Almost too good to share: These healthy low carb chocolate chip cookies are the perfect combination of soft chewiness with a crunchy edge. You’ll never guess they are sugar free! Perfect for gluten free and Keto diets and suitable for diabetics.
It’s been grey here the past few days, which has made me crave comfort food. And what is more comforting than a freshly baked cookie??!
These Keto cookies are an adaptation of an old family recipe.
The reason for their supreme popularity in our house was not just the simple fact that everyone likes chocolate chip cookies. No! They beat all the chocolate chip cookies in the neighbourhood because of my mum’s secret ingredient: double (heavy) cream. It makes them taste richer, creamier and infinitely more yummy.
How I made my mom’s chocolate chip cookies low carb and sugar free
I replaced the wheat flour with almond flour and the sugar with erythritol. Instead of using milk chocolate, I settled on 85% dark chocolate. As half a bar (50g) is distributed between 10 cookies, the carb and sugar content is kept low. If you can source it, you can also use sugar free chocolate or sugar free chocolate chips.
This is how you make super-easy, healthy chocolate chip cookies:
First, you add your almond flour, egg, cream, butter, vanilla extract and granulated sweetener into a bowl. To my UK readers – if you use ground almonds, add an extra couple of tablespoons as ground almonds tend to be coarser than almond flour.
You can mix everything with a fork – it comes together really easily. Let the batter sit for a few minutes to let the flour absorb the moisture.
Now, chop your chocolate. Any chocolate with a cocoa solids content of 85% and above is fine. If you can get hold of sugar free chocolate, even better – it is pricey though. Lily’s is popular in the US (they even sell ready-made chocolate chips) and in the UK you could go for Cavalier.
Want to make your own sugar free chocolate chips? Check out this easy recipe from my blog!
Fold the chopped chocolate into the cookie batter. Now’s a good moment for a little taste – adjust your sweetener if you wish 🙂
Roll the batter into little balls (or portion them with a cookie scoop) and place on a baking tray. The dough will still be a tad soft and sticky. TIP: Use baking/parchment paper to prevent the cookies from sticking. I had run out, so I greased the tray with butter.
Flatten the cookies with your hand. They should be about 1/2 centimetres thick. Then bake in the oven for around 13 minutes.
Baker’s TOP TIPS
As almond flour does not contain gluten, low carb cookies are always softer than their wheat counterparts.The browned edges still have a lovely crunch though.
The mixture makes 10 cookies with a diameter of around 6 cm. (I tried so much of the dough we only ended up with 9!)
The cookies are really soft and fragile when fresh out of the oven. DON’T WORRY. They firm up as they cool down.
If you like your low carb cookies softer, just make them thicker and reduce the baking time to 10 minutes. For crispier cookies, flatten them further.
Can you make these cookies with coconut flour instead?
Yes! If you prefer coconut flour over almond flour, simply halve the amount of flour stated and use 50g or 1/2 cup of coconut flour. Coconut flour absorbs a lot more moisture than almond flour, that’s why you need less of it. You may want to add 1/2 a teaspoon of xanthan gum to make them a little firmer.
NOTE – I love, love, love dark chocolate. That’s why it was a no-brainer for me to use dark chocolate in my healthy chocolate chip cookies. If you have picky children in the house or simply are a milk chocolate person, do try to source sugar free milk chocolate. Check out the links in the text above – Lily’s in the US and Cavalier in the UK both offer stevia-sweetened milk chocolate, for example. You can find sugar free chocolate on Amazon and in health food stores.
More great Keto cookie recipes:
- coconut shortbread cookies
- Keto Sugar Cookies
- Italian walnut kisses
- Keto Almond Butter Brownie Cookies
- Keto Macaroons
Made this recipe? Give it a star rating below!
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Healthy Low Carb Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 100 g / 1 cup almond flour (to my UK readers - ground almonds work well here, just add another 2 tbsp)
- 1 medium egg
- 2 tbsp double/heavy cream
- 2 tbsp butter unsalted, VERY soft
- 3 tbsp granulated sweetener
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 50 g dark chocolate/chocolate chips (85% minimum or sugar free)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180 Celsius/356 Fahrenheit
- Combine all ingredients apart from the chocolate with a fork. Let the dough sit for a few minutes so the flour can absorb the moisture
- Chop your chocolate and stir into the dough
- Form dough balls with your hand or spoon the mixture on a baking sheet lined with baking paper. Press down into the desired shape (ca 1/2 cm thick)
- Bake for ca 13 minutes or until the edges are nicely browned. They are soft when straight out of the oven but firm up as they cool down.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
This recipe was first published in September 2016. It was updated in August 2018 with new photos and a recipe change to reflect how we make these cookies now.
