Keto Gingerbread Cookies are a classic low carb and sugar-free holiday treat. Crisp and delicious with a gingery bite, they’re perfect for decorating and sharing with friends and family.
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 kids adore decorating cookies and we make these fun almond flour gingerbread men almost every year. They really get us into the holiday spirit.
And we love to give them as gifts, along with some of my other holiday treats, like keto sugar cookies and peppermint biscotti. No one can tell that they have less than 3g net carbs per serving.
Make sure you check out my full list of Keto Christmas Cookies for more holiday inspiration!
Why this recipe is so awesome
Gingerbread cookies should be both crisp and tender, which isn’t an easy texture to achieve with keto ingredients. But these cookies live up to the promise! They have the tiniest bit of chewiness to them as well.
Gingerbread cookies need that classic brown sugar flavor, but when I first created this recipe there was no such thing as good brown sugar replacement. So I opted for adding a little molasses or Yacon syrup. These days, however, I make my keto gingerbread men with Swerve Brown sweetener.
I like to take them out just a bit on the early side, to keep them just a little chewier. If you prefer extra crispy gingerbread cookies, simply bake these a little longer and they will crisp up nicely.
Readers love these keto gingerbread cookies!
“Just made these and they turned out so well – even my fussy six year old loved them!” — Talya
“These are sooooo good! I’m a cookie monster on a low-carb WOE and this is the first cookie I’ve found that doesn’t have a weird sweetener taste. I use powdered erythritol with some powdered stevia mixed in. I didn’t even decorate them and they’re delicious. Thank you so much.” — Susan
“My grandddaughter and I just used these recipes for the keto gingerbread cookies and royal icing to make a gingerbread house. It was a success. We really enjoyed every step of the process. Thanks a million, Miss Carolyn!” — Shari
Ingredients you need
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- Almond flour: For keto gingerbread cookies that have good texture and aren’t grainy, make sure you use finely ground almond flour. If you need to be nut-free, try using sunflower seed flour.
- Sweetener: I prefer to use Brown Swerve in this recipe but you can use any erythritol based sweetener. If you want that brown sugar flavor, make sure you add a little molasses or Yacon syrup. I do not recommend allulose or BochaSweet as they will come out much too soft.
- Coconut flour: Since coconut flour is a little drier, it helps firm up the dough for rolling out and cutting. You could try using some oat fiber, if you can’t use coconut flour.
- Butter or coconut oil: Both of these make delicious keto gingerbread cookies. If you need to be dairy-free, choose the coconut oil.
- Molasses: If you can’t find Swerve Brown, add 2 teaspoons of molasses for color and flavor. It will only add about 0.5g of carbs per serving.
- Spices: Gingerbread cookies should have plenty of ginger, along with a little bit of cinnamon and cloves.
- Powdered Sweetener: You want a powdered erythritol, such as Swerve Confectioners, for keto royal icing to firm up properly. Allulose and BochaSweet tend to make it far to soft and watery, so it won’t harden on the cookies.
- Egg white powder: This is just powdered egg whites, and it helps the icing harden into place. You can use egg white protein powder as well. If you purchase meringue powder, make sure it doesn’t have any added sugar. You can skip it if you really need to but it’s a helpful ingredient.
- Kitchen staples: Baking powder, vanilla extract, and eggs.
Step-by-step directions
1. Prepare the dough: In a large bowl, whisk together the almond flour, sweetener, coconut flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking powder, salt and cloves. Stir in the eggs, coconut oil, and vanilla extract until the dough comes together.
2. Roll the dough evenly: Divide the 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 ¼ inch thick.
3. Cut out: Use cookie cutters to cut into desired shapes and gently loosen and lift with an offset spatula. Place onto the prepared baking sheets. Gather up scraps and re-roll until too little is left to roll out. Repeat with the second half of dough.
4. Bake: 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. You can also keep them in longer if you want very crisp cookies.
5. Prepare the royal icing: In a medium bowl, whisk together the powdered sweetener and egg white powder. Add 2 tablespoons of water and stir until smooth. Add more water a little at a time until desired consistency is achieved.
