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 1/4 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 (448 g) almond flour
- 1 cup (182 g) brown sugar substitute, See recipe notes for alternative
- 1/4 cup (30 g) coconut flour
- 2 tbsp ground ginger
- 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp (0.5 tsp) salt
- 1/2 tsp (0.5 tsp) ground cloves
- 2 large eggs
- 1/4 cup (54.5 g) coconut oil, (or butter) melted
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Royal Icing:
- 1 cup (182 g) powdered Swerve Sweetener
- 1 tbsp egg white powder
- 2 to 4 tbsp (59.15 g) 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 1/4 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.
Notes
Nutrition
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Those are the cutest gingerbread men! The police line up made me laugh!
Gingerbread cookies are a must at our house for the holidays. My new daughter in law can’t have gluten, so I’ll have to give these a try. Thank you!!!
Hope she loves them!
Wow these look PERFECT! I can’t wait to use this recipe with my kids this holiday season!
These look absolutely perfect and I’m so excited to try this keto version!
Thanks, Kimberly!
Such an interesting idea! I love that it’s low carb! I’ll have to give it a try this year
This was delicious!
Best Gingerbread Cookies recipe !!
Just made these. I love them ? We did use reg royal icing but the cookie is fab!! Ty and Happy Hokidays!
Can flax eggs be substituted for the egg in this recipe? My kids have egg allergies. I’d love to make a low card cookie we all can eat!
I haven’t tried it but it’s certainly worth a try. You may want to halve the recipe in case it doesn’t work out.
Did u use fresh ginger or dried?
Ground ginger powder.
I can not figure out what I did wrong, I followed the recipe almost exactly, I only substituted half of the melted coconut oil for softened butter. I like crisp cookies so I baked them as you recommended for crisp cookies, oven temp on 225 for 50 minutes. Still weren’t ready so I baked them another 15 minutes. They never got crispy, more like a soft, yet very dry cookie and they aren’t sweet enough for a cookie. And yes I rolled them out to 1/4 inch thickness. So bummed.
Did you use a different sweetener at all? I’ve never had this complaint so I am trying to figure it out.
There are times when I wish you’d post pictures of the recipe process and not just the finished product. I had trouble getting the dough to “come together.” My dough was very crumbly and there was no possible way I’d be able to roll it out. I had to add more egg and coconut oil to make it “come together” and even then it kept falling apart. In the end, I took small sections of dough and flattened them into rounds on the cookie sheet, still fighting against the dough wanting to crumble. But if I had a picture of what the dough was supposed to look like, I’d be better able to tell where I had gone wrong instead of guessing that I got close to where it should be.
The cookies turned out fine, I guess. The flavor seemed off. Maybe the spices should be stronger.
If I make these with butter and NO coconut oil, will they be crispier? I prefer my gingerbread cookies crispy.
To get them crispy, simply bake longer at a lower temperature.
Do you think this dough could be made ahead of time and chilled? I’m having some friends over and this would be fun to do.
Yes, that should be fine.
Hi Carolyn 😀
I was wondering if you would give me permission to use your recipe in a Murder Mystery book I am publishing(I would reference you blog and credit you for the recipe of course) I would be ecstatic if you would allow me to do this, this is my first novel and I am self publishing 🙂 but if not, I understand completely. 🙂
I am intrigued. Can you tell me how it’s going to fit into the story? And you are using just this recipe?
Well, my book is called ‘Murder Mystery and the Gingerbread Cookies’
I would be using your recipe for the cookies in the cover-art, and I would like to put the recipe in the back of the book.
There is a cookie exchange in the book as well as the cookies appearing at the crime scene 🙂
Hopefully, I will be able to put my regular Gingerbread cookie recipe in the book as well(But I am still talking to the lady who created them) But it would just be your recipe and hers if she agrees. If not, then just yours 🙂
I’m on the Keto diet and thus I found your wonderful recipe for my cover-art and eating needs 😀
That is really cute so I say…why not!?! Thanks for liking my recipe so much to want to include it.
Omygoodness! Thank you so much! 😀
I will be sure to let you know when the book comes out, so you can see your contribution 😀
Again, thank you! 😀
You know you will have to send me a copy, right? So I can share at least on social media?
Of course! 🙂 just give me your email address, or if you don’t want people seeing it on the comments you can email me at the email address I used to comment 🙂 I am releasing the e-book first, then in a few months the paperback 😀 So I will send you a free e-book when published 😀
alldayidreamaboutfood@gmail.com. I don’t mind leaving it in comments because it’s easy to find my contact info on this blog! 🙂
Okiedokie 🙂 I will be sure to send you a copy within the first week of publication 😀
Hi Carolyn!
I have sent you a copy of my book, Murder Mystery and the Gingerbread Cookies via my professional email, Tiffany@TiffanyMichele.com
I hope you enjoy it!
I got it, thank you! Haven’t yet had a chance to look. 🙂
You’re welcome 🙂
Happy Holidays!
Made these today. Added a little white pepper and cardamom for extra spice. Made the crispier version without icing. Came out very tasty! I’m thinking about experimenting with molasses powder to cut down on sugar. Thanks for the great recipes.
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.
So glad to hear it!
i made these tonight with my DF and GF son, i didnt have enough almond flour so i subbed a cup of flax meal and they turned out good!! very yummy, also i didnt have meringue powder so i just used two egg whites whipped really good. the frosting was yummy too [other than the obvious fact that it was swerve and not sugar…bleh cooling effect] but i still ate 3! 🙂
Thanks for the recipe. Can I sub the xanthum gum for something else or can I leave it out altogether as I can’t tolerate it too well ?
You can leave it out. Dough will be a tad more fragile.
I do not see xanthan gum in the ingredients anymore. Has the recipe been changed?
the 74 calories, is it per cookie or for two gingerbread men?
how much fat per cookie also?
It’s all per cookie and it’s all right at the bottom there. 74 cal, 6g of fat.
Just made these, thumbs up from myself and miss 8! I didn’t do icing but will for Xmas I just did a trial run today with 1/4 of the recipe. Thank you they are fab and I have shared them in my low carb group https://www.facebook.com/groups/787764711261211/permalink/920218541349160/?comment_id=920285964675751&offset=0&total_comments=16¬if_t=group_comment_reply
I can’t see the post in Facebook because I am not part of the group. Thanks for sharing!