These are listed as Keto shortbread cookies, but I would suggest making them a little thicker for shortbread. I used lactose-free butter, or you can use coconut oil if you’re vegan. They’re delicious, though I do make several suggestions in the method. Our’s are now all gone, as they were extremely popular, even with these who normally wouldn’t eat keto.
The recipe states the nutrition facts were calculated on 2 dozen cookies, but they made 35. I used a standard cookie cutter and got 18. So, I can only assume in the original recipe that theirs were petit four size. The recipe uses toasted ground almonds, which gives an added flavour that I love!
Ingredients
- 144 g almond flour
- 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 84 g grass-fed butter, room temperature (I used a lactose-free butter)
- 90 g erythritol powdered
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the chocolate coating (optional)
- dark chocolate such as Lily’s, melted (see my note below)
- sea salt flakes
Method
- Add the almond flour to a dry skillet or pan, and toast over medium heat, until golden and fragrant (3-6 minutes). Note: I heated it for 4 minutes. Keep stirring as it changes colour very quickly; make sure to manage the heat source as part of the process.
- Remove from pan, whisk in xanthan gum, salt and set aside to cool completely (very important!). Note: the browning process carries on when you remove the pan from the heat so I transferred the almond flour onto an enamel tray and spread it out to cool. Then I added the xanthan gum and salt.
- Cream butter in a large bowl with an electric mixer, 2-3 minutes. Add in sweetener and continue to beat until thoroughly mixed and much of the sweetener has dissolved. Add in vanilla extract and beat until just combined. Note: this all worked well.
- With your mixer on low, add in half of your almond flour mixture; mixing until just incorporated. Then, mix in the other half of the almond flour.
- Wrap cookie dough with cling film (saran wrap) and refrigerate for at least an hour.
- Preheat oven to 350°F/180°C/160°C and have a baking tray handy.
- Roll out dough between parchment paper and either simply slice with a knife or do cutouts. Place shaped cookies with parchment paper on the prepared baking tray and place in the freezer for 15 minutes prior to baking. Note: the parchment paper worked well. We had no room to fit two trays in the freezer so just put it in the oven. It didn’t seem to make a difference.
- Bake until just lightly golden. Baking times will vary widely depending on size of cookies and oven, but around 10-13 minutes for the small ones, or 15-18 minutes for the larger ones. Note: based on the fact the original recipe made 35 cookies and I made 18, I considered mine came into the large category. I initially set the timer for 10 minutes at 160°C and found they were browning round the edges, so I turned the temperature down to 130°C for another 4 minutes. I suggest caution over the stated cooking times and temperatures.
- Allow to cool on the baking tray as they’ll be very fragile when warm.
- Optional: melt the dark chocolate, and dip the now cool cookies into the chocolate, place back onto the baking tray or cooling rack and sprinkle with sea salt flakes. Definitely use a good dark chocolate; I used Green and Black’s Organic dark 85% chocolate. I love Lily’s dark chocolate chips, but they are expensive in the UK. Note: I started off dipping the cooled cookies so only half was covered in chocolate, but as I had melted too much, I covered the tops of 6 cookies completely and sprinkled with sea-salt flakes. Next time, I would suggest forget half-covered and go for fully-covered sprinkled with sea-salt flakes, as they were delicious!!
- Store in an airtight container for up to 1 week; though ours hardly lasted one day, they were so good!!
Other optional variations suggested:
- I intend to make these again, but as I love chocolate ginger combinations, I am going to toast the almond flour very lightly and also add powdered ginger. Then try dipping the whole cookie in melted chocolate and leave them to set on parchment paper.
essentialonion 