I got an early start on my Christmas baking this year, with these low carb Chocolate Peppermint Sandwich Cookies. My rule in the past has been to wait until at least December 1st, but around these parts, that makes me The Grinch. In my town, and the surrounding vicinity, the Thanksgiving turkey hasn’t even been digested before people are out, climbing to perilous heights on rickety stepladders to put up their Christmas lights. And some of them go truly wild, with huge blow up Santas and Snowmen and strings upon strings of lights that must make their electric bill skyrocket. My kids love it…LOVE IT! They go wild when we drive past the “crazy houses”, and this year they’ve declared that one of them looks like a Gingerbread house. I personally think it looks like an eyesore, but I can understand the childhood delight in garish decorating. More is more, in their childish estimation, and they’ve been bugging me since November 23rd to put up some decorations. I didn’t give in on the decorating front, but I did make Christmas Cookies on Thanksgiving…surely that makes me some sort of saint!
Funny, but the driving force behind these wasn’t actually my kids, but my husband. I had been thumbing through old December Bon Appetit issues to get some ideas, and when I held up the photo of some Chocolate Candy Cane Cookies, I could see the gleam in his eye. I knew I could make a decent low carb version, and when I suggested having them for Thanksgiving dessert, so I could get them on the blog in early December, he was all for it. Not being particularly fond of pumpkin pie, my kids were ecstatic.
They were really quite simple to recreate. I wanted a rough, slightly rustic feel for the cookies, so I didn’t roll them out and cut them with cookie cutters, but instead rolled balls of dough and flattened them. One tip I’ve come up with on that front, when working with sticky dough, is to cover the bottom of whatever I am using to press my cookies flat with parchment paper. It prevents the cookie from sticking to the bottom of the glass or measuring cup. I secure the parchment paper with a rubber band so it stays flat against the bottom. Works like a charm!
Peppermint creme sandwiched between two soft and rich chocolate cookies -- the holidays don't get any sweeter than this!
- 1 ½ cups almond flour
- ¾ cup cocoa powder
- 2 tbsp coconut flour
- ¼ tsp salt
- ½ cup butter softened
- ¾ cup Swerve Sweetener or granulated erythritol
- 1 large egg
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- ½ cup butter softened
- 1 cup powdered Swerve Sweetener or powdered erythritol
- 2 tbsp cream
- ¾ tsp peppermint extract
- 1 to 2 drops natural red food coloring
- Garnish:
- 4 sugar-free peppermint candies crushed finely (optional)
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Preheat oven to 325F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
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In a medium bowl, whisk together the almond flour, cocoa powder, coconut flour and salt.
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In a large bowl, beat butter with granulated Swerve until smooth. Beat in egg and vanilla extract.
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Beat in almond flour mixture until dough comes together.
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Form into scant 1-inch balls and lay 1 inch apart on prepared baking sheet.
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Using a flat-bottomed glass covered with parchment paper, flatten dough balls to about ¼ inch thick.
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Bake 12 minutes, until just firm. Let cool on pan.
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Beat butter until smooth, then beat in powdered Swerve.
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Beat in cream, peppermint extract, and food colouring until well combined.
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Pair cooled cookies for size, and spread the bottom of one cookies with about 2 tsp of peppermint filling. Top with anoother cookie and repeat with remaining cookies.
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Roll the sides of cookies in crushed peppermints to garnish.
Serves 14. Each cookie has 8g of carbs and 3.4g of fiber. Total NET CARBS = 4.6 g.
**note this count includes the sugar-free peppermint candies. Without those, each cookie has 3.2 g NET CARBS.
Blog is the New Black says
These look wonderful!!
Peggy says
Carolyn- I have been using Sucralose for the sugar sub in my recipes. they are not turning out very tasty. Is this because of the sucralose? I am a big fan of your blog.
Thanks, Peggy
Carolyn says
Unfortunately, Peggy, I don’t use sucralose at all so I can’t say for sure. But I suspect that’s the problem. HAve you tried any brands of erythritol? A combo of erythritol and a bit of sucralose could be okay too.
Alison @ Ingredients, Inc. says
we both have peppermint on the brain! THese look amazing
Kiersten @ Oh My Veggies says
You can’t have Christmas without candy cane cookies! I love your version. 🙂 And your photos are gorgeous!
Terry says
These look great! One problem – I’m not seeing how much butter to put in the cookie dough part. Is it right in front of me? I see the butter for the filling, just not the amount for the dough. Thank you so much for all your wonderful recipes!
Carolyn says
Sorry about that…recipe is fixed!
[email protected] says
Carolyn, so pretty and festive!!
Erin @ Texanerin Baking says
Today seems to be peppermint day in the blogging world so I guess your pre-December baking wasn’t so bad. You were prepared for peppermint day. 😉
Anyway, they look fantastic and I’ll definitely give the cookie part a try!
