Whether you like your cookies crisp, chewy, soft (or all three!), in this guide you’ll find what it takes to nail the perfect keto cookies. Plus, 20+ recipes for the cookie monster in all of us!
(Soft, Crisp Or Chewy!) Keto Cookies
The Ultimate Guide
But what exactly do I mean by the perfect keto cookies? After all, cookies vary a lot. Some are crunchy all over, others are cake-y, melt-in-your-mouth, crumbly, chewy, round, flat, spreadable… i.e. you’ve got options.
And let’s be honest, it seems that even though deceptively simple… it’s kinda hard to get keto cookies right (particularly the crisp ones!). So normal cookie rules are aggravated in sugar free cookies due to the vast difference in ingredients from brand to brand. So throughout the post you’ll find a few rules to help you get the cookies you want. Be it crispier, chewier, cakier… you name it!
But let’s get started with some hard-fast rules that apply to all cookies, be them keto or not!
- Cream the butter until light and fluffy. This is a big thing in cookies guys (i.e. the golden rule!) , and there’s no workaround! For best texture you want to cream your butter and the sweetener with your mixer for roughly 10 minutes, scrapping the bowl 2-3 times to ensure no uneven streaks remain.
- Dairy free? Not gonna like, this is a tricky one (particularly for the crisp cookies!). Shortening (i.e. lard!) is probably the closest sub to butter out there (this tip came from you guys!)… but you’ll have to cut the amount of butter by 20% as it’s a pure fat. Also do keep in mind that you don’t get that butter taste (which is why even recipes with lard still throw in some butter).
- Cakier vs Crispier. In terms of spreadable cookies (think chocolate chip or snickerdoodle sorta thing), you can play around with their texture without altering the recipe itself. For instance, if you want them crispier be sure to pre-flatten your cookies quite a bit prior to baking, use parchment paper and even have the cookie dough more at room temp than ultra chilled. And for cakier cookies you’ll want to do the opposite (ultra chilled, no pre-flattening). Note: convection ovens also lead to cakier cookies overall.
- How sweet?! In case you haven’t noticed, keto palates in regards to sweetness are all over the place (I feel mine fluctuates constantly still!). So I’ll generally give you guys a range in terms of the sweetener so you find the level that suits your taste buds.
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Our Double Chocolate Chip Keto Cookies! 📺
The Deets For Extra Crisp Keto Cookies
To get extra crisp keto cookies keep the following pointers in mind:
- Always (I mean always!) use erythritol as your sweetener. It’s the only keto natural sweetener that lends a very similar crunch and chew. My favorite, for less cooling effect and aftertaste, is surely Lakanto (classic or golden!). And if you feel like you’re getting minty crystals post bake, simply powder it in your food processor or bullet!
- Never (ever!) use coconut flour for crisp cookies- retains moisture and ends up dry not crisp.
- Stick to a finely ground almond flour such as Anthony’s.
- Can’t do almond flour? Sunflower seed flour is a very good straight sub! The one caveat is that it can turn green in the presence of baking soda (St. Pattys Day ideal!) and it’s ground a little less fine.
And last, but most definitely not least, to end the crisp cookie category we’ve got a personal favorite of mine: keto thin mints ‘Girl Scout’ cookies! This is the cookie you want to have in your freezer for those SOS moments 😉
These are amazing (as is everything I make of yours)! Your extra nuances are well worth the effort. You are still my culinary keto bestie ( in my mind, lol)! Made with and without molasses and both are great!
Awwww Ethel! So honored to be your culinary keto bestie 🙂 Happy to hear the extra steps are worth it!
I can’t wait to try some of these crispy cookie recipes. I have been searching for over a year for these types of recipes. I love Biscotti and have tried so many recipes and they all have disappointed. I want a crispy crunchy biscotti. Do you have any recipes for Biscotti? Your approach with toasting the flours is not one that I’ve seen before, I’m going to try some cookies today, I can’t wait to taste the results!
Love getting these recipes! Have made the chocolate chip cookies and the carrot cake cupcakes with butter cream frosting…(they are incredible). I make a big batch and froze them iced. Whenever I want something sweet, I take one out. Your cookies and cup cakes all freeze well. Thank you!!!
My bulk food store sells an erythritol-monk fruit blend and an erythritol-stevia blend. Are these alternatives to straight erythritol? Also, does creaming the butter with the sweetener work best with the regular, granular erythritol? I ground the granular erythritol-monk fruit blend into a powder first for the Keto Chocolate Chip Cookies, but I’m thinking this step is not necessary when you’re creaming it with the butter. My cookies turned out great, except they were cloyingly sweet for my taste, so for my next attempt — the Supreme Double Chocolate Cookies or the Chocolate Shortbread, I may try even less than 100g of sweetener. Thanks for these great recipes and tips, by the way. Very helpful.
I’m wanting to make pumpkin chocolate chip cookies with keto friendly chips. I’m grateful a lot of the baking items I prefer will lend themselves well to these soft cookies. Now just to figure out a brown sugar substitute! (Any suggestions?)
Add a teaspoon of blackstrap molassas per cup of sweetener. It increases the carb count per cookie only a tiny amount.
where is the recipe/amounts etc? I can’t find it here.
No answer i guess!!!!!!!! Not much use.
I’ve been taking some time off Susan, I have 2,133 comments in my inbox right now…!
Thanks for the very informative post and great recipe! I’m altho having a bit of a reverse problem: when I bake my cookies with erythritol, they always not crisp up and they burn quite fast in the oven and have the caramelized smell. While I bake with another mixed sweetener by the brand called Hemeseta’s which has sucralose, my cookies are crispy! I really don’t understand why and been researching around for the answer 🙁
hands down the best keto cookie recipe there is. Don’t even look for anything else. Completely honest, these taste just as good as my non-keto Anna Olson chocolate chip cookie recipe. I’ve made them four or five times and they’re always perfect.
Haley that’s wonderful to hear thank you!
will you be compiling all of the cookie recipes into one booklet that we can download/purchase like the other great ones you put out for us?
Dear Paola, You are indeed a Keto Angel! Thank you for these wonderful recipes. I love all of your recipes. Have a Happy and Keto New Year! I know I will with your wonderful recipes.
Thanks again,
Jane Augustine
It’s a very gnom-gnom Christmas around my house. For our family do on Sunday (it’s always a major gnosh fest of hor d’ouvres), we’re having snickerdoodles, thumbprint cookies and ginger cookies, cream cheese roll ups using your tortilla recipe, cheese puffs, cheese crackers, suuuper flaky crackers (the crackers are to pair with homemade French onion dip) and possibly the amaretti cookies (if I have time to make them). I want to thank you for all of the terrific, awesome, amazing recipes. You have made it possible for us to have a low carb Christmas this year and that’s huge for me and a lot of my family members! Even the peeps in the family who are not Keto love the goodies that are Keto. Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year!
This was very helpful. I will refer back to it when making cookies! Thank you!
My pleasure Wynter!
Incredibly useful thank you Paola!
My pleasure Jennifer! Lovely to hear from you again!
Your chocolate chip cookies are some of the best cookies I’ve baked, keto or not!
Martha that’s super awesome to hear wow! 😉