Remember those Danish butter cookies making the rounds every holiday season? You know the ones – they came in a pretty blue metal tin and the cookies were all nestled in fluted paper cups.
Every house had them, back in my childhood. It was standard holiday issue, usually gifted by some aunt, grandmother, or coworker. They were tasty but the tin usually lasted so long, they grew stale before you could eat them all.
Well, you no longer need to mourn those holiday memories, because Keto Butter Cookies have arrived! And they are just as buttery, tender, and sweet as the real thing.
They look so festive on a cookie tray, along with other favorites like Keto Sugar Cookies and perhaps a few Chewy Keto Ginger Cookies. How can you resist?
Why you will love these cookies
I can’t tell you how fun it was to tackle this classic cookie recipe. I actually had to tackle it a few times, as the first few batches simply didn’t live up to the butter cookies of my memory.
It’s a tricky thing to get right, a soft dough that you can pipe into pretty swirls, whilst also being firm enough to not completely dissolve during baking. All the more tricky with keto ingredients!
But it was worth it to me to persevere. I found that if I let them sit in a warm oven, they got firmed up without browning too much. They stayed super buttery, but with a delightful crispness. Just like the real deal.
Reader Reviews
“These cookies are so delicious. Crisp on outside and melt in our mouth inside. Perfect. I will be making more of these. I was going to make these to take to work. Unfortunately, I don’t think they will last that long. So so good. Thank you so much.” — Charlie
“Just made a batch of these and they are delicious! Will be making more for the family Christmas gathering (I’m on dessert detail). Keeper! Thanks Carolyn for this one and all the many other wonderous recipes you share.Delicious and so simple to make. They look and taste great. Definitely recommend this recipe.” — Valerie
“Another perfect recipe! I will be able to make my family our traditional cookies once again – it’s been 7 years!!” — Jocelyne
Ingredient Notes
- Almond flour: Use finely ground almond flour so your cookies will have the best texture without being grainy. If you need to be nut-free, try using sunflower seed flour.
- Sweetener: You need an erythritol based sweetener for these cookies to firm up properly.
- Butter: If you use salted butter, you can omit the additional salt in the recipe. Be sure to use softened butter for better consistency.
- Sugar-free dark chocolate: Both Lily’s and ChocZero work well for the chocolate coating.
- Cocoa butter: I add a little cocoa butter to the melted chocolate for a smoother melt. You can also use 1/2 tbsp to 1 tbsp coconut oil, but they will be much more melty at room temperature.
- Sugar-free sprinkles: If you want to decorate your cookies with a little something extra, you can use store bought or homemade sugar free sprinkles. You could also use finely chopped nuts.
- Pantry staples: Eggs, vanilla extract, and salt.
Step by step directions
1. Combine the dry ingredients: In a food processor, combine the almond flour, sweetener, and salt. Pulse to combine.
2. Add the wet ingredients: Cut the softened butter into chunks and add to the processor. Pulse until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add the egg and vanilla and process until the dough clumps together.
3. Pipe the cookie dough: Fit a piping bag with a large open star tip such as the Ateco #826 or 828, and fill with dough. Holding the bag straight up and down, pipe the dough into tight circles, about 2 inches in diameter, onto two baking sheets lined with silicone baking mats or parchment paper.
4. Bake the cookies: Bake at 325ºF for about 18 to 20 minutes, until they are just golden brown around the edges. Remove and turn off the oven. Let the oven cool for about 15 minutes, then put the cookies back in to dry out and firm up, another 15 to 20 minutes or so. Remove and let cool completely.
5. Dip in chocolate: In a heatproof bowl set over a bowl of barely simmering water, melt the chocolate and cocoa butter. Dip half of each cookie into the chocolate and set on a waxed paper lined baking sheet. Sprinkle with sugar-free sprinkles, if desired.
Tips for Success
Using a food processor makes the dough more cohesive and very well combined. I first tried just beating things together in my stand mixer but it didn’t produce as fine a dough and the resulting cookies had a slightly gritty texture.
Make sure that butter is well softened. This is an important factor too, as it helps create a softer dough that squeezes through the piping tip. The ideal temperature for softened butter is 70F. If your house is a bit chilly, give the butter a slight zap in the microwave (10 seconds).
Use a larger open star piping tip. The tip you use for piping these cookies is very important, as the prongs need to be open enough to allow the dough to squeeze through. I used the Ateco 824, but the Wilton 1M tips can work as well.
It takes a bit to get the hang of piping these cookies. But the good news is that if you mess up, you can just add the dough back into the bag to be re-piped.