6. Decorate: Pipe the icing onto the cooled cookies and let set 30 minutes or longer.
Decorating your cookies
Sugar-free royal icing is easy to make and so perfect for decorating any kind keto cookies.
I followed traditional recipes quite closely, and used egg white powder to produce a soft icing for piping that dries 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, as several brands like Good Dee’s and The Sprinkle Company make them now. You can also easily make your own homemade sugar free sprinkles, in any shape or color you want.
Expert tips
How many cookies you get depends on the size of your cookie cutters. I like 3 inch cutters and find that I can get about fifty. It is meant for sharing around the holidays, but you can easily cut this recipe in half if you need fewer cookies.
The great part about keto dough is that you can re-roll the scraps as much as you need without worrying about over-working the gluten. So go ahead and get as many cookies as you possibly can out of this!
If you prefer crispy keto gingerbread cookies, simply bake them a little longer. They should be quite firm to the touch when you remove them from the oven. But keep your eye on them so that they don’t over-brown.
Frequently Asked Questions
This keto gingerbread cookie recipe has 5.3g of carbs and 2.6g of fiber per serving. That comes to 2.7g net carbs per serving of 2 cookies.
This is a great recipe for making ahead and freezing. I recommend freezing the baked cookies undecorated, stacked carefully in airtight containers. Then simply thaw, decorate, and serve. Because they are baked hard and dry, they can last on the counter for up to a week.
Molasses is a byproduct of sugar production and naturally contains a lot of sugar. It has 15g of carbohydrates per 1 tablespoon serving, so it’s not truly keto friendly. However, you can use a little molasses to mimic brown sugar flavors in keto recipes. If you can’t get Swerve Brown, try adding 2 teaspoons of molasses to these keto gingerbread cookies. It will add less than 0.5g per of carbs per serving.
More delicious keto gingerbread recipes
Keto Gingerbread Cookies Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
Cookies:
- 4 cups almond flour
- 1 cup brown sugar substitute See recipe notes for alternative
- ¼ cup coconut flour
- 2 tablespoon ground ginger
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon ground cloves
- 2 large eggs
- ¼ cup coconut oil (or butter) melted
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Royal Icing:
- 1 cup powdered Swerve Sweetener
- 1 tablespoon egg white powder
- 2 to 4 tablespoon water, room temperature (more to thin out as necessary)
Instructions
Gingerbread Cookies
- Preheat the oven to 275ºF and line two baking sheets with silicone mats or parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the almond flour, sweetener, coconut flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking powder, salt and cloves. Stir in the eggs, coconut oil, and vanilla extract until the dough comes together.
- Divide the dough in half and turn out first half onto a large piece of parchment paper. Top with another piece of parchment and roll out about ¼ inch thick.
- Use cookie cutters to cut into desired shapes and gently loosen and lift with an offset spatula. Place onto the prepared baking sheets. Gather up scraps and reroll until too little is left to roll out. Repeat with the 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.
Sugar-Free Royal Icing
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the powdered sweetener and egg white powder. Add 2 tablespoons of water and stir until smooth. Add more water a little at a time until desired consistency is achieved.
- Pipe icing onto cooled cookies and let set 30 minutes or longer.
Kathy says
Can I use Stevia for swerve? I am so looking forward to making these. Thanks so much!!
Carolyn says
You can probably do so in the cookies but it won’t work in the royal icing.
Anthony says
I’m wondering what your thoughts would be for making a thicker, chewy ginger cookie using this recipe–higher heat and shorter bake time? Thanks!
Carolyn says
Hmmm, good question. Obviously cut them thicker. I don’t think you’d want a higher heat but yes, a shorter bake time.
Mike @TheIronYou says
The police line-up made cracked me up C, and this is a great recipe for GF gingerbread Man cookies. Pinned!
Carolyn says
Ha, I’d forgotten about that picture. Thanks!
Jen says
OH wow these are SO good!!
