These tender low carb shortbread thumbprints are filled with creamy sugar-free caramel and drizzled with chocolate. Better than a Twix candy bar and healthier too! What a fabulous keto treat.
Wow, do you realize that this is the first low carb cookie recipe of 2016? The first low carb cookie recipe from me, I mean. Not sure why that is, given that we are almost one quarter through the year already. I appear to have been focusing much more on cakes so far this year. And cauliflower. And, strangely, chicken. But no cookies. That just doesn’t seem right, does it? Cookies should be a mainstay in everyone’s life. So I am correcting this grave mistake as best I can, with a seriously good low carb cookie recipe that everyone will love.
I could easily have called these chocolate caramel thumbprints. Or caramel shortbread thumbprints. Or caramel chocolate shortbread thumbprints. But I figured the reference to Twix chocolate bars would get the point across in fewer words. A soft shortbread-like base filled with caramel and drizzled with chocolate…sounds like a Twix to me!
So here it is, friends. My low carb cookie comeback. And what a cookie it is! These were so fun to make and I think it goes without saying that they were a huge hit. They were gone within two days and my kids have been clamouring for me to make them again. I am more than happy to oblige.
Twix Thumbprint Cookies
Ingredients
Shortbread Cookies:
- 2 cups almond flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ cup butter softened
- ½ cup powdered Swerve Sweetener
- 1 egg yolk
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Caramel Filling:
- Half a recipe of Low Carb Caramel Sauce feel free to make a whole recipe and save the rest for another use! It's delicious over ice cream
Chocolate Drizzle:
- 1 ½ ounces Lily's Sugar-Free Milk Chocolate can use dark if you prefer
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325F and line a baking sheet with parchment or a silicone liner.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together almond flour and baking powder.
- In a large bowl, beat butter with sweetener until well combined and fluffy. Beat in egg yolk and vanilla extract. Beat in almond flour mixture until well incorporated.
- Form dough into scant 1 inch balls and place two inches apart on prepared baking sheet. You will get 24 to 28 cookies. Press each ball down to about ½ inch high. Using your thumb, press an indentation into the center of each cookie.
- Bake 10 to 12 minutes, until just barely browning around the edges (They will still be very soft but will continue to firm up as they cool). Gently reform center well with your thumb or the end of a wooden spoon while cookies are still warm. Let cool completely.
- Once cool, make caramel sauce. Let cool a few minutes so that it's not too liquidy, then spoon into the well of each cookie until full. Let set a few minutes.
- For the chocolate drizzle, place chocolate in a small microwave-safe bowl. Cook on high in 30 second increments, stirring in between until melted and smooth.
- Spoon chocolate into a small ziploc bag and snip off the very tip of one corner. Drizzle over cookies and let set 20 minutes.
Video
Notes
Total fat: 21.68g
Calories from fat: 195
Cholesterol: 47mg
Carbohydrate: 6.60g
Total dietary fiber: 3.06g
Protein: 4.60g
Anne L says
Disappointed in these cookies. They did not keep their form at all spread out on pan into one giant thin cookie. They taste good and I got a good recipe for caramel so not a complete waste. Will not make these again.
Carolyn says
If they spread like that, then you did not have enough flour in them. What brand of almond flour did you use?
Margie says
Is there a way to get caramel a bit more firm? I made this exactly per recipe. The caramel didn’t firm up enough to stay in the cookie. If you tip the cookie it just runs out.
Delicious though!
Carolyn says
Even after refrigeration? If it’s too thin, then you likely didn’t cook it quite long enough. Bu also, if you used different sweeteners that might change the consistency. You would always whisk in other tablespoon of powdered sweetener, too.
Margie says
Thanks! I compared it to the recipe for your pecan turtles and that one omits the 2 Tbsp. Of water. We love those, too, so I’ll try that.
Joyce says
Ten stars!! Made these along with pumpkin cream bites, raspberry and apricot thumbprint cookies, plus key lime and lemon bars for Thanksgiving dessert. All your fantastic recipes. Each was a hit. I don’t have a fave cause each was perfect in texture and flavor. They were enjoyed by everyone. I created a menu listing ingredients in case someone had an allergy. Thanks and I hope your Thanksgiving day was special!