Double baking helps crisp them up. Danish butter cookies should be quite crisp but you also want them a pale golden color. To avoid over-browning, I took mine out at about the 20 minute mark, but then I returned them to the warm oven for a bit to help them crisp up. Worked like a charm!
As always, your sweetener matters. The only way to achieve a truly crisp cookie is with erythritol based sweeteners such as Swerve. Other sweeteners like BochaSweet, allulose, etc, make for cake-y soft cookies. Not necessarily a bad thing but not the perfect Danish Butter Cookie consistency.
Frequently Asked Questions
Keto shortbread cookies are made like classic shortbread, which means they don’t contain any egg. These keto butter cookies have an egg to help make the dough pliable and soft, so that it can be piped into shapes.
You can easily store these cookies in freezer. Once baked and cooled, place them in an airtight container between sheets of waxed paper. They will keep for up to 2 months.
This keto Danish butter cookie recipe has 4.2g of carbs and 2.1g of fiber per serving. That comes to 2.1g net carbs per cookie.
Want more keto holiday cookie recipes?
Check out my updated holiday cookies and bars ebook. All of my most popular cookies, plus a few exclusive recipes! Only $5.99.
Keto Danish Butter Cookies
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 cups (200 g) almond flour
- 2/3 cup (121.33 g) Powdered Swerve Sweetener , or other powdered erythritol
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup (113.5 g) butter , softened
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 ounces (113.4 g) sugar-free dark chocolate, chopped
- 1/2 ounce (14.17 g) cocoa butter
- sugar-free sprinkles, if desired
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325F and line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats or parchment paper.
- In a food processor, combine the almond flour, sweetener, and salt. Pulse to combine.
- Cut the softened butter into chunks and add to the processor. Pulse until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add the egg and vanilla and process until the dough clumps together in one big ball.
- Fit a piping bag with a large open star tip such as the Ateco #824, and fill with dough. Holding the bag straight up and down, pipe the dough into tight circles, about 2 inches in diameter. Tip: It takes a bit to get the hang of this but if you mess up, just take that cookie dough and add it back into the bag to be re-piped.
- Bake the cookies for about 18 to 20 minutes, until they are just golden brown around the edges. Remove and turn off the oven. Let the oven cool for about 15 minutes, then put the cookies back in to dry out and firm up, another 15 to 20 minutes or so. Remove and let cool completely.
- In a heatproof bowl set over a bowl of barely simmering water, melt the chocolate and cocoa butter. Dip half of each cookie into the chocolate and set on a waxed paper lined baking sheet. Sprinkle with sugar-free sprinkles, if desired.
Notes
Nutrition
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.
Free Bonus: Secrets to Keto Baking!
Sign up for your favorite recipes delivered straight to your inbox plus get our FREE bonus: Secrets to Keto Baking!
Hello,
Absolutely loved the taste and simplicity of this recipe. I did use monkfruit sweetener so ended up with crazy sweet cookies.
So I wanted my mum to make this recipe but she doesn’t eat eggs. What replacement would you specifically recommend? I saw online that you could use 1 banana or 1tbsp flaxseed
I am sorry, I haven’t tried this with egg replacers so I can’t know how well it will work.
Hi , could you expand on double baking please? How many minutes and what temperature for each bake? Thanks
The recipe states all of that.
These look delicious!!! I can’t wait to try them!!!
Hi Carolyn,
I know it’s not even March yet but I’m knew to keto baking and will be tryin these early to get the hang of it for the holidays. I love Linzer cookies and could not find one on your site, are you planning to add a recipe or is there another blogger you can point to. I’m DM2 and of course I had them this past season knowing the impact on my BS????so would love a low carb version,
Thanks in advance,
LIZ J
Can’t wait to try these out, I am horrible using a piping bag so going to use a cookie press.
Thanks so much for all your amazing recipes.
Hi Carolyn.
Being from Denmark I always find it a bit amusing that people love those store bought cookies so much. I never eat them – the homemade ones a sooo much better and my mother makes a giant batch every christmas. My family has a recipe that goes way back. Anyhow, the homemade variety is not piped but made with a meat grinder and cookie attachment (e.g. Kitchenaid) as the dough is much too firm to pipe. But these cookies do look absolutely delicious!
Thanks, Rikke! Isn’t that always with way, with the store-bought version of some treat not actually being what people eat in the supposed country? 😉
I just wanted to add some comments here that may help others out? I used the monkfruit/eryithytol mix sweetener from Costco. It was a bit granular, so next time I will put it in my Vitamix to powderize it more. I did not use a food processor at all…just mixed it by hand until I could see it was all mixed up. I also used Costco’s brand of almond flour. I think higher end food processors may be the culprit of melting the butter too much. My butter was room temperature and soft when I mixed the ingredients all together. Also, I used a cookie press to press out the dough. It worked beautifully!! I’d post a picture of them if I can figure out how to do that! Excellent recipe!! Thank you!!
