I had someone email recently asking me why I didn’t have more cookie recipes on the site. I’d say low carb cookies are the hardest to get right.They take a lot of testing and trials, and I usually get frustrated long before I ever get to the point I want. But I love cookies. I would say I would take a cookie over a piece of cheesecake any day, so long as the cookie was GOOD. So are these frosted keto sugar cookies good? Yes, yes, they are!
These keto cookies are soft and cake-like and melt in your mouth. They are not overly dry, but they are not moist, chewy cookies either, they land somewhere in between, just like traditional sugar cookies! The sprinkles on the top are also low carb and keto-friendly, and if you want the recipe, you can hop on over to this post.
The frosting is a half-sweet cream cheese whipped topping that I feel compliments them very well.
These are pretty big cookies too, they are thick, and 3 inches in diameter and still only clock in at five net carbs. If you made them smaller, you could cut the carbs even more, but you know sometimes you just want a big cookie, and in that case, this recipe works very well.
This recipe is:
- Keto-Friendly
- Low Carb
- Gluten-Free
Keto Sugar Cookies with Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting
The great thing about sugar cookies is their versatility. You can change up the flavors with different flavor oils, or the frosting, or anything you want.
The sugar cookies are great without the frosting dipped or drizzled in chocolate because let’s get real; anything dipped in chocolate is goooooood!
If you don’t like the thickness of the cookies, you can make them thinner, just watch the baking time. And yes, you can even roll the dough and do cut-out sugar cookies, just make sure your dough is very cold when you roll it out. The easiest way to do this is between two pieces of parchment paper.Use cookie cutters to cut out your shapes before the dough warms up too much.
Thinner cookies also make great sandwich cookies! You can get quite creative with this recipe.
Related: Do you love cream-cheese in your desserts as much as I do? Check out my cheesecake-stuffed pumpkin bread!
What Sweeteners Work Best for this recipe?
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I tested this keto sugar cookie recipe with powdered erythritol. The powdered sweeteners like monk fruit and erythritol have a better texture, and tend to have the least amount of aftertaste, so I recommend them. The powdered sweetener creates a softer cookie without a lot of grain. I like So Nourished Monk Fruit Blend and Surkin Icing.
Powdered erythritol, monk fruit, or blends of both work great in the frosting recipe.
Swerve would work here as well, or any of your favorite granular blends like xylitol or erythritol.
Liquid sweeteners like stevia will throw off the dry-to-wet ingredient ratio, and I don’t recommend them for this recipe, unless you want to do some testing on your own.
Answers about Sweeteners, Low Carb Baking Tips, and General FAQ
For more detailed information about must-have baking tools and answers about sugar replacements, you can check out these FAQ pages.
We also have a handy sweetener replacement chart you can download for free!
Our FAQ Pages have answers to your biggest low carb baking questions including:
Tips for Baking With Almond Flour
Tips for Baking with Coconut Flour
Guides for Allulose, Monk Fruit, and Erythritol.
Substitutes for Xanthan Gum.
Tips for the sugar cookie dough
- Make sure your eggs, butter, and cream cheese are at room temperature before blending.
- Don’t skip the protein powder. It’s the ingredient that binds everything together in this recipe and holds the cookies together.
- Be sure to wrap your dough in plastic wrap and store it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes before forming into cookies.
- A large ice cream scoop or 1/4 cup measuring cup will create the perfect size cookies.Scoop and roll dough into even balls.
- Once the cookies are formed into balls, push down with your fingers to flatten. I tried using a cup, and it only made a mess. Fingers worked best!
Baking tips To make the perfect keto sugar cookie
- Use a heavy-duty cookie sheet. If you do not have a heavy-duty cookie sheet, doubling up the pan with another cookie sheet will do the trick. No second pan? Use a layer of tin foil to protect the bottom of your sheet. Almond flour and coconut flour over-brown, and protecting the bottom of the cookie sheet ensures an even golden brown bake.
- Keep an eye out on the cookies around the 12-14 minute mark. We want the sugar cookies to be just starting to brown a bit around the edges.
- Line your baking sheets with a piece of parchment paper. This will prevent the cookies form sticking, and make it easy to transfer them to a cooling rack.
- Let the cookies cool on the pan for 10 minutes before removing them. They will be soft (just like a regular cookie) when first out of the oven, and we need to give them time to set.
