Sugar-Free Coconut Flour Cookies (Vegan, Keto)
By Carine Claudepierre
Published on 11/02/2017 - Last updated on 10/23/2023
This recipe may contain Amazon or other affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Whether you eat keto, low carb, paleo, or vegan, these coconut flour cookies with no sugar are the healthy cookies you need to make everyone happy for Christmas, Thanksgiving, or any occasion.
You won’t miss your classic shortbread cookies.
These have the exact same texture – they melt in your mouth with a heavenly buttery vanilla flavor – without the carbs, butter, or sugar.
What Are Sugar-Free Coconut Flour Cookies?
Sugar-Free Coconut Flour Cookies are healthy low-carb cookies that are typically made for Christmas but can be enjoyed any time of the year.
They are made with Coconut Flour and have a delicious, slightly crumbly texture.
Why You’ll Love These Cookies
These Coconut Flour Cookies are simple and healthy, and they are:
- Sugar-Free
- Dairy-Free
- Gluten-Free
- Egg-Free
- Vegan
- Low-Carb
- Keto-Friendly
- Ready in Under 25 Minutes
How To Make Sugar-Free Coconut Flour Cookies
All you need to make these vegan keto cookies are 5 ingredients.
Ingredients
- Coconut Flour – Coconut flour is a low-carb flour that is great for bringing taste and texture to recipes. Since it’s very rich in fiber, it’s essential to follow a purpose-made recipe as it can’t be substituted for any other flour.
- Extra Virgin Coconut Oil – this provides a lot of binding to the cookies.
- Erythritol or any sugar-free crystal sweetener you love. It’s a great sugar replacement in sugar-free desserts.
- Vanilla extract – for a delicious taste.
- Nut Butter – I used cashew butter or peanut butter, but the recipe works with any nut butter you love. If you’d rather use eggs, you can use an egg instead.
Making Sugar-Free Coconut Flour Cookie Batter
I made them 4 times, so I learned a lot during the process of making these coconut flour cookies. Below are my tips to make them great every single time.
The dough can be made in a food processor, with an electric beater, or with your hands!
I tested all options. I found it messy to make the dough with my hands, so I prefer to use my food processor or beat the ingredients with my electric mixer first.
It forms a crumb in like 20 seconds, and then I use my hands to gather pieces into a dough ball.
The dough is crumbly. That is normal. That is what you want to make in a delicious shortbread cookie recipe.
It needs a bit of work to gather the crumb into a dough ball – it took me about 1 minute.
The more you knead, the more the coconut oil softens/sticks to the flour and makes that dough ball come to life.
Cooling The Dough
Wrap the crumbs into a plastic wrap, and press firmly. It helps the cookie dough ball form. Place it in the fridge for 10 minutes to set.
Don’t skip the 10 minutes in the fridge. The dough needs to firm up before you roll the cookies!
The crescent shapes are cute but not the easiest to make – the dough is dry/crumbly.
Make it simple, form 12 cookie balls and press them with the back of a fork to flatten. Much faster and super cute.
Baking The Cookies
Using the fan-forced mode of your oven is the best way to bake them.
Don’t touch the cookies when out of the oven. They will be super fragile/soft. They must cool down fully on the cooking tray to get hard and crunchy.
More Keto Coconut Flour Cookies
If you’ve enjoyed this coconut flour vegan recipe, you’ll love the following:
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Coconut Flour Shortbread Cookies
Ingredients
- ¾ cup Coconut Flour
- ⅓ cup Coconut Oil solid, not melted +/- 1 tablespoon (add if the dough is too crumbly)
- ¼ cup Granulated Sweetener or monk fruit blend
- ¼ teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 1 tablespoon Peanut Butter or 1 large egg at room temperature
Decoration
- ⅓ cup Sugar-Free Dark Chocolate I used stevia chocolate
- 1 tablespoon Pumpkin Seeds crushed
- 1 teaspoon Unsweetened Desiccated Coconut
Optional – to sprinkle on top before baking
- 1 tablespoon Coconut Flour
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to fan-bake 350°F (180°C). Prepare a cookie tray, cover it with parchment paper. Set aside.
- Place all the ingredients in a bowl, and beat with an electric beater until it forms a crumble. It should not take more than 20 seconds. If you don't have an electric beater, you can also press/rub the dough with your hands until it forms a crumb – just a bit messier!
