These thin and crispy coconut almond cookies are a delicious low carb, grain-free treat. Perfect with morning coffee, afternoon tea or as dessert. This post is sponsored by Bob’s Red Mill.
Ask yourself this, my friends: why are Mother’s Day recipes and Mother’s Day posts always focused on brunch? Don’t get me wrong, I love breakfast and brunch food as much as the next person. But are we falling into a trap here? Are we setting a dangerous precedent? Are we relegating the celebration of motherhood to the early part of the day only? Does she get her hour or two of love and pancakes and then have to go right back into being Mum, cooking and cleaning and nurturing those around her? I suspect that this might be the case in some households and so I think maybe we need to shake it up a little. We need to branch out, think outside the box and make Mother’s Day a full day, from start to finish. Maybe even two days. Mother’s Weekend, starting Friday night at 6pm and going full tilt until Sunday at 9pm.
Okay, that might be a bit much (but a girl can dream, can’t she?). But let me tell you what Mum really wants. She wants to wake up a bit later than usual, well-rested, with no little critters waking her up for a glass of water in the middle of the night. She wants coffee at the ready and yeah, she wants her pancakes or waffles or other brunch item. But she might not want it in bed because that could be messy and you know who will be cleaning it up in the end. Then after she has had her fill, she wants the full day off. She wants to get her toes done, maybe get a massage, meet a friend for lunch, go shopping. She doesn’t want to have to worry about her kids or her spouse or her house. She just wants to chill. And then she wants a nice dinner, cooked by someone else and cleaned up by someone else. And then, of course, she wants dessert. A tasty treat whipped up by someone else. Bonus points if it was made by the kids. Now that is Mother’s DAY with a capital D.
So to celebrate your mum, my mum and all mums from the dawn of history, I created a sweet treat that fits any of the ways you want to make her day. You can serve these as a brunch treat (they are really good with morning coffee…yes, I know this from experience.), they are wonderful with afternoon tea, and they make a lovely sweet bite after dinner. And they are simple enough to be made by the kids, with perhaps some adult supervision for the young ones.
I’ve been wanting to make a lacy sort of cookie for a while now and Mother’s Day seemed like a great excuse to try. My first attempt was delicious, but they didn’t spread out the way I’d imagined and they were chewy rather than crisp. I had to play quite a bit with the amounts of Bob’s Red Mill shredded coconut and almond meal to get the texture I was aiming for. They do burn quickly so make sure you are baking them in the top third of the oven, and keep your eye on them while they bake. And do not try to take them off the pan while they are still warm. They won’t hold together at all until they are completely cool.
Thanks to Bob’s Red Mill for helping me celebrate Mother’s Day in style. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Coconut Almond Crisps
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1/3 cup Swerve Sweetener
- 2 tsp yacon syrup, can sub blackstrap molasses
- 1/4 tsp xanthan gum
- 1/4 cup Bob's Red Mill almond meal
- 6 tbsp Bob's Red Mill shredded coconut
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Position oven rack in upper third of oven.
- In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine butter, Swerve and yacon syrup. Cook, stirring frequently, until sweetener is dissolved and bubbles appear around the edges of the pan.
- Remove from heat and sprinkle with xanthan gum, whisking vigorously to combine. Stir in almond meal, shredded coconut and vanilla extract.
- Drop batter by the teaspoon onto prepared baking sheets, leaving about 4 inches between cookies. Using wet hands, press the cookies down to flatten slightly.
- Bake one sheet at a time in the upper third of oven for 8 to 12 minutes, until cookies are spread out and the edges are dark golden. Remove from oven and let cool completely on baking sheet. Do not try to remove them before they have cooled and crisped up.
Notes
Total fat: 6.12g
Calories from fat: 55
Cholesterol: 10mg
Carbohydrate: 1.69g
Total dietary fiber: 0.53g
Protein: 0.68g
Sugar alcohols (erythritol): 6.65 g
Nutrition
*A note about Yacon Syrup. As with many things, it is claimed that yacon is low glycemic and doesn’t raise blood sugar. I have only recently tried it out and only in very small doses so I cannot be sure of this for myself. However, it is a good alternative to cane sugar syrups like molasses. I promise to do some testing on myself in the near future!
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Can’t wait to try these. What’s the difference between Almond flour meal and, what I have super fine Almond flour? It is Bob’s. Can I use the super fine that I have on hand and I have just regular molasses. Will that all work??
You should be able to use both of those. Use just 1 tsp molasses.
Thank you formthese!! They are awesome!!! I am on the keto diet and have been wanting a sweet treat, these hit the spot. I will have to get some yacon syrup just to eat h my carbs and sugar next time. I used 1 tsp regular molasses and they came out great!! They did spread out quite a bit!! 🙂
Hi! My son is T1 and I would love to make these for him. Is it possible to omit the syrup or would they not turn out right?
They won’t turn out properly. But it adds very little carb to each cookie, I really think they may still work for him.
Hi Carolyn!
I didnt have almond flour so I used a mix of hazelnut and pecan nut flour, and I dont have xanthum gum so I left it out. The biscuits taste AMAZING, but they never crisped up. I left them on the baking tray overnight, to see if they needed time and then I put them back in the oven at a lower eat for a while and left them to cool again – and they stayed soft. So much so, that they just crumble when you try pick them. Very tasty crumbs 🙂
Is it the lack of xanthum gum? Can I try something else instead?
