Easily the best keto sugar cookies you will ever make. This recipe produces sturdy but tender cookies, perfect for decorating with sugar-free royal icing. They’re fun to make for any holiday or occasion!
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 actually call these keto sugar cookies, since they don’t have a single grain of sugar in them. False advertising and all that.
But sometimes keto recipes deserve a little poetic license. I’ve got Keto Banana Bread with no bananas, and Keto Oatmeal with no oats. They just look and taste like the real deal and that’s all that matters. So why not sugar free sugar cookies too?
And during the holidays, who doesn’t love playing around with fun cookie cutters and pretty colors of royal icing? We look forward to it every year, when we crank the holiday music and make a horrific mess in the kitchen. It’s a family tradition!
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A must make cookie recipe
These keto sugar cookies have stood the test of time. I first published this recipe in October 2012, and I decided to give them a little update. I changed very little about the cookie itself but created a perfect sugar free royal icing to pair with it. So that you can decorate to your heart’s content!
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.
Reader Testimonials
Testimonial “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!” — Stephanie
“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!” — Sara
“This is a wonderful recipe, thanks for sharing! This also makes a great base for a fruit pizza. I have my second batch in the oven right now. ????”– Amanda
Ingredients you need
Cookie Ingredients
- Almond flour: For keto sugar cookies with really good texture, make sure you use a finely ground almond flour like Bob’s Red Mill. You can use sunflower seed flour as a nut-free alternative, but your cookies will be more gray in color.
- Coconut flour: A little coconut flour helps make the dough less fragile and easier to work with. You can also use a little oat fiber.
- Swerve Sweetener: You really need an erythritol based sweetener such as Swerve for crisp cookies. Allulose and BochaSweet simply won’t work here. Learn more about keto sweeteners and how they affect your baked goods.
- Butter: If you use salted butter, you can omit the additional salt in the recipe. Be sure to use softened butter for better mixing.
- Pantry staples: Eggs, vanilla, salt.
Royal Icing Ingredients
- Powdered Sweetener: I use a mix of Swerve Confectioners and BochaSweet for this icing. You can use all powdered Swerve but it looks a little dried out when it hardens. By mixing in some BochaSweet, the icing has a nice sheen to it.
- Egg white powder: Classic royal icing takes meringue powder to help it firm up and harden, but it often contains sugar. I use powdered egg whites to the same effect. In a pinch, you could use some pasteurized egg whites and then reduce the water.
- Vanilla extract: Royal icing isn’t very flavorful, so l like to add a little vanilla to make it taste better.
- Natural food coloring: I prefer to use natural food colorings, but you can use any food colorings you like. It’s tricky to get a true red with natural dyes, so I add some beet powder to help.
Step-by-step directions
1. Prepare the cookie dough: 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.
2. Roll out: Turn the dough out onto a work surface with a silicone baking mat or a large piece of parchment paper, lightly dusted with coconut flour. Pat into a rough circle and then top with a large piece of parchment paper. Roll out to about ⅓-inch thickness.
3. Cut out: Using cookie cutters of your choice, cut out cookies and lift carefully with a small, offset spatula or knife. Place the cookies on baking sheets lined with silicone liners or parchment paper and freeze for 30 minutes.
4. Bake: Once chilled, bake the cookies at 325F for 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.
Working with sugar free royal icing
If you want to decorate sugar cookies properly, you really need royal icing. It’s thin enough to make beautiful patterns, but it also hardens as it dries. I had to experiment quite a bit to get a keto royal icing that worked well. You can use this same icing on my Keto Gingerbread Cookies.
Why use two sweeteners?
I use both powdered Swerve and powdered BochaSweet for this recipe. Swerve hardens and dry better than BochaSweet, but can become a little dull as it sits. BochaSweet on its own makes the icing too goopy and soft, but gives it a nice sheen when combined with Swerve. The combination of these two sweeteners allows me to take advantage of their desired properties and offset the undesired ones.
You could also use powdered xylitol in place of the BochaSweet. I am not sure if allulose will work, as it tends to make things so soft that they never firm up properly.
To make
Whisk together the sweeteners and the egg white powder in a large bowl. Add water, 1 tablespoon at a time, whisking in between, until the desired consistency is achieved. Whisk in the vanilla extract.
It’s important to get just the right consistency. You want the icing to be 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.
Coloring the icing
Once you’ve got your icing to the right consistency, divide it up into separate bowls and color as desired.
These days, there are an increasing number of all-natural food dye options. Most of them are vegetable or plant-based, and they tend to produce pastel colors rather than true, deep reds and greens.
But I recently found this beet powder coloring which makes a much stronger red color. It tends to thicken the icing a bit so you need to add more water to get the right consistency.
