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.
Jocelyne Slattery says
Another perfect recipe! I will be able to make my family our traditional cookies once again – it’s been 7 years!!
Patti Gillen says
Question: how do you dry out if you have a convection oven?
Carolyn says
Convection ovens are just fan-forced, they are not more or less dry. So it works the same but you need to lower the temp by 25 to 50 degrees.
Gabriela Martinez says
This cookies are delicious
I had a little trouble piping though, it required strength 😀
And I can’t find cocoa butter, I was wondering if I can substitute it for coconut oil and in what proportion
Thanks. I love your recipes
Carolyn says
Yes, just use about 1/2 tbsp to 1 tbsp coconut oil.
Juan F Hernandez says
Good morning, Carolyn
Quick question… what can I use instead of Cocoa Butter? I’m having issues trying to find it in my area. Wanted to make this for Christmas and delivery will be to late.
Thank you in advance
Carolyn says
YOu can use coconut oil but they will be much more melty at room temp.
Juan F Hernandez says
Much Obliged Carolyn
I’ll use that for this batch and wait on the Cocoa Butter for the next one.
Merry Christmas
Carolyn says
Have a good one!
Juan F Hernandez says
Hi Carolyn,
any substitution for Cocoa Butter?
Thank you in advance
Carolyn says
YOu can try coconut oil but they will be much more melty at room temp.
Juan F Hernandez says
Much Obliged Carolyn
I’ll use that for this batch and wait on the Cocoa Butter for the next one.
Merry Christmas
Sibel Rachele says
hi I was wondering if I could use a cookie press with the dough for the Danish butter cookies? cheers x
Carolyn says
Yes, I would think so.
Victoria Olson says
I used powdered Swerve, Bob’s Red Mill fine almond flour, kerrygold butter, but mine were very soft. They got overly brown, but we ate them anyway.
Victoria Olson says
No baking powder/soda in this recipe? Thanks!
Gail Sprague says
I have a very limited kitchen so I was wondering if you can suggest a keto butter or sugar cookie recipe for refrigerator slice & bake cookies?
Carolyn says
These cookies are perfect for slice and bake… read the blog post as I tell you how! https://alldayidreamaboutfood.com/low-carb-butter-pecan-cookies-2/
Debbie G says
These were excellent. Perfectly tender and crisp. My first batch was a little soft still in the middle- which was still awesome! On my next batch, after letting sit in oven for the additional 20 minutes, they were still just a little soft in middle so I put back in a 200 degree oven for another 15 minutes to dry out some more. After cooling completely they were a perfect crispness all the way through. This has become my husbands addiction with morning coffee as an alternate to your biscottis! Thanks ever so much Carolyn????
Laurie says
Apparently I made these really tiny. I ended up with over 70! LOL! But they’re wonderful! Thank you for all you do!
Carolyn says
Wow! Well enjoy them!
Joyce says
OMG! These are fantastic! I need to work on my piping skills as it has been years since I used them. No problem, however, next time I will not fill the bag too full and pipe tighter circles so I make the full 20 cookies. I managed to squeeze out 18. So buttery, and the texture improved with time…. patience was a must. Chocolate was a perfect accompaniment. These will be on my holiday cookie platter this year. Thank you.
Charlie says
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.
jean says
Would this dough work in a cookie press?
Carolyn says
It would but I have a better one for that sort of thing: https://alldayidreamaboutfood.com/chocolate-orange-spritz-cookies-low-carb-and-gluten-free/
Maren Lauder says
My Mom was Danish, so my memories are of making our family recipe for these cookies. Her Aunt was the pastry chef at Hotel Dangleterre in Copenhagen. King Christian X loved her version so much he asked for the recipe! Hers used ground almonds in the dough I’m so glad to have a Keto version this year.
Joanne Lester says
I can’t wait to try these! I have all of your cookbooks (I’ve been keto for 3 years and can’t imagine any other lifestyle), they helped me transition into keto and to maintain this lifestyle without missing the foods I’ve always loved. Keep up the good work!
Jan Gaddis says
Is there any way you can make this recipe without using eggs? Allergy!
Thanks
Carolyn says
Not this one, I don’t think. But I highly recommend my butter pecan cookies (with or without the pecans) for an really good egg-free cookie. Without the pecans, you might even be able to press the dough through a cookie press, creating a similar cookie to this.
Bitten says
Being Danish.. I can reveal, the type you know from the blue tin boxers (with the little mermaid on the lid) these cookies are not good at all and actually an embarresment to danish bakery..
So looking forward to bake this Keto friendly variant. Thanks, Carolyn!!
Carolyn says
I can totally get that! Anything pre-packaged like that is never as good as the original!
robin k lloyd says
I can’t believe you grew up in Toronto, I grew up on the Danforth 🙂 your recipes are awesome and I used pretty much daily! Thank you so much!
Jean says
In your humble opinion, could a cookie press be used to make these cookies?
Carolyn says
Absolutely! I also have a proper spritz cookie recipe here: https://alldayidreamaboutfood.com/chocolate-orange-spritz-cookies-low-carb-and-gluten-free/