RavieNomNoms says
How amazing!!! The sandwiches look great!
shelly (cookies and cups) says
These are so fun! I made some similar for my site this week, but of course they are loaded up with sugar and gluten. I think I like yours better!!
Sarah says
I guess I can I make them just with just peppermint extract and not the crushed peppermints? Not big on sugar-free peppermints.
Carolyn says
Yup, that’s why the crushed peppermints are optional.
Diane (createdbydiane) says
these look so yummy and pretty!!!
Naomi Most says
Devious, Carolyn. Just when I’d forgotten about the peppermint brownies I derived from your amaretto brownies, which I ended up consuming as dinner as soon as they were cool. Man those were good. I bet these cookies are really good.
*impotent fist-shake*
Carolyn says
Mwah-ha-ha, part of my evil plan! 🙂
Mary Anna says
Holy cow, I think I’m in love. Chocolate, peppermint… drool. (I bookmarked no few than 6 of your cookie recipes this weekend. This makes seven. My only dilemma is which to make first…)
litehousepat says
These are on my list to make for Christmas at my son’s house. He just had a heart attack & his wife is gluten intolerant.
Thanks for a beautiful recipe!!
Pat
Carolyn says
Oh my gosh, I hope your son recovers well!!!
litehousepat says
He is doing well but has to watch his diet!!
Thanks,
Pat
Susan Pelter says
Carolyn, can’t wait to try these! Not being a peppermint lover, I’m going to do something else with the filling. Hmmmmm…. the possibilities are endless! (BTW, as I was reading this post, I was drinking coffee and gobbling down one of your delicious almond-raspberry cupcakes, sans frosting. They are truly delicious just as muffins!)
Gerry @ Foodness Gracious says
These look fantastic! I was putting up my lights yesterday and it was not going well…have to revisit it today, grrrinch..
Nancy/SpicieFoodie says
Here people wait to a couple of weeks before the Christmas celebrations and decorating goes into full gear. Sometimes I miss all those lights in the US. Your sandwich cookies are adorable and sound so good. Thanks for sharing. 🙂
Lisa | With Style and Grace says
soooo pretty!!
Julia | JuliasAlbum.com says
Beautiful cookies! Very creative way to use those peppermint candy canes!
Floortje says
Pretty pretty pretty!! Love them! I ‘m gonna try them this weekend, although..
Being a Dutch low carb baker, I obviously have the hardest time converting your fab recipesc into the metric sytem, but that’s not the point of my post, practise should make perfect!
I was wondering though. The Dutch choice of sugar replacements is so much more limited, I can only find xylitol, stevia powder or the real chemical ones (sacharose??) here. Haven’t got the slightest idea what granulated erythrirol (spelled right?) is. And importing from the US will be a real attack to my wallet. To put a long story short, can you make the cookies with xylitol or Stevia too? Thank you so much!
Carolyn says
Go ahead and put in xylitol in place of the erythritol. It should work okay.
Floortje says
Thanks Carolyn!
Carolyn says
Just don’t eat too many in on sitting! Xylitol has a lot more of a gastro-instestinal effect that erythritol. 🙂
Roxana | Roxana's Home Baking says
I don’t know how I missed these! Chocolate and peppermint is my favorite combo this time of the year and your cookie sandwiches look absolutely amazing!
Would love if you bring them to my December Chocolate Party http://www.roxanashomebaking.com/peppermint-chocolate-cake-recipe-chocolateparty/
Lisa says
I commented on your facebook page, but had to comment here too! I saved this recipe when I found it earlier in the month. Finally had time to make it today. Incredibly DELICIOUS! It was funny, I heard my daughter in the kitchen, “Oh these are good, wait, these are REALLY GOOD!” haha I had some icing leftover and going to use it with coconut oil chocolate for some Andes Mint sort of thing. The icing was too good to waste!! Thank you for another great recipe!!
Jamie says
I’m thinking about the holidays today, because it was finally chilly enough last night to pull a blanket out. I can’t wait to make cookies with both of my little girls this year, and since my 8 year old has type 1, I’m always trying to find things that she can maybe indulge in a little easier. It’s so hard at the holidays when gatherings are filled with sugary treats! I was wondering, have you ever tried making your own powdered sugar with the granulated Swerve? I have granulated on hand, and was thinking if I zhuzhed it in the Vitamix, maybe with a little cornstarch, I’d have powered…I don’t mind buying the powdered, but I’m impatient and want to bake 😀 (I want to try the recipes first, before the holidays, so I know how they go)
Carolyn says
I haven’t tried powdering my own Swerve but a few readers have and said it works fine. I think for frosting, it will still be a bit on the gritty side.
Allison says
These are awesome cookies! Thanks for this great recipe! I didn’t do peppermint since I didn’t have any in the house. I did, however, have hazelnuts in my freezer. These turned out so yummy. I did roll my dough into a log and place in my freezer. Then brushed with a beaten egg, rolled in hazelnuts, sliced and baked. So easy and good!
Carolyn says
Oh my, your version sounds wonderful!