Dina says
great healthy cookie!
Kristine says
I just made these….OMG!!! What can I say other than thank you from the bottom of my piggy little low-carb heart!! I put more ginger in than recommended (as I am a ginger freak) and I subbed half of the molasses for ricemalt syrup (so the molasses wasnt too overpowering). I am in love with these biscuits (cookies)!
Carolyn says
Glad you like them! I actually put in what I thought was a lot of ginger so you must REALLY like it.
Kristine says
I LOVE IT 😀 I realise it (ginger) is relatively high carb, but I am trying to up my healthy carbs a little due to a thyroid issue.
Carolyn Miller says
Hi Carolyn,
I was wondering if you have ever used or heard of Whey Low. I have been using it as a sugar sub and really like it, but I think it is higher in carbs than Swerve. Ehat is your opinion. Thanks, Carolyn M
Carolyn says
I have heard of it but never used it myself. Sorry I can’t be more help!
Becky says
Dipping in chocolate sounds good to me – they could have boots, gloves, and a little beanie hat. Ganache would make great shorts and buttons, too. I think dark chocolate goes great with gingerbread.
Carolyn says
Next time, fer shur!
Pam says
I am sitting on a Jury will make the “Police Line-up” perfect, all 13 of us will enjoy.
Mariruth says
Can you substitute gluccomanon for xanthan gum? I don’t want to make one more trip to the grocery store. 😉
Carolyn says
I have absolutely no idea because I’ve never used gluccomanon. However, I think it’s worth a try if you’re dying to make them. I don’t know how much you’d put in though.
Lady Jennie says
So glad to be back here. My book is finally done and I have time to bake! And now I need to go check out how you managed to make the cardamum cookies sugar free – I’m thinking that’s the Mexican wedding cake recipe, right? I wish I could get the swerve powdered sugar.
Carolyn says
What book? Clearly I haven’t been to your blog in a while!
jillian says
dear carolyn..love your recipes, they all look so delicious..here is my question…have had bad luck on two i tried. being allergic to swerve and xylitol i have made them with cocnot sugar or even eval. cane..do you think that changes the outcome? thanks.jill
Carolyn says
Hi Jill… Yes, it probably affects them a little. Sugar is hygroscopic, meaning it attracts moisture. Erythritol and xylitol are non-hygroscopic, so I have to adjust the liquid content to account for that in my recipes. What recipes did you try with these? For most, it wouldn’t be too much of an issue, but for some recipes, it would make a difference.
jillian says
it was a bread-y thing..sadly i can not remember which…but would like to make the snowballs,gingerbread men, maybe some cake desserts. really, almost everything you make is so appealing. and i like using almond flour. i could use coconut syrup or honey if that would add enough moisture.
Carolyn says
No, the problem here is too much moisture, not too little. Coconut syrup or honey would make that worse. I actually think for these cookies, coconut sugar would be just fine. But if you find the dough too sticky, add another tbsp of coconut flour to firm it up and dry it out a bit. That always helps.
Jane says
Thank you thank you! I was just feeling a little blue about the Christmas cookie thing and then I saw this–perfect! Feel that Christmas spirit coming back.
Carolyn says
There are lots of great options for low carb Christmas cookies!
Ameera Saleem says
Hi what could i substiture for swerve? Would erythritol work?
Carolyn says
Yes, that works well.
Brenda @Sugar-Free Mom says
These look wonderful! Sharing tomorrow on FB for sure!
Jeanette | Jeanette's Healthy Living says
Carolyn, these are absolutely adorable! Who doesn’t love gingerbread men for the holidays!
Susan says
Do you think this recipe could be adapted to make a gingerbread house?
Have you tackled a rolled butter cookie … or a spritz … yet? I really do miss the tradition of making Christmas cookies. My mom and I used to bake a different cookie every weekend day starting after Thanksgiving.
Carolyn says
Hi Susan. I do have a rolled, cut-out sugar cookie recipe. Is that what you are looking for? I have yet to try spritz cookies.