Storage & Serving suggestions
I used my go-to frosting recipe because I find it’s not super sweet, and it doesn’t have that weird aftertaste when you use too much sweetener.But you can use any of your favorite low carb frostings or toppings, or even eat them plain.The frosting recipe below is very soft at room temperature, and it is better if the keto sugar cookies get stored in the refrigerator. With that said, I personally like the cookies themselves at room temperature. They are softer and more melt in your mouth, so it’s a bit of a catch-22 here.You could store your frosting in the fridge, and your cookies on the counter, and frost them as you need them.
The cookies themselves, unfrosted, store brilliantly in the freezer.
No matter where you store these low carb keto sugar cookies, I recommend using an airtight container.
Also, to up the melt in your mouth feeling, a hot beverage is highly recommended.
Looking for more Keto Cookie Recipes?
Are you looking for more cookie recipes that won’t ruin your keto diet? Try these ones out for a sweet treat:
- Low Carb Halloween Cookies – With Monster Fur and Googly Eyes
- Keto Gingerbread Cookies – Gluten and Sugar Free!
- Keto Lemon Cookie Recipe With Lemon Chocolate Glaze
- Easy Keto Chocolate Chip Cookies – Soft, Chewy, and Amazing!
Editorial Note: This recipe was originally published on April 8, 2020, and was updated on March 1, 2022.
Melt In Your Mouth Frosted Keto Sugar Cookies
Yield: 9 large cookies
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 14 minutes
Additional Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 49 minutes
These keto frosted sugar cookies are melt in your mouth soft with a cream cheese frosting that doesn't taste overly sweet. The vanilla really shines in these little treats.
Ingredients
Sugar Cookies
- 2 ounces cream cheese
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter
- 3/4 cup powdered erythritol
- 1 large egg
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 1/3 cup almond flour
- 1/3 cup coconut flour
- 2 Tbsp protein powder
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
Frosting
- 1/2 cup whipping cream
- 1/3 cup powdered erythritol
- 1 cup (8 ounces) full-fat cream cheese
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2 drops pink food coloring
Instructions
Sugar Cookies
- Cream butter and cream cheese in a large bowl until the mixture is soft and spreadable.
- Add sweetener, vanilla, and egg to the butter and cream cheese mixture and mix on high until well blended.
- Add remaining dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and blend on low until ingredients are well incorporated.
- Wrap cookie dough in plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 30 minutes to cool.
- Preheat oven to 325F and line a heavy-duty cookie sheet with parchment. * See notes below about baking sheet.
- Once the cookie dough is cooled, drop 1/4 cup round balls of dough onto your prepared cookie sheet. Press each dough ball flat with your fingers. The dough does not spread a lot, so the shape you create is the shape you will end up with, so try to flatten the dough evenly.
- Bake in a 325F oven for 14-16 minutes until the outside edges of the cookies just start to brown. Do not over bake.
- Frost with your favorite keto or low carb frosting
Low Carb Frosting
- Cube one cup of cold full-fat cream cheese and mix with a stand mixer or hand mixer for 1 minute, until the cream cheese has no lumps. Scrape down the sides of the bowl if necessary.
- Add vanilla, food colouring, and powdered erythritol.
- Add 1/2 cup of full-fat whipping cream to the bowl and mix on low for 30 seconds, until blended with cream cheese. Turn up to medium and then high until the whipped cream and cream cheese fluff up and resemble buttercream frosting.
- Do not overbeat. Over beating will cause the mixture to liquefy.
Notes
1. If you do not have a heavy-duty commercial cookie sheet my recommendation is to either double up your pans by sliding an extra pan under the one you are using, or wrap the bottom of your cookie sheet with tin foil. Almond flour and coconut flour tend to over-brown and we need to protect the bottom of the cookies while they bake.
2. Do not skip the protein powder. The protein powder replaces gluten and helps the cookie to stabilize and give it structure. Without the protein powder, the cookies will fall apart. You can use any flavor of protein powder you want.
3. Do not skip cooling your dough in the refrigerator, if you skip this step the cookies will not hold their shape and will spread and flatten when baked.
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Nutrition Information:
Yield: 9Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving:Calories: 313Total Fat: 28gSaturated Fat: 13gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 14gCholesterol: 73mgSodium: 170mgCarbohydrates: 8gNet Carbohydrates: 5gFiber: 3gSugar: 2gProtein: 9g
Nutritional information for the recipe is provided as a courtesy and is approximate only. We cannot guarantee the accuracy of the nutritional information given for any recipe on this site. Erythritol carbs (and sugar alcohols) are not included in carb counts as it has been shown not to impact blood sugar. Net carbs are the total carbs minus fibre.
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