Delicate and crispy pecan cookies dipped in sugar-free chocolate. Use these sweet keto lace cookies to make decadent sandwich cookies too!
Hey crispy cookie lovers, this one’s for you! And bonus points if you happen to be a pecan lover like me.
Back in January, a reader reached out saying she’d read somewhere that I really loved pecans. I don’t know where she possibly could have read such a thing. Perhaps it was in my Keto Pecan Pie for Two. Or perhaps it was Keto Pecan Turtle Candies that gave her that impression.
Whatever recipe it was, it also led her to offer to send me about 5 pounds of her homegrown and harvested pecans. Diehard pecan lover that I am, I couldn’t refuse.
When they arrived, my first order of business was to make these keto pecan lace cookies. And then of course I had to dip them in chocolate. And make little cookie sandwiches out of them too!
Thin and Crispy Keto Cookies
Some people like chewy cookies, some people like soft cookies, and some people like crispy cookies. Personally, I like them all. I have no prejudice when it comes to delicious cookies.
It depends on my mood and really just want kind of texture suits the cookie best. I love the chewiness of my keto ginger cookies, the softness of my keto lemon sugar cookies, and the crispness of my keto cut out cookies.
But I truly truly love these super thin and crispy pecan lace cookies. They’re fragile and delicate, but with a hefty toasted pecan flavor. They’re great on their own, but absolutely magical with a little dark chocolate.
My whole family loved them so much, I made a second batch soon after the first. I actually had to hide a few to save them for myself.
Pecan lace cookie inspiration
Lace cookies require a delicate balance between butter and flour, so that they spread and become super thin, but still hold together. Making keto lace cookies without any flour or gluten is tricky at best.
But I spotted this gorgeous recipe from Melissa’s Southern Style Kitchen, which included an egg to help hold things together. I’d actually made a similar “Oatmeal” lace cookie for The Ultimate Guide to Keto Baking.
So I brought together the two ideas and experimented with the gorgeous pecans sent to me. I toasted them and ground them, and played around until the dough felt right.
And they came out perfectly crisp and thin, just like a lace cookie should.
Tips for Keto Pecan Lace Cookies
These aren’t hard to make at all, but a few of my best tips will help you get crispy cookie perfection.
Use the right sweetener
The kind of sweetener you use plays a big role in getting your cookies nice and crisp. To put it bluntly, nothing but erythritol based sweeteners will work. Cookies simply do not crisp up properly with xylitol, allulose, stevia, or any other sweetener.
Monk fruit blends like Lakanto will work too, because they are mostly erythritol. But if your sweetener contains even a little allulose or xylitol, your cookies won’t crisp up properly.
Ground and toasted pecans
You can start with toasted pecans, or you can toast your own (instructions in the recipe). But it is important to grind them well, almost to a flour, so that they hold the cookies together.
Watch them carefully as you grind, so that they don’t become pecan butter.
Baking soda, not baking powder
Don’t confuse these two! You don’t want your cookies to rise, but you do want them to spread properly. Baking soda helps cookies become crispy. As long as there is no acid to cause a reaction, they won’t rise.
They do still need a tiny bit of help spreading, as all keto cookies do (because they don’t contain sugar). Pressing them down with a glass partway through baking always helps.
Silicone mats
I specified silicone mats for lining the pans, as they will protect your cookies better. You can probably use parchment instead but I would watch them carefully so that they don’t burn before they are properly cooked.
Cookie scoops for perfect cookies!
I honestly don’t normally bother with cookie scoops, but in this case they helped me achieve perfectly sized keto lace cookies that baked evenly. I used a 1 tablespoon scoop and I leveled it off every time.
If you don’t have a cookie scoop, make sure you are using only 1 tablespoon of dough per cookie.
Let them cool!
As always, let them cool completely on the pan before you touch them. Keto baked goods need to cool to firm up properly. Try to remove them too soon, and you will end up with a lot of pecan lace cookie crumbs.
Dip them carefully
These are delicate cookies so use a light hand when you dip them in the chocolate or spread them with chocolate. You may break one or two… I did!
Ready to make these delicious Keto Pecan Lace Cookies?
More delicious keto pecan recipes
- Pecan Praline Sauce
- Pecan Crescent Cookies
- The Best Keto Pecan Pie
- Maple Pecan Scones
- Pecan Crusted Pork Chops
- Cinnamon Pecan Cookies
Keto Pecan Lace Cookies
Ingredients
Cookies
- 1 1/2 cups pecan halves
- 6 tbsp butter, softened
- 1/3 cup Swerve Brown
- 1/4 cup Swerve Granular
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup almond flour
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
Chocolate Dip/Filling
- 4 ounces sugar-free dark chocolate, chopped
- 1 tbsp butter
Instructions
Cookies
- Preheat your oven to 350F and spread the pecans out in a single layer. Bake 8 minutes or so, until nicely toasted. Keep your eye on them so that they don't burn.
- Remove and let cool completely, then transfer to a food processor and process until well ground (but do not let them become butter). Set aside.
- Reduce the oven heat to 325F and line two baking sheets with silicone mats (parchment can work but they can burn more easily).
- In a large bowl, beat the butter with the sweeteners until well combined. Beat in the egg and the vanilla extract, then beat in the ground pecans, almond flour, baking soda, and salt.
