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    Home » Cookies » Keto Cut Out Sugar Cookies

    Published: Nov 11, 2019 · Modified: Feb 19, 2021 by Carolyn

    Keto Cut Out Sugar Cookies

    This post may contain Amazon or other affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

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    Easily the best keto sugar cookies you will ever make. This cut out sugar cookie recipe produces sturdy but tender cookies that stand up to your favorite sugar-free frosting and decorations. Perfect for any holiday or event, and so fun to decorate!

    Keto sugar cookies on a white table with a bottle of milk. More sugar cookies in the background, all decorated with sugar-free royal icing

    My keto cut out sugar cookies have stood the test of time! First published here on All Day I Dream About Food back in October of 2012, and I decided to give them a little update. I changed very little about the cookie itself but created a perfect keto royal icing so that you can decorate to your heart’s content.

    If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck, right? And if it looks like a sugar cookie and tastes like a sugar cookies, it’s a sugar cookie, right? Or not.

    Perhaps I shouldn’t call these keto sugar cookies, since they don’t have a single grain of sugar in them. False advertising and all that.  But it’s a whole lot better than calling them Cut-out Erythritol Cookies.  Somehow that just doesn’t roll of the tongue as nicely.  And let’s face it, erythritol is not a pretty name. It may be the best one of the best sugar replacements on the market, one that doesn’t spike my blood sugar even a little bit, but erythritol sounds like something you might clean your kitchen sink with.

    But the holidays are coming and what kid doesn’t love playing around with fun cookie cutters and colorful frosting? My kids look forward to it every year, when we crank the holiday music and make a horrific mess in the kitchen. I can’t let them down!

    Perfect keto cut out sugar cookies in stacks on a white table.

    Re-inventing The Best Keto Sugar Cookies

    It’s funny when I go back and revisit an older recipe such as this one. Sometimes I find I have to change things significantly, as I have learned so much and improved my keto baking skills considerably in the last 7 or 8 years.

    But sometimes I find I don’t really need to change them very much at all, and I am delighted to discover that a good recipe back then is still a good recipe today. These cut out sugar cookies are one such recipe.

    What makes them so great? Well for one thing, they don’t spread or rise, and they hold their shape perfectly during baking. And if you’re careful and keep your eye on them, you can make sure that they don’t brown too much, so that they stay a pale golden brown like a traditional sugar cookie.

    Once cooled, they are both sturdy and tender. You bite into one thinking it’s going to be too crisp, but it has just the right amount of give under your teeth. And yet they still hold up to all the decorating you care to throw at them.

    The only changes I made to the cookie dough itself was to swap out the oat flour for coconut flour, and leave out the xanthan gum altogether. Everything else stayed the same, including the chilling time and baking time.

    One major tip, though, to keep that pale golden sugar-cookie color: use a silicone mat for baking rather than parchment, if you can. It protects the cookies better from the heat. 

    Flooding cut out sugar cookies with royal icing.

    Decorating Cut Out Sugar Cookies

    I like to say I am the world’s worst cookie decorator. The truth is that I rarely have the patience or the inclination to do fussy, careful decorating, even though I envy those who have such talents. But I have to say, I think I did a pretty decent job with this updated keto sugar cookie recipe. I’m not going to win any awards but I surprised even myself.

    And it all comes down to creating the perfect keto royal icing.

    I’m not a huge fan of royal icing most of the time, and much prefer buttercream or cream cheese frostings. On its own, royal icing tastes a bit like a sweet glue. Which is sort of what it is, when you think about it, a combo of sweetener, water, and egg white that can harden to stay in place.

    But somehow when it’s added to a good sugar cookie like this one, the whole thing tastes really delicious. I think it’s in part because I keep the cookies themselves less sweet, so the end result is not overpowering or cloying. It really works together and your cookies end up both pretty and tasty – and in this case, healthy and sugar-free. Now that’s a holiday miracle!

    If you prefer to use a buttercream frosting, I have preserved the original frosting recipe for these cookies, below the main recipe.

    How to make Keto Royal Icing

    This one took a little messing around with to get right. I’ve made royal icing before, most notably for my Keto Gingerbread Men. That one is made with all powdered Swerve and it works well and hardens nicely but it also hardens in a way that can end up looking very dried out. For the little lines on gingerbread men, that’s fine. But for colorful sugar cookies, I wanted something with a bit of a sheen to it.

    So I decided to use half powdered Swerve and half powdered BochaSweet. I know you hate it when I use two sweeteners, but this really works, trust me.

    Why not all powdered BochaSweet? Because in my experience, it can make frostings and glazes too soft and I still wanted this to dry out and harden onto the cookie. The combination of these two sweeteners helps me take advantage of their desired properties and offset the undesired ones.

    Note* You could probably use powdered xylitol instead. Not sure if there is such a thing as powdered allulose yet!

    You want to work at getting just the right icing consistency – slightly drippy but not runny. This allows you to make outlines of shapes, and then “flood” them in by zig-zagging lines of icing within the outlines. Then use a toothpick to run all the lines together into a smooth coating (photo above shows this process).

