A holiday classic gets a healthy makeover! Homemade Danish Butter Cookies now come in a low carb version. Beautiful swirls of tender keto butter cookie dough baked to crisp perfection. This post is sponsored by Bob’s Red Mill.
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 like standard holiday issue in Toronto, you absolutely must have the tin of cookies. They were usually gifted by some aunt, grandmother, or coworker. They were tasty but often the tin lasted so long, they grew stale before you could eat them all.
Still, many of us seem to have fond memories of those cookies, because they were such a holiday staple.
More great Keto Holiday Cookies: Check out Keto Sugar Cookies, Keto Gingerbread Men, and Keto Spritz Cookies!
Danish Butter Cookies go keto!
Well, you no longer need to mourn those sweet holiday cookies of yore, because Keto Danish Butter Cookies have arrived! And they are just as buttery, tender, and sweet as the real thing. Possibly more so because they come guilt-free.
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.
So I am sharing all of my keto butter cookie tips right here, right now!
How to make low carb butter cookies
This is an almond flour recipe, so of course I used my trusty Bob’s Red Mill. I find it to be the most consistent for my keto baked goods. I wouldn’t try to make this recipe with any other flour, as I think almond flour is ideal for that tender crisp texture.
Using a food processor will make 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. The food processor made a huge difference.
Make sure that butter is well softened. This is an important factor too. If your butter is too firm, the dough won’t be as cohesive and you will end up with little holes in your cookies were bits of butter have melted away. The ideal temperature for softening butter is 70F. If your house is a bit chilly, give the butter a slight zap in the microwave (10 seconds). Or do what I do and leave it right by your heating vent for a few minutes! Just don’t let it be completely melted.
Use a larger open star piping tip. The tip you use for piping these cookies is very important. I have any number of decorating tips but very few of them are open enough for pushing through the stiff dough into pretty swirls. I used the Ateco #828, which is quite large, but the slightly smaller #826 would work as well.
Hint: these both would also be good tips for the keto cheese straws recipe I have coming very soon!
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.
Dipping them in chocolate and using sugar-free sprinkles takes them to the next level! But you can always keep your butter cookies unadorned, like the original. Either way, they are delicious!
Keto Danish Butter Cookies
Equipment
- Open star piping tip
- Piping bags
Ingredients
- 2 cups almond flour
- ¾ cup powdered Swerve Sweetener
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup butter softened
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 ounces sugar-free dark chocolate chopped
- ½ ounce 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 #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. 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.
Linda says
Delicious and so simple to make. They look and taste great. Definitely recommend this recipe
VAnny says
we don’t need baking powder or baking soda?
Carolyn says
No… you don’t want them to rise and lose their shape.
Diane says
Have you made these with allulose or a blend of sweeteners? I don’t tolerate erythrytol well.
Carolyn says
They simply won’t crisp up enough. Sorry!
Jana Gallagher says
Do I have to pipe these? can’t I just roll them out or make into balls then press?
Janie says
New to Keto baking. I have all the ingredients with the exception of the cocoa butter. Is there a substitution for the cocoa butter? These look fabulous. Thank you.
Carolyn says
You can use a little coconut oil but they are meltier at room temp.
Valerie says
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.
Carolyn says
So glad you like them!