Hi Jen, I am finding that the issue with melting butter oozing may actually be that some people’s food processors run hot and melt the butter. That’s not a “higher end” food processor issue, since mine is a very good KitchenAid. I think it’s actually smaller processors that aren’t up to the challenge of the dough that’s probably the issue. The motors may be working too hard and giving off heat.
It seems my food processor ran a little warm as I was combining the butter and melted the butter a bit! Is there any saving the dough if I pop it into the fridge for a bit?
Interesting, this is what may be happening to other people. Mine does not do this at all. I think yes, it should be fine in the fridge.
I wanted to come back and leave an update from the last comment! It was definitely the food processor. The one I was using wasn’t a bad one, just wasn’t up to the task and was running hotter to get the dough going. This caused the butter to melt and separate from the dough. I got another one, slightly bigger, and the recipe turned out just fine! Thank you~
This is really great feedback. Thanks, Jean!
Had the same issue with the butter oozing out of the bag and making puddles everywhere. Used BRM almond flour and powdered swerve. The butter was softened and not melted. A big ball formed in my processor but it all went south after that. Ugh!
If it’s too soft, simply scrape it all back out, add a tbsp of coconut flour, and proceed again.
Oh my goodness, how pretty are these! Love them!
Yes mine spread out also.I used Wellbee’s almond flour.
So the almond flour seems to be making a big difference… if you use that brand next time, try adding 1 tbsp coconut flour to your dough.
Finally a cookie I can eat while on my Keto diet. Will definitely be making these again!
What a great looking cookie! Can’t wait to whip these up for Xmas! I too, love using Bob’s Red Mill almond flour. It’s a good one!
The butter was softened, not melted. But I’m thinking it was due to using the granulated Swerve rather than the powdered. Swerve.
I don’t know if the granular would be the issue, although the cookies may not have as fine a texture with it. Still could be the almond flour. Here’s what I suggest… add 1 tbsp of coconut flour to the mixture to help absorb any butter that wants to escape.
Oh darn it…I’m so sorry!! Please delete my prior comment if you want to. While I did use Swerve, it was not the powdered version. That’s my mistake and failure. I’ve been trying to figure out what went wrong, and now I know. So my negative comment review is unfounded. I apologize.
Followed this recipe as written. Twice! I tried this recipe twice! When I squeezed the dough through the bag, the butter basically dripped out and was separated from the rest of the dough.The dough itself was translucent and did not taste anything at all like Danish butter cookies. Something is way off with this recipe. What a waste of ingredients. I don’t think the brand of almond flour would cause such a flop, but I used Blue Diamond blanched almond flour.
Sorry they didn’t work for you but nothing is “off” with the recipe. The ingredients absolutely DO matter. I don’t use anything but Bob’s and this recipe has worked out for me a number of times. If your butter was “dripping”, then something was very wrong, but not with the recipe itself (I tested it a number of times and several readers have made it successfully already). I don’t publish recipes that don’t work.
If you blended softened properly in a food processor with the other ingredients, it would not “drip” or separate out. Also I wonder what sweetener you used?
Thanks for your response. I used Swerve, as recommended. I really wanted these to work. I have used so many of your recipes without fail, but this one not so much.
Oh darn it…I’m so sorry!! Please delete my prior comment if you want to. While I did use Swerve, it was not the powdered version. That’s my mistake and failure. I’ve been trying to figure out what went wrong, and now I know. So my negative comment review is unfounded. I apologize.
I’d really like to figure out what else went wrong, though. The whole “butter dripping” thing… No matter WHAT ingredients you used when you blended it all up together, I can’t see why that would happen. Was it melted?
I’ve had the same thing happen on my second try with this recipe. The first time they spread out too much and I didn’t watch them close enough so I ended up with burnt cookies. So I thought, I’ll try again… everything exactly the same but this time the butter separated out and is dripping and oily? I have no idea why, and why only the second time… I did use the kirkland almond flour but I used the powdered swerve both times. I’ve added a couple tablespoons of coconut flour at the end hoping to get more body to the cookies and reverse the oily mess but no luck
So one reader made a connection here that may be the issue. Her food processor is smaller and not quite heavy duty and it works really hard when she’s blending the dough. Because of the hard work, the motor heats up too much and melts the butter, making it oily. I am guessing that’s what happened here for you too.
Do you think I could use a cookie press for these? Thanks!
Yes but you may want to actually check out my proper Spritz cookies
Thank you for replying – I will!