    Keto sugar cookies on a white plate, all decorated with holiday colors and designs

    Coloring your Keto Royal Icing:

    These days, there are an increasing number of all natural food dye options. I like the vegetable based powders from Color Kitchen but they tend to end up very pastel looking and there is no true red, just pink.

    But I recently found this beet powder coloring which makes a much stronger red color. It does taste faintly of beets and has a bit of carbs, but you put so little frosting onto each cookie that neither the flavor nor the carbs are a significant factor in the end.

    For the deep forest green on these cookies, I had to use a little of the blue Color Kitchen powder mixed into the green. Otherwise it ends up a slightly neon light green.

    Always always use a light touch with these powders, sprinkling in a little at a time and mixing, and then adding more until you achieve the desired shade.

    The end result? Well yes, it still tastes like sweet glue if you taste the icing on its own. But it’s a perfect keto decorating icing, as it dries firmly but still keeps its rich color. And together, the cookies and icing taste fantastic.

    Not being much of a cookie decorator, I was surprised by how much fun I had playing with this icing and decorating my cookies. And truth be told, I can’t wait to do it again and practice!

    A plate full of low carb holiday sugar cookies on a green and red plaid napkin.

    Can you make Keto Sugar Cookies ahead?

    You can indeed! I actually have some of this batch in the freezer right now, undecorated. They are simply stored in an airtight container.

    I do advise making just the cookies ahead of time. They freeze well but I am not sure how well the icing will fare. I think it will look fresher and brighter when it hasn’t been frozen. I may test this out though, this holiday season.

    But the good news is that once the cookies are frosted and decorated, they can last on the counter at room temperature for up to a week or even a bit longer.

    So go ahead and whip up a big batch of keto sugar cookies. Sock them away in the freezer until you are ready to decorate. Then have fun playing with the royal icing and give them away to all of your friends, family, and neighbours. They are lovely to look at but they are also lovely to eat!

    Love to bake? Me too! Check out my new cookbook, all about keto baking.

    A plate full of low carb holiday sugar cookies on a green and red plaid napkin.

    Keto Sugar Cookies

    Easily the best keto sugar cookies you will ever make. This cut out sugar cookie recipe produces sturdy but tender cookies that stand up to your favorite sugar-free frosting and decorations. Perfect for any holiday or event, and so fun to decorate!
    5 from 13 votes
    Print Pin Rate
    Course: Dessert
    Cuisine: American
    Keyword: cut out sugar cookies, keto sugar cookies
    Prep Time: 45 minutes
    Cook Time: 14 minutes
    Chill Time: 1 hour
    Total Time: 2 hours
    Servings: 12 servings
    Calories: 177kcal

    Ingredients

    Cookies:

    • 2 ¼ cups almond flour
    • 2 tablespoon coconut flour (can also use oat fiber)
    • ¼ teaspoon salt
    • 6 tablespoon butter softened
    • ½ cup Swerve Sweetener granular
    • 1 large egg
    • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

    Royal Icing:

    • ½ cup powdered Swerve Sweetener
    • ½ cup powdered BochaSweet (or powdered xylitol)
    • 1 tablespoon egg white powder
    • 2 to 4 tablespoon Water room temperature
    • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
    • Natural food coloring

    Instructions

    Cookies:

    • Prepare a work surface with a silicone baking mat or a large piece of parchment paper, and dust lightly with coconut flour. Line two large baking sheets silicone liners or parchment paper.
    • In a medium bowl, whisk together the almond flour, coconut flour, and salt. In a large bowl, beat the butter and sweetener together until creamy. Beat in the egg and vanilla extract, and then beat in the almond flour mixture until dough comes together.
    • Turn the dough out onto the prepared work surface. Pat into a rough circle and then top with a large piece of parchment paper. Roll out to about ⅓-inch thickness.
    • Using cookie cutters of choice, cut out cookies and lift carefully with a small, offset spatula or knife. Place on the prepared baking sheets and freeze for 30 minutes. Gather up the scraps and re-roll your dough, to cut out as many cookies as possible.
    • Preheat the oven to 325F.
    • Bake the cookies 12 to 14 minutes, or until they are just starting to brown around the edges, switching and rotating the pans halfway through baking. Remove from the oven and let cool completely on pan. The cookies will still be quite soft when removed from the oven but will firm up as they cool.

    Royal Icing:

    • In a large bowl, whisk together the sweeteners and the egg white powder. Add water, 1 tablespoon at a time, whisking in between, until desired consistency is achieved. It should drizzle off the end of the whisk in ribbons, but shouldn't be too thin. Whisk in the vanilla extract.
    • Divide into sepate bowls and add food coloring in small amounts until the desired color is achieved.
    • Place icing in small ziploc bags or piping bags with the very corner snipped off to pipe outlines. Let the outlines dry at least 10 to 20 minutes before filling in.
    • To fill in the outlines, pipe frosting into the outline in a back and forth motion. It does not have to be perfect and there may be gaps. Then simply use a toothpick to fill the icing into the gaps.
    • Let the flooded icing dry completely before adding any additional icing decoration. (Or do what I did for one cookie, add little dots of another color and swirl them in with a toothpick. So many fun options!).

