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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Can these work well as drop cookies (just rolled into balls and then flattened a bit before baking)? Thanks!
The dough is much too firm. Try this recipe instead: https://alldayidreamaboutfood.com/low-carb-chewy-ginger-cookies/
Can you use meringue powder in place of egg white powder?
Yes but make sure it’s not sweetened with sugar.
Hi Carolyn, I am just wondering if you know whether these have been made vegan at all – and if so what would be the adjustments? thanks so much, Karen x
wondering if i can replace the eggs with a chia or flax egg mix…
These are really good cookies.
However I had a heck of a time getting the frosting to work, as it was way too thin (more like a glaze). I ended up adding some cream cheese to get it to work, as it was way too liquidy to pipe.
Then I googled how to make royal icing this morning, and now I know why.
You need to WHIP the egg white powder and water into a meringue first, and THEN add the sweetener. You may want to change your instructions.
Well, no, you don’t. Honestly, I’ve made these cookies many times and made this royal icing many times. I have never seen a royal icing recipe where you had to whip anything. So… not quite sure what happened to yours. I suspect maybe you were using a different sweetener?
Carolyn, How many egg whites would you use to replace the 1 tbsp. of egg white powder in the icing? I don’t want to mess it up since ingredients are costly. Thank you I appreciate it.
I’d add 1 tbsp egg white and then do less liquid.
Tastes great! But now i want to make a new batch for people with coconut allergies… so obviously swutch from coconut oil to butter… but what can i sub in for the coconut flour? If more almond flour, how kuch? As i know it doesn’t work 1:1… thanks for the help!
Are you making the full batch that makes 4 dozen cookies? If so, use another 3/4 cup almond flour. Basically, take the coconut flour and triple it for additional almond flour.
Made these today???? Oh so very good! I used coconut oil and molasses, too???? Baked 16-17 minutes. Perfect for me????
Thank you for another amazing recipe! Your site is my Keto go to!!
Oh, My, Caroline, You have outdone yourself on these!! At first, when I had one somewhat fresh from the oven, I was not impressed, as they were somewhat chewy but not like ginger softies. However, after letting them sit for a day in a cool room, the flavor developed and they’ve become delightfully crunchy!! I added 1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper, and will add 1 tsp next time I bake these — and there WILL be another time! Thank you for persevering and translating your love for eating into foods that bless us all!!
Hello there,
I love gingerbread cookies, so I can’t wait to try these, but I had a couple of questions. Could I leave out the egg yolk and use only egg whites for the cookies? Instead of molasses, could I use maple syrup?
Yes to both but you will need a bit more egg white to help bind the cookies.
Carolyn Merry Christmas!
What can I use in place of the egg white powder in the icing? Protein powder? Thanks for this recipe, I needed a new recipe for these, my kids though their older still want gingerbread cookies, I love the smell of them.
I used meringue powder, but I looked it up, and you could use fresh egg whites, too. Do some googling to find the proportions.
Help, I’m making this recipe right now and the mixture is very crumbly not very much like a dough, is that how it’s supposed to come out before rolling it
Sounds like too much flour and not enough liquid. What kind of almond flour are you using?
can the batter be frozen? so if I mixed up the batter, froze it, then later on, thawed it and rolled and baked them.
Yes, absolutely!
HI Carolyn, i wanted to write back to tell you, that i had tried your recipe a few times. I had to do a few modifications here around the temperature. What has worked here is (depending on the oven) is 155C and about 20 to 25 minutes.
The cookies come out just firm to touch and then when left to cool, they harden. Not soft and not so hard. It’s a great tasting cookie. Thank you for sharing it.
My first few attempts failed. I don’t know what the 275F mark just didn’t work. But the temperature adjustment at least for me, has worked.
A question on storage – how long can these last after baking and put to storage? In airtight container – they can last a week? Or after baking can i freeze these or put in he fridge? and how long can these last in the freezer or fridge? Another question is say can i freeze the dough and for how long? Do i keep them in freezer or fridge temperature.
I made some 2 weeks ago and put them in airtight container and sealed them, but i discovered some turned mouldy. Hence i have those questions about storing them.
I never advise keeping cookies at room temperature for more than 5 days or so. You can freeze these easily, though.
I have a silicone 24 cavity gingerbread man mold. Do you suppose I could push little balls of dough into the cavities and bake these that way?
I am not sure since I don’t know what the mold looks like. I just worry that they wouldn’t crisp up properly if they are to thick.
Hi,
This recipe looks really amazing!
Will it be possible to get the ingredients in grams please? I have had many failures measuring in cups and I want to be on the safe side this time!
Thank you very much!
Warm regards,
Georgiana
I just enabled the metric conversion button. Thanks!
Hi I just tried your recipe. It seems to take much longer than 20 minutes to bake. Probably about 40 mins. Also, I used 2 Medium sized eggs instead of 2 large eggs. Any advice for me. The temperature is 135C for this bake. Should I increase the temperature?
What sweetener did you use?
Hello, Carolyn;
Since going keto I’ve been looking for replacement recipes.
I’ve used some of your’s & I thank you for them.
I’m not good enough to convert grain & sugar recipes to keto.
My Dad used to eat some crisp gingerbread cakes that he liked.
So I want a recipe for that.
Can you suggest changes to make this recipe more like the crisp style?
Thank you for all you do & for you kind assistance in advance.
have a GREAT day, Neighbor!
Use this recipe: https://alldayidreamaboutfood.com/classic-gingerbread-men-low-carb-and-gluten-free/
You can use either. I have.
your video shows you adding optional arrowroot powder to the icing, but it is not in your classic recipe (which I’ve made for several years now! How much arrowroot powder did you use in the icing?
Hi what is the molasses used in the recipe do? Do you think I could leave out. Just wondering as the carbs and sugars are high in it
Thanks!
Colour and flavour… and it only adds about half a gram of carbs to each serving.