4 Ingredient Keto Shortbread Cookies
Buttery, melt-in-your-mouth keto shortbread cookies are so easy to make and perfect for holiday baking and gifting. They are the perfect low carb and keto-friendly treat – they keep well and are only four ingredients!
I usually have a long list of cookie recipes to make during the holidays and shortbread cookies are always on my must-bake list. I can’t resist the buttery treats and they keep well too, making them great for gifting. These keto shortbread cookies are as easy to make as traditional ones.
I always make a large batch of traditional shortbread cookies so this year I was determined to create a keto version.
For this recipe, I made almond flour shortbread cookies. They have a similar texture and taste but low carb and keto-friendly. I haven’t tested this recipe with coconut flour, oat flour, or other alternative flours.
Keto Shortbread Ingredients
- Butter
- Erythritol
- Almond Flour
- Sugar-Free Mini Chocolate Chips
These are all the ingredients you need for this recipe. No egg, no rising agent.
Other add-ins: You can add a splash of vanilla extract, but it’s optional. Or you can add the vanilla and leave out the chocolate chips.
If you like lemon flavor, I’ve also made keto lemon shortbread cookies with fresh lemon zest.
How to Make Keto Shortbread
- The butter and erythritol are creamed together with a mixer. Then the almond flour is mixed in. Finally, the chocolate chips are added.
- The cookie dough will be very soft and a little sticky.
- Roll the dough out with a rolling pin between two sheets of parchment paper until it is about 3/8 inch thick. Place the dough into the fridge for about 30 minutes so that it firms up.
- Slice the dough with a sharp knife into 1.5 inch by 2 inch rectangles.
- Place the cookies on a baking sheet and bake until edges are lightly brown.
Tips for Making Keto Shortbread
- The cookies will initially be very soft when they come out of the oven. This is normal. Let the cookies completely cool on the baking sheets and they will firm up.
- This recipe yields about 22 cookies. You can definitely cut the dough into smaller squares but I don’t recommend making them thinner because it will be difficult to get the dough off the parchment paper if you roll the dough too thin.
Shortbread Variations
- I made chocolate chip because my favorite shortbread is chocolate chip shortbread. You can also make plain shortbread by adding vanilla and leaving out the chocolate chips.
- You can also do other mix-ins like shredded coconut.
- Another fun way to serve these shortbread cookies is to dip half of the cookie in melted chocolate.
- Instead of rolling out the dough and cutting into squares, you can also pull tablespoons of dough and flatten into circles.
More Low Carb Cookie Recipes
Looking for more keto cookies to make? I also have a recipe for Sugar Cookies, Lemon Cookies and Keto Chocolate Chip Cookies. Or try my easy Keto Fudge recipe that’s perfect for the holidays, too.
4 Ingredient Keto Shortbread Cookies
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 1/3 cup + 1 tbsp erythritol granular
- 2 cups superfine almond flour
- 1/3 cup sugar-free mini chocolate chips
- 1/2 tsp vanilla, optional
Instructions
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, add butter and erythritol. Cream with the paddle attachment until light and fluffy.
- Add in almond flour (and vanilla if using) and mix in slowly until completely incorporated and a soft dough forms.
- Add in chocolate chips and stir briefly until they are evenly mixed into the batter.
- Remove dough and place between two sheets of parchment paper. Roll out the dough until it is 3/8 inch thick. Place rolled out dough into the fridge and let it firm up for 30 minutes. The dough does not need to be completely chilled, just firm enough that you will be able to remove the cookies from the parchment paper.
- While waiting for the dough to firm up, preheat oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
- After 30 minutes, remove dough from fridge. Slice into 1.5 inch by 2 inch rectangles. Carefully peel cookies from parchment paper and place onto prepared baking sheets, spacing cookies about 1 inch apart.
- Bake cookies about 15-17 minutes or until edges turn light brown. Cookies will still be soft in the middle but the dough should not look uncooked.
- Let cookies cool completely on sheet pan. Once the cookies are cooled they will firm up.
Notes
- Make sure to use superfine almond flour and not almond meal.