    Video

    Notes

    How many cookies you get depends on the size of your cookie cutters. I used small 2 to 3 inch cutters and got almost 4 dozen cookies. Larger cookie cutter will obviously result in fewer cookies. 
     
     
    Nutrition Facts
    Keto Sugar Cookies
    Amount Per Serving (1 serving = 1/12th of recipe)
    Calories 177 Calories from Fat 137
    % Daily Value*
    Fat 15.2g23%
    Carbohydrates 4.8g2%
    Fiber 2.4g10%
    Protein 5g10%
    * Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

     

    If you would prefer a buttercream based frosting:

    • 6 tablespoons butter, softened
    • 1 cup powdered Swerve Sweetener
    • 3 to 5 tablespoons heavy cream
    • ½ teaspoon vanilla
    • Food coloring as desired

    Beat together the butter and powdered Sweve. Add the cream, 1 tablespoon at a time, until desired consistency is achieved. Stir in the vanilla and food coloring. Spread or pipe onto the cooled cookies.

    16.8K shares

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    Nutritional Disclaimer

    Please note that I am not a medical or nutritional professional. I am simply recounting and sharing my own experiences on this blog. Nothing I express here should be taken as medical advice and you should consult with your doctor before starting any diet or exercise program. I provide nutritional information for my recipes simply as a courtesy to my readers. It is calculated using MacGourmet software and I remove erythritol from the final carb count and net carb count, as it does not affect my own blood glucose levels. I do my best to be as accurate as possible but you should independently calculate nutritional information on your own before relying on them. I expressly disclaim any and all liability of any kind with respect to any act or omission wholly or in part in reliance on anything contained in this website.

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      Recipe Rating




    1. Stephanie Olsen says

      April 24, 2022 at 6:59 pm

      5 stars
      I’d never attempted keto cut-out sugar cookies before and was afraid they might fall apart when rolling/cutting, but nope – these behaved amazingly well. Oh and absolutely delicious!

      Reply
    2. Elaine in SC says

      April 24, 2022 at 1:55 pm

      Could I use Allulose instead of Bocasweet? I can’t do Xylitol. I’d really not want to purchase another sweetener as I have issues with many low carb items?

      Reply
      • Carolyn says

        April 24, 2022 at 6:42 pm

        In the glaze? Yes that should work.

        Reply
    3. Joanne says

      April 23, 2022 at 9:02 am

      I can’t have nuts. Is there an alternative to almond flour or do you have a different recipe for sugar cookies I could try? I would really like to have a good sugar cookie recipe, and I love your other recipes so I know it would be delicious!

      Reply
    4. Ashley says

      February 20, 2022 at 11:01 am

      Hi, am I able to substitute the powdered egg whites for actual egg whites for the icing?

      Reply
      • Carolyn says

        February 20, 2022 at 6:41 pm

        No, it makes the icing crack when it dries. you can skip the egg white powder but I do recommend it.

        Reply
    5. Lori says

      January 27, 2022 at 9:11 am

      Hi Carolyn, I know you’ve said you don’t notice the cooling effect so much with Swerve, but I do. I’ll use that with the cookies (following your exact recipe), but with the Royal icing, would that recipe work if I just used Bochasweet, or do I need the Swerve too, to get it to come out right? Thanks ahead of time.

      Reply
      • Carolyn says

        January 27, 2022 at 9:18 am

        So I’ve noticed that when I just use BochaSweet, it’s very watery and it doesn’t firm up for a very long time. I would do at least some Swerve (and try adding less water, just a little at a time…).

        Reply
    6. Sara Simon says

      December 23, 2021 at 8:11 pm

      5 stars
      I’ve been craving a good keto sugar cookie but the recipes I’ve tried have come up short – until yours. These are so good! They’re buttery and perfectly sweet all on their own, and they were easy to make. Thank you so much for another fantastic recipe!

      Reply
    7. Mary Beth says

      December 16, 2021 at 8:05 am

      Hi Carolyn,
      How critical is the 30 min freezing time once the cookies are on the baking sheet? Just wondering what options there may be for longer or shorter freezing time – or refrigerator time instead?

      By the way, I *love* your cookie and cake recipes! Your ‘Ultimate Guide to Baking’ cookbook literally changed my life as a keto chef! I’d found low carb everyday meal prep easy to adapt to, but baking was daunting until I got your cookbook as a gift 2 years ago😊- my family finds it hard to believe that the baked goods I produce now are “compliant” with the low carb lifestyle – but they are, and all the credit goes to you!

      Reply
      • Carolyn says

        December 17, 2021 at 9:31 am

        You can do it in the fridge… but at least 1 hour! I am so glad you love the book. 🙂

        Reply
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