- Assemble the crumb with your hands to form a cookie dough ball and transfer the ball onto a piece of plastic wrap. It's crumbly dough. That's normal. Press firmly with your hands to gather the pieces together and firmly wrap the batter to form a ball. If it really doesn't come together after you kneaded the dough for 1 minute, add slightly more coconut oil – up to 1 tablespoon max. Refrigerate for 15 minutes to firm up.
- Remove from the fridge, and open the plastic wrap. The dough will be firm but still crumbly when you take some in your hands. That is ok. The more you knead the dough, the easier it gets to form balls as the coconut oil softens.
- Roll 1 tablespoon of dough into a ball, pressing the dough firmly in your hands. Place the balls onto the prepared baking sheet. If you want to make crescent-shaped cookies, first, shape the ball into a cylinder and slightly pinch the middle to form a crescent shape. The fastest will be to flatten the ball with a fork to form lovely round shortbread cookies. Repeat with the remaining dough until you form 12 cookies.
- If you like, sprinkle extra coconut flour on top of the cookies before baking.
- Bake until they are light golden brown on the sides for 6 to 8 minutes. The cookies will remain very soft at this stage, and that is normal, don't touch them or don't try to remove them from the tray. They firm up when fully cool down.
- Cool down on the baking sheet for about 30 minutes until it reaches room temperature. As it cools down, the coconut oil hardens and creates crispy, crumbly shortbread cookies. I usually place my baking sheet outside in summer to cool down in fresh air quickly or near an open window.
- Decorate with a drizzle of melted sugar-free chocolate if you like. I used dark chocolate sweetened with stevia.
Notes
Tools
Getting Started What Is Keto? Macro Calculator Sweetener Converter Intermittent Fasting Keto Fruits Keto Vegetables Keto Flours Fighting Keto Flu Healthy SweetenersWant My Kitchen Equipment?
Nutrition
About The Author
Hi, I'm Carine, the food blogger, author, recipe developer, published author of a cookbook, and founder of Sweet As Honey.
I have an Accredited Certificate in Nutrition and Wellness obtained in 2014 from Well College Global (formerly Cadence Health). I'm passionate about sharing all my easy and tasty recipes that are both delicious and healthy. My expertise in the field comes from my background in chemistry and years of following a keto low-carb diet. But I'm also well versed in vegetarian and vegan cooking since my husband is vegan.
I now eat a more balanced diet where I alternate between keto and a Mediterranean Diet
Cooking and Baking is my true passion. In fact, I only share a small portion of my recipes on Sweet As Honey. Most of them are eaten by my husband and my two kids before I have time to take any pictures!
All my recipes are at least triple tested to make sure they work and I take pride in keeping them as accurate as possible.
Browse all my recipes with my Recipe Index.
I hope that you too find the recipes you love on Sweet As Honey!
Disclaimer
The recipes, instructions, and articles on this website should not be taken or used as medical advice. You must consult with your doctor before starting on a keto or low-carb diet. The nutritional data provided on Sweetashoney is to be used as indicative only.
The nutrition data is calculated using WP Recipe Maker. Net Carbs is calculated by removing the fiber and some sweeteners from the total Carbohydrates. As an example, a recipe with 10 grams of Carbs per 100 grams that contains 3 grams of erythritol and 5 grams of fiber will have a net carbs content of 2 grams. Some sweeteners are excluded because they are not metabolized.
You should always calculate the nutritional data yourself instead of relying on Sweetashoney's data. Sweetashoney and its recipes and articles are not intended to cure, prevent, diagnose, or treat any disease. Sweetashoney cannot be liable for adverse reactions or any other outcome resulting from the use of recipes or advice found on the Website.
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I tried following your recipe but the dough had no shape and was wet, making it impossible to form balls. I tried to refrigerate it longer but it’s still the same.
It looks like your dough was too wet. Did you use any different ingredient? The trick to this egg free shortbread recipe is to use solid coconut oil won’t work if melted. Let me know ! XOXO Carine.
Hi Carine, I was excited to find your recipe to have some cookies I can eat on a temporary restrictive diet to improve “gut” health. Thanks! I followed the recipe, but the balls never flatten. They are tasty, but the consistency is more powdery. My convection oven converted the 350F to 300. After 8 minutes they weren’t browned so I increased it to 325 for 5 minutes and they browned but remained as balls.
I used 3 tbsp of Wholesome Organic Stevia, blend of organic eryhritol and stevia. Used crunchy almond butter.
Should the dough balls have flattened? What temperature did you use with your forced air oven?
Can you double the recipe to make more cookies?
