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Keto Shortbread Cookies (1g Net Carbs)

4.79 from 69 votes
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Easy 4-Ingredient Keto Shortbread Cookies with almond flour ready in less than 15 minutes to fix all your sweet cravings with only 1 gram of net carbs.

Bonus, these almond flour shortbread cookies are keto, with a vegan option, and gluten-free!

How To Make Keto Shortbread Cookies

It’s very easy to whip a batch of keto shortbread cookies that taste like your favorite traditional shortbread!

Ingredients

All you need to make low carb shortbread cookies are 5 ingredients:

  • Almond Flour – this refers to ultra-fine almond flour, golden-white in color. Don’t use almond meal for keto cookie recipes. The texture of your cookies will be dry and grainy. Want to learn how to choose your keto flours?
  • Erythritol – this is my favorite keto sweetener to make keto cookies that keep your blood sugar level in control. It also adds a lovely crispy texture to cookies compared to xylitol that keeps cookies soft. Another option is to use allulose or brands that combine erythritol and monk fruit.
  • Softened Butter – like for traditional shortbread, remove the butter from the fridge for 1 hour or so before making the cookie dough. You can use vegan butter if vegan.
  • Vanilla Extract
  • Salt 
Low carb shortbread cookies

Combining Ingredients

Next, add all the ingredients into a large mixing bowl, and using an electric beater or paddle attachment of a stand mixer, combine until a crumbly dough forms.

Finally, use your hands to gather the dough crumble and for a cookie dough ball.

Refrigerate the dough for 10 minutes in the mixing bowl.

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Rolling The Dough

It’s up to you to press out cookies or roll out the dough and cut out shapes using a cookie cutter. I personally prefer option 1 because it’s faster.

Option 1: fast keto shortbread shaping

Divide the dough into 16 balls – one ball is about 1 tablespoon size.

Roll each ball between the palm of your hands and place it on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper, leaving half thumb between each cookie.

While these keto shortbread cookies won’t expand in the oven, it’s preferable to prevent them from touching each other.

Using the back of a fork, press the top of each cookie gently to flatten them into about 1/2 inch thickness (1 cm).

The thinner, the crispier they will be, so play with their thickness.

Option 2: cut-out keto shortbread cookies

To roll out the dough, encase the cookie dough between 2 pieces of parchment paper and start rolling with a rolling pin.

Don’t roll too thin, or the dough becomes fragile, and the cookies bake too fast.

Cut out dough with a cookie cutter and transfer the cut-out cookies on a baking tray covered with parchment paper.

Gather leftover dough to reform a dough ball and roll for more cookies.

How to make keto shortbread cookies ?

Baking

These low-carb shortbread cookies with almond flour bake very fast. Place the cookie sheet in the center rack of a preheated oven at 350°F (180°C) and bake for 8 to 11 minutes.

Baking time depends on the thickness of your cookies.

If you roll out the dough and cut out thin cookies, they will bake super fast.

Keto shortbread cookie recipe

Cooling Down

Cool down the cookies at room temperature for 10 minutes on the cooking rack.

Then, transfer on a cooling rack and wait 20 extra minutes before eating.

The cookies are soft when out of the oven and firm up at room temperature. They reach their best texture after 30 minutes.

Flavoring

Of course, you can play with flavor and create a range of shortbread cookie flavors with this recipe. Add some of the below ingredients into the dough to change the flavor.

  • For Lemon Shortbread Cookies: add 1 tablespoon of grated lemon zest and 1 teaspoon lemon extract instead of the vanilla extract.
  • For Chocolate Chips Almond flour Shortbread Cookies – add 1/4 cup of sugar-free chocolate chips.
sugar free shortbread cookies

Decoration

To decorate the cookies, simply melt the following in a saucepan over medium heat:

  • Sugar-free dark chocolate chips
  • Coconut oil

Use a spoon to drizzle the melted chocolate on top of each cookie. Then, place the cookies in the fridge for 20 minutes to harden the chocolate.

If you fancy some extra crunchy, why not add some of the following toppings:

  • Sliced almonds
  • Desiccated coconut
  • Pinch of salt
  • Peanut butter
Keto Shortbread cookies

Storage Instructions

You can store this keto shortbread cookie recipe in a  cookie jar at room temperature for up to 1 week.

If you keep the jar sealed, the cookies stay crunchy.

Another option is to freeze your cookies and thaw at room temperature 3 hours before eating or overnight.

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Allergy Swaps

You can’t replace almond flour with coconut flour in a keto cookie recipe. Both are keto-friendly flours, but they have different properties.

For example, coconut flour contains four times more fiber.

Therefore, it’s a very liquid absorbent flour that often requires eggs or lots of liquid to hold ingredients together.

For coconut flour keto cookies, follow some of my recipes below:

Frequently Asked Questions

I’ve listed below the answers to the most common questions about this recipe.

