Keto Gingerbread Cookies are a classic low carb and sugar free holiday treat. It’s the perfect keto cookie recipe for decorating with your kids and giving as a healthy holiday gift. A great make ahead recipe too!
These keto gingerbread cookies have become a family favorite in my house, ever since I first created them back in 2013.
Like most children, my children love decorating cookies and we make these fun gingerbread men almost every year.
I can’t honestly say I feel the same myself about the decorating part. I think much of it has to do with the finicky nature of working with royal icing. My hands, so steady in other times, tend to shake a little as I squeeze the piping bag. Lines I mean to be straight end up wobbly and crooked. Lines that should be curved just end up looking ragged and uneven.
I simply do NOT understand how people get those beautiful cookies all perfectly even and filled in. I feel a little like a kid who can’t stay in the lines when colouring at school. I’d much prefer just to dip the whole lot in chocolate, thank you very much. Simpler, faster and it satisfies that primal urge for all things chocolate.
Keto Gingerbread Cookies Video!
But my kids love doing the whole cookie decorating thing, so every year around the holidays I set aside some time for this arduous task. This year I decided I wanted to make the perfect low carb gingerbread men.
As always, I let my kids decorate their cookies with a few sprinkles and candies. And as always, I had a heck of time finding the smaller candies that are just right for cookie decorating. Why do mini M&Ms abound when you don’t need them, but when you do, they are nowhere to be seen?
I kept my cookies quite simple, with just a little sugar free royal icing.
Tender low carb gingerbread men
I don’t know about you, but I like my gingerbread cookies to have a little tenderness to them. I didn’t want these to be super-crispy or rock hard, and I wanted them to have just a little chewiness upon biting into them.
To that end, I decided to make them with coconut oil instead of butter. Coconut oil typically makes baked goods more tender, but you can easily make these with butter instead, if you prefer.
The dough was a little too soft and overly-fragile, so I added just a bit of coconut flour to help it hold together a little better. And I was careful to take them out just a bit on the early side, to keep them softer. If you are the sort who prefers crispy gingerbread cookies, simply bake these longer at a lower temperature, and they will crisp up nicely.
Do note that this recipes makes a lot of gingerbread men. It’s meant to be shared and given away as gifts. But you can easily make a half batch, as I did in the video!
How to decorate Keto Gingerbread Cookies
In the end, the kids and I had a ball decorating these sweet little sugar free gingerbread men.
The sugar-free royal icing recipe follows traditional recipes quite closely, and uses egg white powder to produce a soft icing for piping that will dry very firm and hard. How much water you need varies depending on the consistency you want to achieve.
You could also have some fun with sugar-free sprinkles, since several brands like Good Dee’s and The Sprinkle Company make them now.
I myself worked hard at making my cookies look like classic gingerbread men. And gingerbread trees, just to shake it up a little. Most of them didn’t turn out half-bad, but by the end I was quite literally drizzling the icing on in a random, abstract-art way, just to be done. My patience for these things is incredibly limited and this recipe makes a lot of cookies!
How to store Keto Gingerbread Cookies
These cookies are great make ahead holiday treat, since they can be frozen for several months. I recommend freezing the baked cookies undecorated, stacked carefully in airtight containers. You can put waxed paper between the layers of cookies if you need to.
Then simply thaw, decorate, and serve. Or give away as gifts to friends and family!
More keto gingerbread treats
- Keto Gingerbread Cream Cheese Pound Cake
- Keto Gingerbread Cake Roll
- Keto Gingerbread Cheesecake
- Keto Gingerbread Whoopie Pies
- Keto Gingerbread Cupcakes
- Keto Gingerbread Chaffles
Keto Gingerbread Men
Ingredients
Cookies:
- 4 cups almond flour
- 1 cup Swerve Sweetener
- 1/4 cup coconut flour
- 2 tbsp ground ginger
- 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp xanthan gum
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp ground cloves
- 2 large eggs
- 1/4 cup coconut oil (or butter) melted
- 1 tbsp Yacon syrup (can use molasses instead)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Royal Icing:
- 1 cup powdered Swerve Sweetener
- 1 tbsp egg white powder
- 1/4 cup water, room temperature (more to thin out as necessary)
Instructions
- For the cookies, preheat oven to 275F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, whisk together almond flour, sweetener, coconut flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking powder, xanthan gum, salt and cloves.
- Stir in eggs, coconut oil, Yacon syrup and vanilla extract until dough comes together.
- Divide dough in half and turn out first half onto a large piece of parchment paper. Top with another piece of parchment and roll out out about 1/4 inch thick.
- Use cookie cutters to cut into desired shapes and gently loosen and lift with an offset spatula. Place onto prepared baking sheets.
- Gather up scraps and reroll until too little is left to roll out. Repeat with second half of dough.
- Bake 20 minutes or until golden brown and just firm to the touch. Remove and let cool 5 minutes on pan, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
- For the royal icing, in a medium bowl, whisk together powdered sweetener and egg white powder. Add water and stir until smooth. Add more water 1 teaspoon at a time until desired consistency is achieved.
- Pipe icing onto cooled cookies and let set 30 minutes or longer.
- *For crisper cookies, bake at 225F for 50 to 60 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool. They will crisp up as they cool
Notes
Nutrition