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allie says
Any suggestions for dairy free? Egg is ok. I tried with olive oil instead of butter and coconut cream instead of cream. They were ok, but a bit blah !
Katrin Nürnberger says
I would use coconut oil instead of the butter. And maybe leave out the cream altogether and add more vanilla instead for flavour.
Catherine says
Hi Katrin!
These cookies look amazing and i’d love to try them.
Unfortunately at the moment i can’t have dairy (excluding butter & ghee) so i’m wondering what i could replace the heavy cream with?
Cheers
Katrin says
You could either replace it with coconut cream or simply use a little more butter 🙂
Susan says
Hi! I tried making these tonight but for some reason the batter came out super watery, is not doughey as in the video, and the cookies came out with a very weird consistency as if they were made with coconut zest. Help please!
Katrin says
Ok, let’s try and figure it out. If you measured all ingredients using either scales or cups, the only wild card would be the egg. I used a medium egg, so if you used an extra large egg, for example, your dough would be more runny. It’s good you checked the consistency and compared it with the video- in your case, I would have added additional almond flour. As for the coconut taste, I’m stumped. There’s no coconut in the recipe! Maybe more vanilla extract would work for you?
Susan says
Hi! I noticed in my ingredients that I actually used a large egg instead, how much flour would you recommend adding to make it more consistent? And I think the coconut zest texture was related to some bigger chunks I had left in my flour after using the strainer, I’ll try again tonight using only the finer flour and correcting the amount of flour as well!
Katrin says
I would try adding an additional 2 tablespoons of almond flour/ground almonds. You could also chill the dough in the fridge for a while to make it easier to handle.
Rea says
Hi katrin, can I use powdered sweetener instead of granulated? Thanks
Katrin says
Yes, of course you can!
Katja says
I have just made these cookies and oh my goooooodness they are quite literally amazing!!!! Perfect for a quick sweet treat but still keeping in my macros! Thank you so much!
Katrin says
That sounds like a successful baking session! Glad you like them 🙂
Lucy Mcalister says
I just made these as I’ve been craving biscuits all week and I’m doing keto. They really hit the spot! I made 14 thin cookies (as I wanted something firmer.) I also halved the double cream as I’m small and find it easy to go over on my fat macros. I used salted butter as I like a hint of salt with my sweet. They tasted indulgent – (the chocolate goes a long way!) and had a good texture. Nicely filling too so you’re not tempted to scoff the lot.
Katrin says
Thanks for sharing all your tweaks – and so happy you liked the recipe 🙂
Lucy says
You’re welcome. They have become my ‘Breakfast Biscuits’. I have 3 late morning and then I’m not hungry until about 2pm. Such a tasty way to start the day. Thanks for the recipe! 🙂
Constance says
Hi, i was thinking of adding some chopped hazelnuts or pecans into this cookie recipe- do you think I’d need to adjust for the temperature or timing if i do so ? Thanks !
Katrin says
No, I think it will need the same amount of time 🙂
ray says
Hi Katrin, for some reason mine keep coming out as one big blob, and really soggy..once they’ve cooled and almost hardened they do taste amazing but I’m wondering if I need more baking powder or ?
I’m scrupulously using the same measurements as provided, with almond flour, erythritol etc..
Katrin says
Hi Ray, are you using metric measurements/ a scale or US cups?
ray says
US cups…and a set of tbsp/tsp measures too
Katrin says
Hi Ray, I’m thinking what it could have been. If your butter was too liquid that could have affected the dough and made it sticky and difficult to handle. In that case, you can just put the dough in the fridge for half an hour and it will work well.
iris Reyes says
Katrin, OMG. My first time making ur almond flour sugarfree chocolate chips cookies last night 5-25-2019. And am in love!!!! they taste soooooooo good… am in a low carb, sugar free, sodium free and anything that’s healthy for me. I thank you so much. I can’t wait to try more delicious recipes. #1 FAN!!!!! ❤❤❤ ps next will be the chocolate chip muffins.
Katrin says
Hi Iris, so glad you found my website and happy you like the recipe!!
Pauline says
Love love love this recipe – tackles my sugar cravings and keeps me on my keto diet track. Weight loss continues…..Thanks a million!
Katrin says
Oh, that’s so good to hear!!! I’m glad you like the recipe 🙂
Rebecca says
OMG, these are soo good! They taste very close to the real thing. I used Swerve erythritol and Lilly’s dark chocolate baking bar. I doubled the butter and added more vanilla. Fantastic.
Katrin says
Awesome!! Glad you like the recipe 🙂