Would the eggs have helped reduce the powdery consistency?
Appreciate your suggestions.
Best,
Larry
Hi Larry! This cookie dough doesn’t flatten, it stays in the shape you choose to shape them. The temperature must be 350F on convection oven (that is what I called fan forced in my instructions), 300F will undercook the cookie for sure. The egg definitely helps with the consistency. Enjoy the recipes and thanks for giving them a try. XOXO Carine.
Omg these are so worth it. Thank you so much
I am SO happy to read your comment! Enjoy the sugar free recipes on the blog. XOXO Carine.
Hi …i tried this recipe today and followed it exactly . Amazing taste . But it spread too thin while baking and did not harden as expected after cooling it for over an hour .
Any thoughts on as to why it did that?
Thank you
Ritika
Hi! Did you replace any ingredients in the recipe ? I highly recommend solid coconut oil if it is too soft or liquid the dough will be super crumbly. You can replace cashew butter by an egg if you are not vegan. It will perfectly hold. Let me know. Thanks for the lovely comment. XOXO Carine.
Can you put this mixture in a cookie press?
It is a friable cookie batter so I would not recommend a press or cookie cutter. Enjoy the recipe ! XOXO Carine.
I’m looking forward to trying this. Is there a substitute for nut butter? Psyllium husk, almond flour? Only cos I’m trying to use up the coconut flour and other ingredients I have and not buy more stuff. Thanks.
I would rather recommend an egg (if you are not vegan), other flour/meal will dry up the batter and won’t make great cookies I think. Let me know if you are trying something new! I am happy to hear your own recipe 🙂 Have a great day and thanks for reading the blog, XOXO Carine.
Can stevia be used in this recipe? If so how much would you recommend? I have tried coconut sugar in other recipes but it feels granular in the mouth. I’m excited to try these. Thanks, Pam
No sorry, stevia won’t add any texture to those cookies and they will fall appart. Go for erythritol or coconut sugar, it will melt perfectly in those cookies, don’t worry! XOXO Carine.
Its the best low carb cookie recipe i ve tried!it is very accurate and thats very important when you use these ingredients that are not too cheap.thank you very much
Thanks for your lovely comment! I love to read that. I did those cookies many times before sharing the recipe, as for all my recipes I like to share easy and tasty recipes that works for everyone. Thanks for trying them from your kitchen and sharing your lovely feedback here. XOXO Carine.
Have anyone tried adding xantham gum to this recipe to get dough a little more stickier?
I made them today : AMAZING recipe, super easy and love the buttery texture
Thanks for your lovely comment! I am so happy it turns out greeat. XOXO Carine.
Can another oil or shortening be used instead of the coconut oil?
Hi, I am not sure as I only made the recipe with coconut oil. Maybe butter could work but it won’t be vegan anymore. Coconut oil works really well as it gets harder when cold. So when you place the cookie dough in the fridge before baking, it really hold well together. Enjoy the recipe ! xoxo Carine.
Bonjour Carine! I follow you from France and I want to tell how much I love reading your blog. I am type 1 diabetic and I already made a batch of those cookies this morning. I was so excited to see a sugar free cookie recipe with low carb flour! I just want to say that it works very well, the dough was a bit crumbly as you said, so I did not make crescent shapes cookies, simply circle cookies as you recommended. The taste is the same as a French sable cookie ! Merci beaucoup for this recipe !
Wow! That was fast Chantal 🙂 I am SO happy you enjoyed the cookie recipe. My mum is type 1 as well and she lives in France too so I am glad to hear the recipe works everywhere in the world. Enjoy the low carb recipes on the blog. Merci ! Carine.
What an amazing cookie recipe! I am going to try them this week! I let you know how it taste. I am not a good baker but that looks easy. Thanks
I can’t wait to hear back from you ! Enjoy the cookies. xoxo Carine.
I made the cookies used butter instead of coconut since I didn’t have any. The taste was good but they kind of fell apart.
Hi ! That is what I said in the recipe, they firm up when cooling down and that is why I recommend using coconut oil. That is the trick ! Butter won’t firm up at room temperature leaving the cookies soft and crumbly. Enjoy the cookies and thanks for trying the recipe on the blog. XOXO Carine.
Hi … I live in the tropics so coconut oil at room temperature is always melted. Does this mean the cookie texture would be compromised at room temperature as I don’t see it hardening enough to give a crunch.
You can use butter instead or place the coconut oil in the fridge one hour to solidify before using in the recipe. Enjoy! XOXO Carine.