Keto Shortbread Cookies

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5 from 548 votes
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These keto shortbread cookies are rich and buttery, and made using just 5 ingredients! No sugar and no grains needed, they are the PERFECT keto cookie for the holiday season! 2 grams net carbs per cookie.

keto shortbread

Keto Butter Cookies

When the holiday season rolls around, you’ll find me busy in the kitchen baking snickerdoodles, English toffee, and this keto shortbread. 

I love the holidays. It’s an excuse to chuck a party, have friends over, and most importantly, enjoy some delicious food. This is the season where all those festive desserts and treats are made, and I am ALL over that. While I do love the gingerbread and peppermint treats, I love to stick to classics too, like traditional shortbread.

I’ve been meaning to share a keto shortbread cookie recipe for quite some time. Now that all the supermarkets and grocery stores and spruiking this holiday cookie in every aisle and counter, I thought it was high time I did too. 

Now, these keto shortbread cookies may look beautiful and difficult to make, but I promise you, they are SO easy to make, and require just 5 ingredients!

No grains, no oil, and no flour are needed, but you’d never tell. The texture is thick, slightly dense, crumbly, and with a hint of vanilla. It’s sweet, buttery, and rich, without being overpowering. 

This recipe took quite some time to perfect, but I promise you this is truly the BEST keto shortbread- No burnt edges or crispy cookies here!

How do you make almond flour shortbread cookies?

The Ingredients

  • Butter– Ensure your butter is room temperature and unsalted. Unlike other cookie recipes, these taste better without any salt whatsoever. 
  • Granulated sweetener of choice– Either erythritol or monk fruit sweetener can be used. 
  • Eggs– Room temperature eggs. 
  • Vanilla extract– A must for any good cookie recipe! 
  • Almond flour– You must use blanched almond flour, not almond meal. Your almond flour should be super fine in texture, the same consistency as powdered sugar. Any more course and the cookies risk being gritty instead of smooth. 

The Instructions

Start by beating together your softened butter with sweetener, until smooth and creamy. Next, add in your eggs, one at a time, until combined. Add in the vanilla extract, then gently fold through your almond flour, until combined. 

Next, using a cookie scoop or a large spoon, scoop out portions of the dough and place on a lined baking sheet. Gently shape into a circular shape and cross with a fork. Bake the cookies for 15-17 minutes, or until the edges begin to go golden. Remove from the oven and allow the cookies to cool on the pan completely. 

keto shortbread cookies

Can I substitute the eggs or omit them? 

Traditional shortbread doesn’t contain eggs. However, they play. key role in this recipe.

I had tried this recipe completely omitting it, and while it did taste delicious, the edges were burnt and the cookies were a very dark color. The eggs help the dough cook much better, and look exactly like traditional shortbread cookies. I promise you won’t be able to taste them! 

Tips to make the best low carb shortbread

  • Your blanched almond flour MUST be super fine in texture. That is key to ensure a smooth and buttery shortbread cookie. If your almond flour isn’t fine, you will notice the exterior of the cookies to be gritty. 
  • If you’d like to make these in a traditional shortbread shape, you can make these in a loaf pan. Remove from the oven around the 8-minute mark and slice into the desired shape. Place back in the oven and continue cooking for another 10-15 minutes. 
  • Do not overbake the shortbread. The cookies continue to cook as they are cooling down.
  • For added decoration, feel free to brush the tops of the cookies with melted butter and a sprinkle of granulated sweetener. 

Flavor Variations

While these shortbread cookies taste delicious on their own, change up their flavors for some fun variety! 

  • Cranberry– Fold through 1/4 cup dried cranberries into the dough. 
  • Lavender– Add 2 teaspoons of dried lavender to the dough.
  • Lemon– Fold through some lemon zest and add several drops of a lemon extract. 
  • Chocolate Chip– Add 1/4 cup mini chocolate chips. 
  • Cinnamon– Add 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and sprinkle the baked cookies with cinnamon and sugar. 

How do you store keto shortbread? 

  • To store: Shortbread cookies can be stored at room temperature, in a sealed container, for up to 4 weeks. 
  • To freeze: Place shortbread in a ziplock bag and store in the freezer for up to 6 months. 

almond flour shortbread

More keto cookies to try

keto butter cookies

Keto Shortbread Cookies

5 from 548 votes
These keto shortbread cookies is a delicious low carb take on classic shortbread! Crumbly and buttery cookies made with just 5 ingredients- No grains or sugar needed.
Servings: 12 Cookies
Prep: 5 minutes
Cook: 15 minutes
Total: 20 minutes

Ingredients  

Instructions 

  • Preheat the oven to 180C/350F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
  • In a large mixing bowl, add your softened butter and granulated sweetener. Using a hand mixer, beat together until creamy. Add the vanilla extract and eggs, one at a time, until combined and smooth. Gently fold in the almond flour, until combined.
  • Using a large spoon or cookie scoop, form 12-15 balls of dough and place on the lined pan. Press down on each ball into a cookie shape, followed by crossing on either side with a fork.
  • Bake the cookies for 17-20 minutes, or until beginning to go golden around the edges. Remove from the oven and allow cookies to cool completely.

