These keto butterscotch cookies are tender and chewy, and full of rich flavor. Add a little sea salt on top for a one-of-a-kind keto cookie experience!
This post is sponsored by Swerve Sweetener.
When I started my low carb lifestyle over a decade ago, I assumed that certain things would forever be off limits to me. I didn’t dare hope that I would be able to make keto butterscotch cookies someday.
No one was making a good brown sugar substitute back then, and there was no such thing as sugar-free butterscotch chips. And now here we are and we have both available to us. Oh happy day!
So do yourself a favor and stock up on both. Because these cookies are utterly delectable. I’ve made several batches already and I just can’t get enough.
Why these cookies rock!
Swerve Brown does something magical to cookies, making them puffier as they bake and chewier as they cool. I noticed this same quality in my Keto Chocolate Chip Cookies.
It really is a phenomenal product that has changed the keto baking game for me. It has more real brown sugar flavor than any other sub I’ve tried. And it packs like the real thing too.
These keto butterscotch cookies have all the flavor of the real thing, and a great chewy texture too. They’re easy to make, and take only about 35 minutes of your time.
And each serving of 2 cookies has only 3.8g net carbs!
Ingredients
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- Almond flour: I always recommend using good blanched almond flour for the best consistency in cookies.
- Swerve Brown: Butterscotch is based on brown sugar, so a brown sugar replacement is vital to this recipe. I have tried a number of them and Swerve Brown is by far the most like real brown sugar.
- Collagen: Collagen protein powder (aka collagen peptides) helps give the cookies a chewy consistency similar to real butterscotch cookies. If you must, you can skip the collagen and add another 1/4 cup of almond flour. The salted caramel collagen from Perfect Keto is delicious in this recipe!
- Coconut flour: The addition of a few tablespoons of coconut flour helps to firm up the cookies a bit more. It also helps lower the carb count. But if you object to coconut, you can add 1/3 cup more almond flour.
- Butter: You can’t make butterscotch cookies without the butter! Salted butter works really well in butterscotch recipes.
- Baking soda: Don’t use baking powder! Baking soda gives the cookies better color, and they don’t rise as much so they don’t become cake-y.
- Egg
- Caramel extract: Caramel flavoring helps intensify the butterscotch, but vanilla extract works too.
- Keto butterscotch chips: Lily’s makes sugar-free butterscotch chips and I highly recommend them if you can get them. If not, you can use regular keto chocolate chips.
- Sea Salt: A little flaky sea salt on top takes these cookies brings out flavor and looks great too. I highly recommend it but if you want to leave it off, then add 1/4 tsp salt to the cookie dough.
Step by Step Directions
1. Whisk the dry ingredients: In a large bowl, whisk together the almond flour, sweetener, collagen, coconut flour, and baking soda. Swerve Brown tends to clump and hold together so I break it up with my fingers before whisking.
2. Add the wet ingredients: Stir in the egg, butter, and extract until the dough comes together. Make sure the butter isn’t hot when you add it in, so that it doesn’t cook the egg.
3. Add the butterscotch chips: Fold in half of the chips, reserving the rest for the tops of the cookies.
4. Roll into balls: Roll the dough into 1-inch balls and place on the prepared baking sheets. You should get 24 cookies Use the palm of your hand to press down to about 3/4 inch thick. Bake 15 to 18 minutes.
5. Top with more butterscotch chips: Right when they come out of the oven, press a few more butterscotch chips into the top of each cookie. These chips tend to melt a lot during baking so adding some at the very ends helps for visual appeal.
6. Sprinkle sea salt: This step is optional but it adds flavor and looks great too. Just a few flakes of sea salt for each cookie is all you need.
Expert Tips and FAQ
You can make the cookies as big or as little as you like. I made 24 cookies and 2 cookies is a serving. But you could easily make 16 or 12 for a bigger cookie. They will just take a little longer to bake.
If you can’t get Swerve Brown, try using granular Swerve or another erythritol and add 2 teaspoons of molasses. It will add less than 1 gram of carbs per serving.
And if you can’t get butterscotch chips, dark chocolate chips would be great too!
