecans
- Replacing some of the vanilla extract with almond extract or lemon extract
- Adding toasted sliced almonds, shredded coconut, or sugar-free dark chocolate chips
- Adding fresh juice or zest from lemons
- Adding unsweetened baking chocolate or cocoa powder
- Making thumbprint cookies with strawberry or blueberry jam
- Making snickerdoodles by dusting with cinnamon
If you’ve tried other flavors, leave a comment below to share your idea.
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These were great! I made a few batches and tried some variations, as I am experimenting with keto baking. One interesting variation was substituting in 1/4 cup coconut flour in place of the 1 cup of almond flour, and adding an egg. I also used almond extract instead of vanilla and they turned out a bit like a macaroon. Next time
I might add coconut into them. I also didn’t have blanched almond flour but they were still delicious. I used ZenSweet Monkfruit Sweetener because I couldn’t find my fave Whole Earth sweetener. They were a bit too sweet so I also made a batch with less and they were great. Thanks for an awesome recipe with so many ways to adjust and experiment!
😭 I wish I would have read this before I made them. I have been craving macaroons and have the extra ingredients. oh well. I’ll just have to make another batch 😂
Tired of watching all my high carb, gluten eaters devouring holiday cookies so I decided to treat myself and give these a try. Just took them out of the oven, and they are delicious, a little crumbly but that’s what I was looking for, more like a shortbread cookie. I didn’t crisscross pattern with a fork, I used the back of a spoon dipped in swerve to flatten and sprinkled the top with a tiny bit of coarse salt. The mix of the swerve with the salt on top tastes really, really good on these cookies, thanks for the recipe!
I adapted this recipe from my favorite carbie version of ‘Lemon-Cardamom-Poppyseed’ cookies. Add one egg yolk, poppy seeds to taste, zest of 2 lemons, and pinch of sea salt to taste. Dust with Swerve powdered sugar when cool and firm. SO good.
That sounds delicious, Annie. I’m going to try it out — thanks for sharing!
Used lemon extract! So delish!!
This is my favorite cookie base. I have made lemon butter cookies using this recipe and they come out amazing. Tip: Watch your bake time carefully, under or over the optimal time will yield less than perfect results. Since everyone’s oven differs, experiment and find what the “sweet spot” is for yours!
Delicious.
I replaced the sweetener with xylitol 👍
These are amazing! By far the best I’ve made. (I tried making a peanut butter one and it didn’t turn out, they were really dry)….so, I added an egg and an extra tablespoon of butter to this recipe. I made two batches. The second batch I used banana extract and about a 1/4 cups chopped walnuts. They turned out pretty good. I love bananas but can’t have them on keto so with variations works good to give me a banana nut cookie. Thank you for the recipe Julia!!!
Loved this recipe! Taste amazing. However i found that my cookies break very very easily, could i be doing something wrong?
It’s hard to say without knowing exactly what you did. If you have access to a kitchen scale, I would measure out the ingredients by weight (assuming you’re not already doing so) to make sure your proportions are correct, since almond flour and powdered sweeteners can vary a lot depending on how you pack them into a measuring cup.
Another thing to look into is baking and cooling times. The shorter the baking time, the softer and more underdone the cookies will be, and vice versa. You can try decreasing or increasing your baking time, which would alter the final texture of the cookie. Also, make sure to allow the cookies to fully cool since they are very soft when they initially come out of the oven.
My last suggestion is adding an egg yolk to help bind the cookies better. I hope these suggestions are helpful for you and that you get a chance to make them again.
Amazingly easy to make and sooo good. I’m the worst baker and even I didn’t mess them up!
I like them but mine are not crisp and could be a tad sweeter (used erythritol). If I were to cook any longer, they would be burnt as they’re pretty brown. I’m thinking I may need to lower cooking temperature?
I did use unsalted butter as it’s all I had. Could this be the reason for non-crisp?
I don’t think the unsalted butter would affect the crispness of the cookies. I agree with your suggestion to lower the baking temperature to 300 F, baking for a longer period of time which helps with crispness. Another thing you can try is adding a bit more almond flour so that the cookie dough is drier to begin with.
I noticed that too, I do not know the mistake I made that it is not crispy.
This recipe is beyond fantastic! I have made it several times. Thank you so much!
I am also eager to try your Asian Wraps recipe as well. I am following Plant Paradox, so will have to omit the pickled cucumbers. However everything else can be made compliant.
Thanks again!
These were great, and the only keto sweet I find palatable. I paired them with sugar free strawberry jam or sugar free ganache icing. Thanks for a small batch recipe, because I ate five immediately. 😂❤️
Julia, I want to commend you on offering us fabulous recipes. Really. They’re easy, balanced and delicious. Most Keto sweeties taste fake. Yours don’t and I love that they are adaptable. Great work!
New to Keto, so of course Google helps. This is first snack I came across and sounded good. Well, I was right. They are really good. I did sprinkle with cinnamon, which I love, so to me made even better. Thank you for recipes, makes this easier when I want a snack.
Can these be rolled for cut out shapes?
Hi Lori, I just tried this recipe out and I think it would work fine. The only thing I would say is to keep it about 1/4 inch thick, maybe a little more, and make sure to keep an eye on them so you don’t overbake them. I hope this helps! 🙂
I just made these cookies today. I did add an extra tablespoon of butter to the recipe. Also, instead of vanilla extract I used almond extract (3/4 tsp) and also added anise (1 tsp.) to the recipe. They were delicious! An almond biscotti cookie! Thank you ever so much. I’m making the thumbprints next time….
I was able to get 12 cookies out of this recipe and definitely do not bake past 10mins. Taste great tho!
Would a gluten free flour blend work? I’m not keto, but I am GF, and I’m looking for erythritol for diabetic friends and family
Beverly, I haven’t tested this recipe with a gluten-free flour blend. Generally, flours cannot be directly substituted with each other, so my guess is that it wouldn’t work out, at least not without additional tweaks to the other ingredients.
Fantastic and Easy!!! The perfect treat to get through the holidays. Thank you so much Julia for posting this recipe.
Made these for the first time today. Used a bit more butter than specified and also used 1/4 almond extract and 1/4 vanilla extract in the first batch (yes.. they were so good that I made a second batch!). Will definitely be making these again! Thanks
I make these cookies 2 -3 times a week. I also like to experiment with different flavorings too. One in the afternoon with a cup of tea is a nice treat.
Amazing cookies! Couldn’t find vanilla essence so used a dash of lemon juice instead and they turned out fab.
love your recipe …easy and tasty…
I found that an egg yolk helped to bind the mixture slightly better but these are simply outstanding cookies for the ease of making – thank you very much for sharing!
Love this recipe! I’ve made it several times now using different variations of sweeteners. 1/2 Lakanto monkfruit granular and 1/2 stevia were delicious and had the perfect texture, but I could just barely taste the bitterness from the stevia. Then tried only Swerve confectioners in another batch, also delish, but the texture wasn’t as good. My final and favorite version uses 1/2 Swerve granular and 1/2 Swerve confectioners…the texture, consistency and flavor are amazing! Family, and most important critics, all agree these are the closest we will ever get to grandma’s butter cookies, and they are keto friendly and guilt-free! Now, to experiment with other flavors (almond extract, chocolate mint…) yum!
Thank you for sharing, Kat! If you experiment with other flavors, I’d love to hear what your favorites are.