Expert tips
To get that perfect pale golden sugar cookie color, use a silicone baking mat. It protect the cookies from the heat better than parchment paper.
Let the cookies cool completely before decorating them. If they are still warm, the icing will melt and run off the cookies! Also let them cool completely before attempting to freeze them.
Allow the royal icing to harden completely overnight. Simply lay all the decorated cookies out on cookie sheets and set in a cool, dry location. Once the icing is hard, you can layer the cookies on top of one another without risk of smearing the decorations.
Frequently Asked Questions
You can indeed! I actually have some undecorated cookies in my freezer right now. You can freeze them with or without the royal icing. I like to make a big batch weeks in advance, and then decorate them closer to the holidays.
This keto sugar cookie recipe has 4.8g of carbs and 2.4g of fiber per serving. That comes to 2.4g net carbs per serving of 3 to 4 small cookies. The exact amount depends on the size of your cookies.
It all comes down to what sweeteners you use. Erythritol is the only sugar substitute that produces crisp cookies. Any amount of xylitol, allulose, or BochaSweet will prevent the cookies from crisping up properly. For more information, read my Guide to Keto Sweeteners.
Keto Sugar Cookies Recipe
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!).
Julie Blanner says
Yes! So glad I can partake in eating cookies this year. The girls are going to love helping me decorate this year!
Krissy Allori says
Oh my gosh, I’m so excited about these cookies. I just love making these with my kids but always feel guilty when I indulge. But I won’t have to with these. Thanks!.
Stephanie says
Loved these cookies! I tried them with the buttercream frosting and they were delicious!
Barb Turcotte says
Hi, I can’t wait to try these. I copied the recipe and went shopping for ingredients, found all BUT the egg white powder, checked 5 stores only to find egg replacer……question…..what can be used to replace it if anything? I was wondering if I used pasteurized egg whites? How about flax seed or any other ideas to try? If you say there’s no replacement then I’ll wait and purchase online. Thank you so much for all you do
Carolyn says
Only egg whites will harden properly. You could probably use liquid egg whites and reduce the water. Powdered egg whites or egg white protein powder is best purchased online.
Amber says
I’m not sure if you answered this, but could this dough be used in a cookie press? For spritz cookies and such?
Carolyn says
Please use my search box and type in “Spritz” as I already have a very good spritz recipe. This dough is too thick.
Linda says
While I love having a good royal icing recipe for cookies, I plan to take these to my book club in December. I won’t have time to decorate that way because that’s holiday concert season. So, I’m going to make egg yolk paint. Have you ever done that? It’s so simple. You color egg yolks with whatever colors you want to use and paint them with a clean paint brush onto the cookie dough before baking, kind of like an egg wash. Super pretty & easy to do. No carbs. So, super keto-friendly. 🙂
Carolyn says
That sounds fun! I’ve never tried it myself.
Marcelle says
Does this recipe make just 12 cookies? It says 12 servings but I don’t see how many cookies are in a serving. Also, I don’t see the ingredients for the buttercream. The only thing showing is the food coloring. Thanks for another awesome recipe! Can’t wait to make these!
Carolyn says
Hi Marcelle, it clearly states in the recipe notes that I can’t tell you how many cookies it will make as it all depends on you cookie cutters. It’s weird about the buttercream, it did the same thing as I was editing yesterday and I don’t know why!
Carolyn says
Okay, now the buttercream should be fixed. Sorry about that, the ingredient list kept disappearing!
Angelia says
Oh my goodness am I excited to find recipes for cut out sugar cookies and royal icing! I’m a cookie and cake decorator who recently started the keto way of eating. I know. It’s crazy, right? I have plenty of meringue powder and was wondering if you think I can use that in place of the egg whites powder? Is hate to waste expensive ingredients to find out. I read all the comments in hopes of finding the answer, but no such luck. I googled my question too, but of course I didn’t find the answer with using swerve too. Thank you for sharing your recipes and time! I look forward to trying all of your recipes I just pinned on Pinterest!
Angelia says
By the way, you did a good job on decorating your cookies! Decorating isn’t easy if you don’t know how. It takes lots of practice!
Carolyn says
Thank you! Please make sure you email me some photos of YOUR cookies because I want some inspiration. My white was a little thick at first and then a little overly drippy so I struggled with that one!
Angelia says
Thank you so much for replying so quickly! I’m very glad you asked if my meringue powder is sweetened! Oh my goodness is it! 35 g carbs! I’ll have to find one that isn’t sweetened or order some egg white powder.
I’ll try to remember to send you some pics when I’m finally able to try your recipes! Thanks again!