- Use a 1 tablespoon cookie scoop to scoop out onto the prepared baking sheets, leaving at least 2 inches between each cookie. (You can also use a regular spoon but you want only 1 tbsp of dough per cookie). You should get about 30 cookies.
- Bake 5 minutes, then remove from the oven and press down with a flat bottomed glass to flatten them out. If your dough is sticking to the glass, cover the cookies with parchment before pressing down.
- Return to the oven and bake another 10 minutes or so, until golden brown. Remove and let cool completely on the pan. Some oil may leach out during the baking process but it will re-absorb as they sit and cool.
Chocolate Dip/Filling
- In a heatproof bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water, combine the chocolate and butter. Stir until melted and smooth.
- To dip cookies: Dip the cookies in the chocolate to about halfway up and hold above the melted chocolate to let the excess drain off. Lay on a waxed paper lined baking sheet. Sprinkle with additional chopped pecans, if desired. Refrigerate until set.
- To make sandwich cookies: Spread about 2 tsp of the chocolate mixture on to the bottom of one cookie and top with another cookie. Refrigerate until set.
Notes
Nutrition
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Please estimate a measurement for the pecans after they are ground. I have some pecan flour that I bought on sale in my freezer that I would like to use for these cookies.
Dear Carolyn,
Do you think it would upset the results if I used all Swerve Brown instead of both brown and white?
LOVE this website and all of your stuff!! I have all of your books, too. Oh, and
BTW—great name! 😎
What sweetener do you recommend now that the Swerve product line contains Alulose?
How many cups of ground pecans does it come out to be after processing? I want to sub my pre processed pecans for whole.
I am sorry, I really don’t know. That’s not how I made my cookies.
Awesome! My “keto” life is complete! A cookie that melts! 🥰🥰🥰 thank you so much!
may i know the reasons if cookie won’t crip up properly with allulose or xylitol and Stevia sweetener?
thx
The reasons? Simply because these sweeteners don’t crisp.
These cookies ROCK! I’d give 10 stars if I could. I had a few screw ups while making and they still turned out DELICIOUS! Next time I’ll go to the effort to buy some brown sweetener that has erythritol and I’ll make sure to use baking soda instead of baking powder. 🙂
I have a question. I had some pecan meal on hand but I didn’t know how much 1.5 cups whole pecans would translate to pecan meal. I measured my roasted pecan halves after grinding them and turns out it’s about the same, 1.5 cups. Any reason I could not have used the pecan meal (other than I wouldn’t have the yummy roasted flavor)?
I am not entirely sure but it will be a tasty experiment!
you can try toasting the pecan meal in a non stick skillet on the stove top for a few minutes. I have done it with finely ground almond flour in cookie recipes to bring out the flavor.
Instead of roasting the pecans and then processing them, could you just use pecan flour? If so how much do you think you would need?
Pecan flour isn’t toasted so it won’t have the same flavor.
you can toast your pecan flour ON MEDIUM in a dry skillet just like nuts, but watch carefully and stir a LOT!
Crisp and lacy cookies. Very easy to make. Mine flattened in the oven all on their own. They’ll definitely be in my weekly rotation.
I have never been able to do the swerve sweetener. I get terrible tummy issues with them. I do have the THM sweeteners. Can I some how make brown sugar with one of those?
THM sweeteners often contain xylitol… and that won’t give you a crisp cookie at all.
I am wondering if pecan flour would work for this recipe ? I have a full bag, just used to make your keto cheese cake bites which were awesome. Trying to find more recipes that use the pecan flour.
It’s going to be a lot more fine… which might ruin the laciness of the cookies.
Hi Carolyn,
just a question: can I also use walnuts instead of pecans? (Pecans are rather rare – and expensive – here in Germany – whereas we’ve got several fine walnut trees in our garden and thus have plenty of walnuts…)
I LOVE your recipes – thanks so much for experimenting for us and sharing your amazing results!!!
Silke
I think it would work!
I think it will be very hard to keep to the serving size of 2 cookies or one sandwich!
Looks sooo yum!
They were amazing! Perfect crunch and butteriness. My chocolate seized a bit (too much moisture from simmering water I guess) so instead of dipping I spread it quickly over as many cookies as I could. Going to try the dipping sauce again to put on the almond biscotti that I am currently making. They are cooling waiting for cutting and second baking. I live in Vancouver, WA. We are practically neighbors.
We are having great baking weather. Thanks again for making baking fun again.
So glad they worked out!
Not sure that these needed leveling after 5 min. They were pretty flat already. First tray cooling, second tray baking. The second tray were a bit pouffier and flattened them. May have over baked first tray a bit, but not burned. Am going to dip in chocolate. They look and smell great. Still have some batter left. I love a crispy cookie so was anxious to try these and your “oatmeal” lace too. Thanks.
Hope they taste as good as they smell!
Can you use pecan flour?
Your recipes are awesome! Thank you for sharing them with us.
Carolyn I am a great fan of your recipes, that I make on a regular basis…however, I would appreciate if you would mention what level the grill should be in our oven when we do your recipes…this is of outmost importance to successfully realize it… Thank you and keep up your amazing work for us Keto fanatics!
When it’s not mentioned, it’s always assumed that it’s the middle rack. I specify when it’s necessary to be on a different level.
These look so delicious. I have a big bag of walnuts, tempted to try those instead of pecans. What do you think?
Sure!