When Can I Eat Keto Shortbread Cookies?

These low-carb shortbread cookies are the best snack on your keto diet.
They are full of fat to keep you full, taste sweet to fix your sweet tooth, and are convenient to bring everywhere.
One or two of these cookies should fix all your afternoon hunger and help you reach your fat macros.

How Does Keto Almond Shortbread Taste?


These keto-friendly shortbread cookies are crunchy, slightly sweet, buttery, and even more delicious with a drizzle of sugar-free dark chocolate on top!

Have you made this almond flour keto shortbread recipe? Share a comment or review below!

XOXO Carine

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Keto Shortbread cookies

Keto Shortbread Cookies

1gNet Carbs
Easy 4-ingredient Keto Shortbread Cookie recipe with almond flour, gluten-free, egg-free, vegan, and paleo.
Prep: 10 minutes
Cook: 10 minutes
cool down 20 minutes
Total: 40 minutes
Yield: 16 cookies (1 tbsp each)
Serving Size: 1 cookie
4.79 from 69 votes

Ingredients

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C). Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
  • In a mixing bowl, add all the ingredients, and using an electric beater, beat until the batter forms a crumble.
  • Gather the cookie crumble into a dough ball.
  • Refrigerate the dough for 10 minutes.
  • Scoop one tablespoon of dough, roll between the palm of your hand, and place onto the cookie sheet.
  • Repeat until you form 16 cookie dough balls, leaving half thumb space between each cookie ball to prevent the cookies from touching each other.
  • Flatten each cookie dough ball with the back of a fork into a 1/2 inch thickness – the thinner, the crispier, and the faster they bake.
  • Bake in the center rack of the oven for 8 to 11 minutes or until the sides of the cookies are golden brown.
  • Cool down for 10 minutes on the cookie sheet, then 20 minutes on a cooling rack.
  • Serve plain, or add a drizzle of 1/4 cup melted sugar-free chocolate chips on top to decorate.

Storage

  • Store in a cookie jar, sealed, for up to 1 week. They can be frozen. Thaw for 3 hours before eating.
Tried this recipe?Mention @sweetashoneyrecipes
Nutrition1 cookie
Yield: 16 cookies (1 tbsp each)

Nutrition

Serving: 1 cookieCalories: 78.2 kcal (4%)Carbohydrates: 2 g (1%)Fiber: 1 g (4%)Net Carbs: 1 gProtein: 2 g (4%)Fat: 7.5 g (12%)Saturated Fat: 0.9 g (6%)Sodium: 33.4 mg (1%)Potassium: 1.5 mgSugar: 0.3 gVitamin A: 126.9 IU (3%)Vitamin B12: 0.1 µg (2%)Vitamin C: 0.1 mgCalcium: 20.7 mg (2%)Iron: 0.4 mg (2%)Magnesium: 0.1 mg
Keto Shortbread Cookies
Keto Shortbread Cookies
Low Carb Shortbread cookies almond flour
KETO SHORTBREAD COOKIES
Carine Claudepierre

About The Author

Carine Claudepierre

Hi, I'm Carine, the food blogger, author, recipe developer, published author of a cookbook, and founder of Sweet As Honey.

I have an Accredited Certificate in Nutrition and Wellness obtained in 2014 from Well College Global (formerly Cadence Health). I'm passionate about sharing all my easy and tasty recipes that are both delicious and healthy. My expertise in the field comes from my background in chemistry and years of following a keto low-carb diet. But I'm also well versed in vegetarian and vegan cooking since my husband is vegan.

I now eat a more balanced diet where I alternate between keto and a Mediterranean Diet

Cooking and Baking is my true passion. In fact, I only share a small portion of my recipes on Sweet As Honey. Most of them are eaten by my husband and my two kids before I have time to take any pictures!

All my recipes are at least triple tested to make sure they work and I take pride in keeping them as accurate as possible.

Browse all my recipes with my Recipe Index.

I hope that you too find the recipes you love on Sweet As Honey!

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    62 Thoughts On Keto Shortbread Cookies (1g Net Carbs)
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  1. Can margarine be used instead of butter? Also can a wheat free 1:1 rating all purpose flour be used?

  2. 5 stars
    Fantastic, perfect texture for a keto shortbread cookie. Firm and crisp, just like the real thing with a different but great flavor as close to the real thing as I’ve found so far. Thanks for sharing the perfect crisp cookie recipe as I’ve tried so many that have failed by being soft and cake-like. Using an erythritol based sweetener is KEY!!! Thanks for this lovely recipe 😃👍🏼💖

  3. 5 stars
    Omg these taste so good. I used lemon extract to get a lemon flavor. Love the texture, you wouldn’t know it was keto!