Angelia
Carolyn says
Hi Angelia. Yes you can use meringue powder. Typically it’s the same thing except that often meringue powder is sweetened. Is yours? It may add a bit of carbs although not too much.
Linda Wilson says
We keep these frosted beauties in the freezer and eat them cold. Always different shapes and colors????
Thank you Carolyn!
Christy Saunders says
Could you make these a chocolate sugar cookie by adding cocoa? If so, how much would you add and would you take out some flour in its place? Thanks!!
Carolyn says
Probably 1/3 cup would do it. And yes you will need to reduce the flour, probably by about the same amount.
Kate says
Hi Carolyn, I was wondering if you have experimented with different size cookie cutters with this sugar cookie cutout recipe. Before my diabetic days I baked cut outs and definitely noticed differences of how the cookies bake related to cut out size and thickness. I collect large copper cutters and have zero experience yet with baking these cookies so thought I’d ask.
Thanks for making life sweet!
Carolyn says
I think any size cookie cutter would work but if they are very large, they may take longer to bake.
Wendy C Holmes says
I hate asking this, but here goes: I just realized that 2 of my kids won’t eat the treats made with swerve. The older of the 2 explained she doesn’t like the erythritol. If swerve didn’t exist what would be your next best substitute for this? The rest of us have zero issue with swerve
Carolyn says
If it’s the erythritol that’s the issue, then I have no suggested sweeteners because I prefer erythritol based ones. I hear good things about Bocha Sweet but i have yet to try it myself.
Simone Ribanic says
These look awesome!
I was wondering what i could use instead of the egg white powder. Not sure how much i would use it.
Thank you for all these great recipes! Loved everything i made so far ????
Carolyn says
You can use some pasteurized egg whites from a carton and then just hold back on the liquid a bit.
Amanda says
This is a wonderful recipe, thanks for sharing! This also makes a great base for a fruit pizza. I have my second batch in the oven right now. 🙂
Saskia Lesser says
Hi Wondering what is the best natural food colouring brand is – that you trust?
The cookies taste great on their own but want to try with the icing for the kids.
Thanks,
Saskia
Carolyn says
I’ve been using these colour powders lately. I am pretty sure they have an orange too. They are VERY vibrant! http://amzn.to/2wB0jWa
Diana says
would THM baking blend work?
Carolyn says
It would be a bit drier so be prepared to add more liquid or oil.
lazylowcarber says
I made a lazy version of it (no xantham gum etc…just almond powder, butter, swerve, vanilla, egg) and it turned out just as I expected 🙂 super sweet sugar cookies. I’m now motivated to buy some cookie cutter and coloring. I shared the recipe in Japanese on my site: http://cupcaketoons.com/devancouver/swerve-sweetener-%E3%81%A7%E4%BD%8E%E7%B3%96%E8%B3%AA%E3%82%B7%E3%83%A5%E3%82%AC%E3%83%BC%E3%82%AF%E3%83%83%E3%82%AD%E3%83%BC%EF%BC%88%E3%82%A2%E3%82%A4%E3%82%B7%E3%83%B3%E3%82%B0%E4%BB%98%E3%81%8D/ (the URL is a bit weird because they are in Japanese characters…)
Thank you Carolyn~~~
Carolyn says
Sounds like your lazy version worked out well!
Darlene says
Hey Carolyn!! I need a good vanilla wafer recipe for low carb banana puddin. How would these cookies work for that do you think, texture wise?
patti says
These worked well for us and have inspired me to look for new cookie cutters. Ever since my husband changed to low carb lifestyle, cookies have been harder to do. These worked – even though I did not use the recommended almond flour – we do our own in a grinder/mill. Keeping the dough well chilled was key. Also, I almost had the graininess that you mentioned in your icing recipe (and I was careful to have butter softened) and the thing that seemed to change from grainy was my final addition of Swerve, which I had premeasured and been putting in gradually as I made it. Actually, just having some good icing ideas that don’t need confectioners sugar has been a huge step forward for our family as well.. Of course, we did use green icing with St. Patricks Day just around the corner!.
Carolyn says
Thanks for that tip!
Sara says
Carolyn, these are sooooo good! My 20 yr old grandson even liked them! These are definitely going to be made for both Thanksgiving and Christmas.!
Carolyn says
Thanks!
Helen says
Hi Carolyn, I would love to make these cookies for my daughter. Could you tell me what sugar/no sugar toppings you used to accent the cookies. I didn’t know if they have sugar-free ones or ones you use that you would suggest. Thanks so much!
Carolyn says
I can’t find any sugar-free versions so I just try to keep them to a minimum.
Helen says
Thx Carolyn!!