Regular brown sugar is out of the question on a keto diet. However, several brands make brown sugar substitutes that are keto-friendly. By far the best of these is Swerve Brown.
There are many possible sugar substitutes to use on a keto diet, but they all work a little differently. You need to understand how they will affect the outcome of your keto cookies and baked goods. Read my tutorial on keto sweeteners for more information.
Almond flour and regular wheat flour have very different properties. Wheat flour is finer and more powdery than almond flour. Almond flour also contains more moisture and fat than wheat flour. So they really can’t be swapped for each other cup for cup. Read up on Baking with Almond Flour here.
More delicious Swerve Brown recipes
- Baked Keto Oatmeal
- Sugar-Free Keto Caramel Sauce
- Easy Keto Mongolian Beef
- Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Cookies
Keto Butterscotch Cookies Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups (168 g) almond flour
- 3/4 cup (136.5 g) Swerve Brown, lightly packed
- 1/4 cup (27 g) collagen protein powder
- 2 tbsp coconut flour
- 1/2 tsp (0.5 tsp) baking soda
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 cup (113.5 g) salted butter, melted
- 1/2 tsp (0.5 tsp) caramel extract, or vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup (85 g) sugar-free butterscotch chips, divided
- Flaky sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325ºF and line a large baking sheet with a silicone liner or parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the almond flour, sweetener, collagen, coconut flour, baking soda, and salt. Stir in the egg, butter, and extract until the dough comes together. Stir in half of the butterscotch chips, reserving the rest for the tops of the cookies.
- Roll the dough into 1-inch balls and place on the prepared baking sheets. You should get 24 cookies Use the palm of your hand to press down to about 3/4 inch thick.
- Bake 15 to 18 minutes, switching the position of the pans halfway through baking. The cookies should be puffed and golden, but still very soft.
- While the cookies are still soft, press the remaining butterscotch chips into the tops and sprinkle lightly with sea salt.
- Let cool completely on the pans.
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.
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I’m craving a really crunchy coookie and although these are delicious, they aren’t quite what I was hoping for.
So the very description of the recipe says: These keto butterscotch cookies are tender and chewy, and full of rich flavor. Add a little sea salt on top for a one-of-a-kind keto cookie experience!
I am curious why you would expect a crunchy cookie out of this recipe.
Hi, Carolyn.
For years, I’ve loved your recipes and now own several of your cookbooks, including your most recent. For this recipe, which I would love to try, not sure whether you’ve noticed that you just can’t find butterscotch chips anywhere right now. It’s like a totally discontinued item. I did find a substitution post that isn’t sugar free, I’m guessing I can substitute the usual sugar-free ingredients and perhaps come up with something usable, but figured I’d put it out there. I don’t think it would be quite the same butterscotchy flavor with PB chips. Do you have suggestions? Thanks so much!
They taste really good with regular chocolate chips too, as I think I said in the blog post! 🙂
These cookies are amazing. They came out perfectly and delicious. I will definitely be making these again
Great to hear!
these were very good but as another person posted, they spread out quite a bit, almost flat. I us3d brown swerve. the dough itself seemed very soft. is the butter supposed to be completely melted or just soft? I thought about trying to cream the butter and swerve together first to see if that helps. Thank you
That means you need more flour. 🙂
I have some butterscotch chips just dreaming about being cookies!
These are really good. I browned the butter and added a few pecans I had to use up. The base is soft and delicious.
Based on the reviews I was so excited to try this recipe. I was very disappointed. The texture was gross and I wasn’t really impressed with the flavor either.
I’m making these right now. I’ve read all the instructions, recipe notes, and reviews. Just thought you’d like to know that step 2 is what’s confusing everyone ((not step 5 as you mentioned in one reply) I’m guessing you corrected it on another area of the recipe but didn’t realize it’s in the recipe card too):
“In a large bowl, whisk together the almond flour, sweetener, collagen, coconut flour, baking soda, and salt.”
I used butterscotch extract along with vanilla extract 1/2 tsp each. Also I browned the butter. Both steps intensified the butterscotch flavor of which I’m a huge fan. These reminded me of my grandmother’s butterscotch recipe from the early 1900s. Thank you, Carolyn, for making KETO butterscotch cookies!