I really can’t say what went wrong here. Could be the xanthan, since it helps thicken the dough properly.
Carolyn, thank you so much for this recipe. I tried two different sweeteners and syrup. They still cane out great but the Erythritol makes a huge difference and turned out just the way yours did.. Can I use the recipe and omit the shredded coconut? Maybe add almond extract or choc chips. I love how crispy these are and would like to experiment. Love, love, love your blog!!!!!!
Hi, don’t know if it’s been asked, looked, couldn’t find it. Can you package these up as a gift, or will they go soft in the plastic (or cello)?
They would probably go too soft, I think.
Made these tonight and they turned out great. Although many recipes can be adapted pretty well my luck with cookie recipes has been suboptimal. These meet the test and stand on there own as a great cookie. I used guar gum and doubled the amount. Next time I’ll better understand how to lay the dough better on the sheet.
Thanks for a truly good cookie. I’m going to experiment with nuts and other variations.
If you have others that truly make the grade, I’m all ears!
If you don’t try my low carb chocolate chip skillet cookie, you will never forgive yourself. 😉
Yum! I have seen that and it’s now getting pushed to top of the agenda!
I have one comment/query on these cookies. When I took them out of the fridge from cooling down the were firm and chewy. Today when they are at room temperature they are limp and prone to falling apart when picked up. Any thoughts?
Hmmmm, do you live in a humid area? Mine haven’t done that so I am not entirely sure!
No, I’m in low humidity Southern California where the weather is dry. These were a 9+ on the taste scale so I’ll keep tweaking it.
Hi Craig. Keep all LCHF cookies in a container in the freezer to keep them crisp. The freezer dries them out and if you let them sit on the counter for a little while, they defrost perfectly. I’ve done this with biscotti, nut butter cookies and these fabulous crisps. Definitely worth a try, right?
these are so good i use vitafiber syrup as that is what i have and i also added to other batches some orange oil. make a chocolate icing or a sf ganache mmmm. reminds of Florentine cookies we used to eat. And all of our sugar friends loved them.
I just made them as stated in the recipe, very good but WAY too sweet. I used truvia. Would that be why? Could I decrease the sugar by half or even 1/4th? And also could I use coconut oil to replace the butter for my hubby who can’t have dairy? Thanks for any help!
You used Truvia and that is MUCH sweeter than Swerve. So yep, it would be overly sweet. I suggest cutting it in half. Not sure the coconut will crisp up as much but it’s worth a try!
I just made these and used sugar free syrup instead of the Yacon. I can’t thank you enough for this recipe. absolutely amazing.
Soooo these look wonderful but I HATE coconut. So I am wondering how I could replicate that texture since you said it was so important for the crisp. Do you think just adding more coarsely ground almonds would work? I love almond and I love butter cookies so that’s what I am aiming for a crisp buttery cookie.
Better than coarsely ground almonds, I think you could take some slices almonds and crumble them up a bit and then they would be thin like shredded coconut.
Great flavour, mine didn’t crisp either – just greasy and soft. Have them in the freezer. I know why – its because we cant get swerve here in Australia so I used Natvia and molasses, pity – I still search for a crispy cookie 🙁
Ah yes, the sweetener really does make a difference. Sorry!
Hi Pugs, we can’t get these brand sweeteners in South Africa either. An excellent tip someone shared once, is to freeze your baked cookies (I put them in freezer bags or tupperware). If they sit on the counter for a short while, they defrost, but (as with all fozen goods) minus some moisture. This works beautifully with biscotti as well. Another biscotti tip is to replace butter with a 2nd egg.
Good luck, Karla
I made these and they didn’t crisp up? I used gentle sweet and blackstrap molasses.
The sweetener is the issue here. Gentle sweet is combined with stevia. It doesn’t caramelize or harden like Swerve.
Mine did not crisp up? Do you know what I did wrong? I used gentle sweet.
Just made these…have such a delicious flavor. But mind didn’t get hard. Have them in the freezer. Used honey and Swerve on the first batch. Very sweet! They spread nice, looked so pretty. I’m going to have to try again and tweak. So many made these and got a crispy cookie, wonder what it was I did wrong?
The honey would probably change things and make it more soft, since honey is sugar and more hygroscopic (meaning it attracts moisture).
I made these using swerve and they turned out quite similar to how they should. Delicious.
I made them again with xylitol and, although they taste great, they are very greasy and didn’t crisp up. They are nice and chewy though.
Any thoughts? Does xylitol not absorb? Use less butter? More almond flour? I do prefer xylitol over erythritol.
Xylitol is more “hygroscopic” than erythritol, meaning that like sugar, it attracts moisture. I am not sure how to correct it for this recipe as I don’t use it. It’s a bit hard on my blood sugar.
Loved the recipe they are so good! I changed one thing. Instead of Yacon syrup I used vita fiber, available on Amazon, which adds 1 net carb to the recipe instead of the 11 from the Yacon syrup.
Loved the taste, however, mine were very soft & soggy.
Mine too!
Mine stayed chewy and were super duper sweet (I used molasses). I may give them another go reducing Swerve to 1/4 cup. Flavor was very good and enjoyed the coconut. Very disappointed not to get crispy. I’m usually a pretty good cook.
Hi Carolyn! These look aaaahmazing! I can’t wait to try! Do you think I could use Honey Tree artificial honey in place of yacon syrup? It’s maltitol based.. just to save more carbs..
I really don’t know if that would work at all.
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