Coconut Flour Shortbread Cookies (Keto, Gluten-free)
By Carine Claudepierre
Published on 12/10/2024
This recipe may contain Amazon or other affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
These Coconut Flour Shortbread Cookies are soft, buttery melt-in-your-mouth coconut cookies delicious for your Christmas cookie platter. Bonus, these are gluten-free keto coconut flour cookies, 100% sweetened with natural low-carb sweeteners, and come with only 1.8 grams of net carbs each.
It’s funny how we tend to pause a diet during the holidays, but I am here to help you get through Christmas and keep it keto this year. Actually, if there’s something I learned in the past years on a keto diet, it is that you can make delicious Keto Christmas cookies that all your family love and won’t guess are sugar-free cookies!
So let me share with you this new creation, a soft, melt-in-your-mouth coconut shortbread cookie.
Why You’ll Love These Cookies
These coconut flour shortbread tastes like a regular soft shortbread cookie with a strong coconut flavor from coconut flavor. It’s a healthy low-carb keto cookie recipe that is also naturally:
- Grain-free
- Nut-free
- Low-carb
- Gluten-free
In fact, coconut flour is a gluten-free flour that makes wonderful healthy cookies with fewer carbs and more nutrients like fiber and proteins.
Ingredients and Substitutions
- Large Eggs – make sure you use large eggs, not small or medium eggs, to avoid dry cookies.
- Softened Butter – if you have a dairy allergy, use dairy-free butter, like vegan blocks. However, I don’t recommend using coconut oil for this recipe. The cookies come out harder and not as moist.
- Powdered Sweetener – I am using powdered erythritol, but any keto powder sweetener works well, or regular powder sugar if not keto.
- Coconut Flour – make sure you measure the coconut flour precisely. Fill the cup, shake, sweep the top. Don’t overly pack the flour in the cup because, again, this makes cookies dry. Learn why coconut flour can’t be swapped.
- Vanilla Extract – for flavor.
How To Make Coconut Flour Shortbread Cookies
It’s so easy to make a soft coconut shortbread using coconut flour. The success of baking with coconut flour is adding more moist ingredients like eggs, butter, or milk.
In fact, coconut flour is four times more liquid absorbent than other keto flours, so you must add significantly more moisture to the batter, or it ends up with dry coconut flour cookies.
- First, using the paddle attachment of a stand mixer or a hand beater, beat softened butter and powder sweetener together until light and creamy. This takes about 1 minute on high speed – speed 7-8 of a stand mixer.
- Now, stir in vanilla extract and eggs and beat again on the low-speed setting to incorporate.
- Finally, beat in coconut flour until the dough is yellow, soft, butter slightly wet but still hold well in your hand if squeezed.
- Set aside 2 minutes and meanwhile prepare the baking sheets.
- Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and lightly oil the paper with coconut oil or olive oil set aside.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Now the dough is ready to be shaped into little shortbread cookies,
- Scoop out one tablespoon of coconut flour cookie dough, roll it between your hands to form a ball. The dough should be wet, hold together, and not fragile or crumbly. If crumbly or too dry, it means you used less liquid – smaller eggs, less butter. To adjust a dry cookie dough, add one extra tablespoon of almond milk.
- Place all the cookie dough balls onto the prepared cookie sheet leaving half a thumb of space between each cookie ball.
- Lightly flatten each ball with your hands gently. The cookies don’t expand in the oven, so the shape you give them now is the shape they will have after baking.
- Mark the top of each cookie with the back of a fork to create a lovely shortbread print.
- Bake the cookies on the center rack of your oven for 10 minutes at 350°F (180°C) until just golden brown on top. Don’t overbake the cookies, or they come out dry.
- Let them cool down on the cookie sheet for 10 minutes, then cool down on a wire rack.
Decoration
This is totally optional, but I like to dip half of the shortbread cookies into melted dark chocolate. First, cool the cookies completely for 30 minutes or until they reach room temperature.
My recipe for cookie chocolate shell is super simple:
- Place 1/2 cup of sugar-free chocolate chips and one teaspoon of coconut oil in a microwave-safe bowl.
- Microwave in 30-second bursts, stirring and repeating until the chocolate is fully melted.
- Dip half of each keto shortbread cookie into the melted chocolate.