Notes

Recipe slightly adapted from here.
TO STORE: Shortbread cookies can be stored at room temperature, in a sealed container, for up to 4 weeks. 
TO FREEZE: Place shortbread in a ziplock bag and store in the freezer for up to 6 months. 

Nutrition

Serving: 1CookieCalories: 152kcalCarbohydrates: 4gProtein: 5gFat: 14gSodium: 46mgPotassium: 12mgFiber: 2gVitamin A: 163IUCalcium: 45mgIron: 1mgNET CARBS: 2g
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Author: Arman Liew
Tried this recipe?Give us a shout at @thebigmansworld or tag #thebigmansworld!

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. I may earn a small commission for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial, and/or link to any products or services from this website.

Arman Liew

I’m a two time cookbook author, photographer, and writer, and passionate about creating easy and healthier recipes. I believe you don’t need to be experienced in the kitchen to make good food using simple ingredients that most importantly, taste delicious.

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Comments

  1. 5 stars
    Hands down, the BEST keto shortbread cookies recipe I’ve ever made- crisp and crumbly and just the texture you’d expect.

  2. 5 stars
    Love!!!! this recipe! I used the cookie crumbs for the crust on my cheesecake. Let them cool completely, very crunchy, perfect! Basically made it just like a graham crust, perfect keto crust,Thanks Arman 🙂

  3. This recipe is amazing! I have used it to create a crust for a cheesecake bars and a key lime pie bars. I just double the butter, add 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon and press it into the bottom of a 9×13 pan. I have to cook it appropriately 30 minutes since it’s literally 1 large cookie, but it makes the perfect keto friendly graham cracker crust! Thank you so much for sharing this recipe! I’ve been bookmarking other recipes as well. 🙂

  4. 5 stars
    I have a question about the Almond flour. I’m new to cooking for Keto this year, so I’m not sure what I did wrong. I doubled your recipe because I needed to split these between my two adult boys. I had a problem with the texture of the dough. After adding the 4 Cups of almond flour (doubled recipe) the dough was the consistency of wet mashed potatoes. There could be no forming any balls with it, certainly not to “press down”. Imagine having instructions to form balls and press down with overly wet mashed potatoes. So I ended up having to add a LOT more almond flour to get typical cookie dough batter texture. Was I supposed to be using the wet, loose dough? If so, how? The finest super fine Almond flour I could find anywhere was from King Arthur. They have a super fine blanched kind. I measured the first cup, and there were big clumps creating air pockets in the measuring cup. So I stopped and sifted the entire bag first. Does sifting fluff it up and make it appear double the actual measure? Did I initially really only add 2C thinking I added 4C because of what sifting did? Is that what went wrong? According to the label there should be 3-1/2 C total in the bag. After sifting I had almost 6 C. Manufacturers may be imprecise sometimes with their weight and volume, but that’s practically double. Can you help me figure out if I did the right thing, if there is a difference in measuring sifted almond flour vs measuring right out of the bag? And would they have had a better shortbread texture and buttery taste with less almond flour if I had worked with the wet loose dough instead? Thank you! Love your work.

  5. Quick question about the sweetener. For the monkfruit sweetener, are you using pure monk fruit sweetener or one that is cut with something else?

  6. 5 stars
    What an awesome recipe. The cookie texture is absolutely amazing! I have made them in Chocolate, orange (added orange extract & little peel), lemon (lemon extract & peel) (using your lemon curd recipe (too die for) and putting a thumb imprint before baking the cookies, then adding a little bit of your curd to the top. Huge hit!; dehydrated some cherries and strawberries and again, a little bit of extracts to accompany. The other day I used them as a base instead of graham cracker crumbs. Thank you so much for sharing.

  7. 5 stars
    Nice general cookie texture but unlike shortbread. It did work very well with shortbread molds. For a second batch, we added lemon zest and cinnamon for flavor.

  8. 5 stars
    I absolutely love this recipe. They are so yummy. I eat mine straight from the freezer.
    Your pancake recipe is amazing too. Thank you for sharing Arman.

  9. In your ingredients part of the recipe it says the butter needs to be unsalted but then when you get to the actual recipe part it says the butter is salted.