- The cookies are not overly sweet. If you wish for sweeter cookies, you can add a little more erythritol to the dough.
- If you want to leave out the chocolate chips, I definitely recommend adding the vanilla.
- Don't roll the dough too thin, otherwise it will be very hard to remove the dough from the parchment paper.
- I used So Nourished Erythritol Sweetener Granular.*
- I used Lily’s dark chocolate premium baking chips.*
- *Some of the product links contained in this post are affiliate links. Much like referral codes, this means I earn a small commission if you purchase a product I referred (at no extra charge to you).
- The estimated nutrition carbohydrates count excludes sugar alcohols. The net carbs excludes both fiber and sugar alcohols.
I followed the recipe for keto shortbread cookies. The dough would not stay together even after chilling. The dough would not roll even between the parchment sheets…it just crumbled. Advice?
We’re sorry you had issues! The dough should be soft and a little sticky once the almond flour is added – if yours was dry, there might have been too much flour. Or, you might not have mixed long enough to fully incorporate the flour. Was the dough soft after you mixed it?
Oh my weird lol, I was looking for superfine almond flour and mistakenly used superfine coconut flour.. when mixed it was fine crumbs which looked exactly the same as the shortbread I used to make with white flour. I was a bit confused but thought what the hell, it looks like the real thing. I pressed it into a baking dish and baked a directed. Oh my gosh! So divine?? Next time I will try the almond flour but I’m sure it won’t taste as good as this? THANK YOU JENNIFER X
Thanks for sharing that! We’re happy it worked for you.
If I omit the chocolate chips, would it lower the carb count?
Without calculating it we can’t say if it will lower the carbs – there are free online nutrition calculators you can use to get this information.
Can I substitute coconut oil instead of butter?
Sorry I haven’t tried
Made these. They are delicious.
I’m so glad you liked them!
Can you use stevia extract liquid sweetener.
I have not tried with stevia
I love the look of the square/rectangles. I must try this just because of the image alone.
The last recipe I tried only baked them for 8 minutes and it was like eating cookie dough. Very disappointing. If your recipe turns out for me, I plan on coloring some allulose and sprinkling that on top for decoration purposes for various holidays, such as Christmas. I did that with the fail cookies (not from this site). I suspect one could roll this into a log, refrigerate for 2 hours or over night, then roll in the colored allulose and slice to decorate, as well.
I hope this recipe works out better for you
Overall this recipe works well and I appreciated the detailed instructions and tips. However, I found the taste improved immeasurably by the addition of 1/4 tsp of salt. I made one batch without and found it a bit one dimensional. I used Truvia to sweeten, and it worked well.
You can definitely add salt if you think it enhances the cookies.
These were delicious. I substituted the erythritol with swerve. I used a 1/4 cup swerve…..oh my goodness I wanted to eat more than 2! I will definitely make again.
I’ll admit, I ate more than 2 just “testing” them out. So happy you liked them!
I forgot to ask, what is the best way to store these cookies?
airtight container at room temperature
I just made these and they were delicious. I do think I rolled them too thin and they got a little dark on the bottom in the oven (15 min). My batch made 40 cookies so I obviously did something wrong but even though they weren’t perfect, they were very good and I think I can improve the next batch.
I did use 1/2 cup erythritol so mine had a nice sweetness but not too much for us (but maybe too much for others).
These cookies also had a very nice texture once cooled — very much like real shortbread cookies.
Thanks for a great recipe!
It does sound like you rolled the dough a little too thin, but I’m glad they still tasted good!
Is it possible to use swerve granular instead of Erythritol granular.
I have not tested it with swerve but I think that should be okay
Can you use Monkfruit (Lakanato) instead?
I have not tried it with monkfruit
I used monkfruit and replaced 1 cup of the almond flour with 1 cup of coconut flour. They turned out beautiful. The taste was not as sweet as normal shortbread cookies but they were all eaten, so that says a lot.
Thanks for sharing!
Can you use swerve granular in place of So Nourished Sweetner Granular? Dont have that kind.
I have not tested it with swerve but I think it should work.
Swerve has mostly erythritol in it anyway