  4. 5 stars
    I started making these because you say they are vegan. As I began to add the butter I stopped and said, “Wait! Butter is NOT vegan!”. So I grabbed the stick of butter out and used coconut oil instead. They were WAY to crumbly and fell apart as I attempted to shape them and flatten them, so I stuffed everything back in the fridge to try again another day. Today, I took out the dough, crumbled all the balls so I would have the dough mixture again and added vegan friendly “egg” aka milled flaxseed with water, plus sprinkled some baking soda in and voila! Perfect dough that held together beautifully. They have taken much longer to cook than your recipe calls for though, the first batch at least 14 minutes. (Maybe mine were thicker?) Also, I used almond extract instead of vanilla and total yum!

  5. 5 stars
    These came out great! I did have to add a little more liquid to the recipe to get the consistency needed for them to hold together, but they came out really nice and taste so good with a great consistency. To make these low histamine, I excluded the vanilla extract and used coconut milk instead (not the full fat kind). I also used coconut sugar instead of erythritol, and ghee instead of butter. Can’t wait to make more!

  6. 5 stars
    YUM! These came out great! Added 1/2 tsp of almond extract and made 20 perfect little cookies! So nice to have a little Low carb treat! Added to my low carb/keto Arsenal. Thanks for the recipe!

  7. 5 stars
    I made these this afternoon to have with your banana pudding. I just had to try one once they cooled. Carine, they are FABULOUS! I will definitely be making them again and again.

  8. 5 stars
    I just made these cookies and they are delicious! Although not my mom’s English Shortbread, they are very close and so much healthier. I followed the recipe exactly and they came out perfect. I am so happy to have found a site I am confident I can use for desserts. I can’t wait to try the lemon cookies! Thank you!

  9. I would love to try this recipe. But I just wanted to double check the monk fruit sugar ingredient, is that pure monk fruit you used or monk fruit erythritol blend? I have the pure monk fruit version in powder and wasn’t sure of the quantity as for this recipe as it’s almost 300x sweeter than sugar supposedly. Thanks a mil!

    • My recipes aways use either pure erythritol or blend of monk fruit erythritol. I never use pure stevia or pure Monk fruit in my recipe. Enjoy the cookies !

        • Sure! I would probably use a fork to press the soft butter into the flour and erythritol then knead with my hands to form a dough ball. Let me know how it goes! XOXO Carine.

  10. I’ve made some of your recipes that were good but these cookies really aren’t very good. The monk fruit ruins the taste. Sorry.

    • The recipe use pure erythritol or monk fruit erythritol blend not pure monk fruit ! I never use pure monk fruit in my recipes, it is 300x sweeter and very bitter. I hope it gets better next time. XOXO Carine

    • The recipe use pure softened butter. I didn’t try something else so I am unsure how it will goes sorry. Enjoy the recipes on the blog, XOXO Carine

  11. I have to say that I really struggle with this recipe. I think my ratio is wrong, but the never stuck together and was just crumbles. Tried it four times.
    I am German and not used to bake with cup measurements, especially for the butter or margarine I found this very messy to squish it into the cup measurer and it feels very inaccurate.
    Your blog is my absolute go to favorite and I have used your recipes countless times with great success.
    Would you mind terribly to measure the the gram amount of the margarine next time you bake these cookies?
    Have a great day!

    • I am sorry to to hear that. You can convert the recipe in grams using the US/metric link above the ingredients. You must use soft butter, always place the butter out of the fridge for 3 hours before making the recipe. Also you need to use an electric beater to combine the ingredients perfectly and easily or a food processor. I hope it gets better next time. Enjoy, XOXO Carine

      • Thank you so much for for your nice reply! Can you imagine I never even realised the metric option was there….
        Thank you!!!

  12. 5 stars
    I followed the recipe exactly because I made some cookies before using Monk Fruit and I didn’t like they came out. These came out delicious. Probably ate more of them than I should have the first night.

  13. I love your recipes! BUT I’m not sure why every single one of the oven timings are off for me. For these cookies, I had to leave them in for nearly 17-20 mins, following all the other directions. I’m in the northeast US so maybe that’s it?

    • This is very strange indeed. ll oven are different, I use a brand new oven on convection mode, it bake faster than conventional mode, that might be the reason why yours took longer to bake. But if the result is as tasty and delicious, that is the main thing 🙂 Thanks so much for making my reipes from US, I am from New Zealand! XOXO Carine.

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The recipes, instructions, and articles on this website should not be taken or used as medical advice. You must consult with your doctor before starting on a keto or low-carb diet. The nutritional data provided on Sweetashoney is to be used as indicative only.

The nutrition data is calculated using WP Recipe Maker. Net Carbs is calculated by removing the fiber and some sweeteners from the total Carbohydrates. As an example, a recipe with 10 grams of Carbs per 100 grams that contains 3 grams of erythritol and 5 grams of fiber will have a net carbs content of 2 grams. Some sweeteners are excluded because they are not metabolized.

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