Kim says
I can’t believe I forgot to leave feedback years ago on these cookies.
These are amazing! I love when I can trick non-keto people and these cookies do that. They always hold the stigma that keto cookies will miss the mark or not be sweet. Not these..these are amazing! I’ve had several requests to make them after office workers tried them. And having a caramel that I can use for ice cream or whatever else I want, makes me one happy girl. Thank you for these!
Carolyn says
So glad!
Xenia says
Is there any substitutes for butter if I want to make it low-fat? Yogurt or oil perhaps?
Carolyn says
Um… your crust won’t be crisp at all with those subs and your caramel sauce will be… I don’t know but I don’t think it will be very good.
Verna says
Delicious! I added toasted pecan halves in the caramel middle. Will be making these very often! Thanks for an awesome recipe. (as always)!
Jennifer says
I made these last night and they turned out great. I was able to get 30 cookies with lots of caramel sauce left over. I only had Golden Monkfruit on hand and used it for the entire recipe. Great recipe and easy to make.
Sue Blair says
I too am allergic to nuts, my goto flours are: Nutiva Organic Superseed Mix of -Flax, Chia, hemp, and coconut, or Coconut flour, or Sunflower Seed flour.
Shannon says
Finally tried making these yesterday! They are AMAZING! However mine didn’t turn out as pretty as yours ????. For some reason the shortbread really flattened out when I cooked it. I’m wondering if freezing it before baking or a little more almond flour would help next time? The dough was sticky but rollable. What was the consistency when you rolled yours? I am definitely making these again and want a better well for the caramel sauce next time, it’s so good. Thank you for sharing!
Carolyn says
It shouldn’t be sticky. Different brands of almond flour or your butter being TOO soft can be an issue, so do a touch more almond flour next time.
Jacinta Moran-Dunn says
Is there a coconut flour substitute?
Erin says
Twix is one of my favorite candy bars – I love this cookie version!
Jennifer Blake says
These go down so easy! Twix is one of my very favorite candies!
Lindsay Cotter says
These are EVERYTHING!! Seriously drooling over these!
Suzy says
Oh my goodness! What a treat! Gonna save this to try
Donna says
Wow!!! The caramel sauce is UN BEE LIEVABLE!!!!
My chocolate got too hot in the microwave so I put the chocolate in my ninja & sprinkled over the top. These are sooooo good!!!
Jane says
Thank you for developing this recipe!
I didn’t have swerve so my first caramel batch was 4 T equal and 4T xylitol. It was very sweet, pale in colour and tasted more like sweetened condensed milk so I went to the store, bought molasses and swerve.
Made a second batch, 1T molasses and 4T swerve and it ended up being as sweet as I like.
After, I threw both batches together and it tastes like butter tart filling. I likely will never be able to accurately replicate the Frankenstein I made, but I’ll follow yours (mostly), next time 🙂
Carolyn says
Good to know!
Amy says
I think you just save my Christmas! Diagnosed with GD a month ago, so I’m new to all this; but I tried your orange chocolate swirl bread and was so relieved to find out… it’s good! I’d been sad about Christmas coming up and needing to avoid all our traditional sweets, and our favorite tradition is thumbprint jam cookies, and now here’s this! I’m thinking I’ll just use sugar-free jam of some sort and see what happens. Thanks so much for all of this.
Carolyn says
Sounds like a good plan. And sorry about the GD but I’ve been there so I feel for you. You CAN do this.
Amy says
Thanks, Carolyn. As you must know, that’s exactly what I need to hear right now. 🙂
Lisa says
So when it says as served 1 cookie is a serving right?
Carolyn says
No, if you scroll to the bottom you will see the serving size and all of the nutritional info.
Leigh says
These are delicious! Thanks for developing this recipe. It will help me to avoid hitting the vending machine at work for my favorite Twix bars!