Susan says
Ah, yes, that’s exactly what I’m looking for. I searched your site for it, but didn’t see it. Can you point the way? Thanks!! And I was thinking that a spritz cookie might be a good low-carb makeover, since you don’t need to roll it, and the dough can stay soft. They’re lots of fun for kids to make (or at least I enjoyed it when I was a kid), once they get the hang of the cookie gun/press.
Also, I’ve been tooling around the low-carb web and noticed a recipe to make almond paste from almond flour, egg white, powdered sugar-substitute and almond extract. Have you tried it? I’ve been hankering for Italian Pignoli cookies, which are really just an almond meringue cookie, and will probably give it a go this holiday season. Almond paste opens up a lot of delicious pastry options, if this really does work.
Anyway, I really appreciate all your work with these recipes. It’s really great not to feel deprived!
Carolyn says
Here’s the holiday sugar cookie recipe (I made mine for Halloween but obviously you can make them for any holiday) https://alldayidreamaboutfood.com/2012/10/cut-out-sugar-cookies.html
I think making almond paste would be easy. I actually made frangipane tarts (similar idea) but have yet to post about them. You should definitely try it!
Susan says
Thanks! I’m really looking forward to trying both the gingerbread and the butter cookies. Nothing like a plate of cookies and a cup of tea over Christmas. And, really, we do want to help Santa with his blood sugar!
Faye Paetz says
Hi, I just love your recipes and have made several! Yum, yum… I was wondering if this could be made without the molasses or do you have a recipe for sugar-free molasses? Thank you
Carolyn says
You can make it without molasses but they won’t have as much gingerbread flavour or colour.
Denise says
Hi Carolyn
I just keep making these over and over! I’ve used coarser almond flour than Honeyville and they still turn out. For the molasses, I’ve substituted 2 tsps of instant coffee mixed with 3 Tbsp liquid that’s a combo of hot water and a brown da Vinci syrup (it doesn’t really matter what flavour)
All the best for the holidays!
Carolyn says
So glad you like them!
Lisa says
I don’t see molasses on the ingredient list. How much is used?
Carolyn says
I’ve just subbed Yacon for molasses, so that’s what you can follow. You can sub in the molasses there.
Lisa says
Awesome, thanks, I’ll go with your version
Sarah G says
And as for decorating, for the kids’ birthday cakes I have finally resorted to store bought cake toppers and then writing a message on an index card and laying it on the cake. That’s how bad MY decorating skills are!
Carolyn says
You gotta do what you gotta do! 😉
Tammy Wilson says
could I use coconut sugar instead of swerve….I usually try to fast forward to a recipe, but YOU’RE FUNNY! appreciate your humor! 🙂
Carolyn says
Thanks! If you use coconut sugar, these may be a lot softer. Not really sure as I don’t use it.
Sarah G says
Ohhh, I want to make these today! I guess the meringue powder is a necessity?
Carolyn says
It might not be a full necessity but it certainly helps stiffen the royal icing once it’s on the cookie.
Sarah says
Gotcha, thanks!
kmbeall says
Can I use egg white instead, and leave out or decrease the water?
Carolyn says
Do you mean for the royal icing? I suppose you can try…
Danni says
Hi 🙂 how do i print without the photo? Thanks!
Carolyn says
Cut and paste.
Shari Rigmaiden says
My grandddaughter and I just used these recipes for the gingerbread cookies and royal icing to make a gingerbread house. It was a success. We really enjoyed every step of the process. Thanks a million, Miss Carolyn!
Shari says
My grandddaughter and I just used these recipes for the gingerbread cookies and royal icing to make a gingerbread house. It was a success. We really enjoyed every step of the process. Thanks a million, Miss Carolyn!
The Mom Chef ~ Taking on Magazines One Recipe at a Time says
Ok, the police line-up made me laugh out loud. I love it! Tell your kids that I think they did an awesome job. I have the same problem with making icing lines. They’re never straight or look anything remotely professional. And, like you, my hands don’t normally shake, so I don’t get it. 🙂