- Cool the low-carb shortbread cookies down on a plate covered with lightly oiled parchment paper. You can pop the plate in the fridge to set the chocolate shell faster.
Storage Instructions
These keto-friendly nut-free cookies can be stored very well in the fridge in Ziploc bags or airtight cookie jars for up to 1 week. You can also freeze these gluten-free shortbread cookies for later and thaw them at room temperature the day before.
Frequently Asked Questions
Coconut flour is a high-fiber flour; it absorbs a lot of liquid, and if your cookies are dry, it means you didn’t add the correct ratio of liquid to dry ingredients. It can be that your eggs are too small, or you didn’t measure the butter well or added too much coconut flour (perhaps your flour is denser than mine).
No, this recipe won’t work with egg replacers or flax eggs. Their texture will be very crumbly, and the cookies will fall apart. Try my almond flour shortbread cookies for an egg-free keto cookie recipe.
Absolutely, coconut flour comes from raw coconut flesh. It does taste a lot like coconut.
More Christmas Cookie Recipes
Below I listed some more Christmas cookie recipes to try this Christmas.
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Coconut Flour Shortbread Cookies
Ingredients
- ½ cup Coconut Flour scoop, swept not packed in the
- ⅓ cup Powdered Erythritol
- 2 large Eggs
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- ⅓ cup Butter
Instructions
- In the bowl of a stand mixer using the paddle attachment, or in a large mixing bowl using a hand beater, beat softened butter and powder sweetener for 1 minute on high speed. The mixture should be creamy and soft.
- Add the vanilla extract and eggs and beat on low-medium speed until fully incorporated – about 30 seconds.
- Stir in coconut flour and beat again until the batter is soft, buttery, slightly wet, but not liquid. Set aside for 2 minutes.
- Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and lightly oil the paper and your hands with coconut oil. Set aside.
- Scoop one tablespoon of cookie dough and roll it into a small ball between your hands. The dough should hold well in your hand when squeezed, but it shouldn't be sticky to your fingers, crumbly, or too wet.
- Place each cookie dough ball on the prepared cookie sheet leaving half a thumb of space between each ball.
- Slightly flatten each cookie dough ball with your hand, then use the back of a fork to mark the top – optional, but it looks lovely!
- Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until the top is just golden brown. Don't overbake, or the cookies will be dry.
- Cool down on the cookie sheet for 10 minutes. The cookies are quite soft, and that's what you want to make soft melt in your mouth shortbread.
- Gently transfer to a wire rack to fully cool down – about 30 minutes.
Decoration
- To decorate with chocolate (optional), melt 1/2 cup sugar-free chocolate chips with one teaspoon coconut oil and dip half the cookies in the melted chocolate.
- Place the dipped cookies onto a plate covered with lightly oiled parchment paper.
- Pop the plate in the fridge for 15 minutes to set the chocolate shell quickly.
Storage
- Store the cookie for up to 1 week in the fridge or at room temperature for 2-3 days in a sealed cookie jar.
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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These are super easy and delicious. Will try with flax or chia eggs next time
What would happen if I used regular monkfruit sugar instead of powered?
It should work too, it might turn the cookies crispier, less soft and melt in your mouth as per written.
I’d like to try this recipe but butter Is dairy and I’m lactose free. Do you know what alternative I can us?
You can use dairy-free butter or vegan butter, it works perfectly!
So easy and love that ingredients are ‘normal’. So often put off recipes by all the obscure ingredients I would have to buy.
Is there a way to make these with monk fruit powder or Stevia? I can’t have erythritol. The look so good!
No, you need a crystal sweetener of some sort. If you can’t have erythritol, you can try allulose.
Great recipe! So easy and yummy. I am vegan and used vegan butter in place of regular butter and Bob’s redmill egg replacer (the only egg replacer that I’ve found to actual work well in baking) and had great results!
I make cookies similar to these + I add carob chips to mine. Whenever I make these cookies I make a huge amount for one women. I love baking with coconut flour too.
Can you freeze these?
Hi, I’ll definitely try this recipe this weekend, I’m making them for my bf, and even though he’s craving something sweet, he’s never been a super fan of sugar, so I was wondering, can I reduce the sweetener used to ¼ cup?
And also, instead of vanilla, can I use orange extract or almond extract to give a little variation?
Thanks
You can use any extract you want to give these a different flavor, but if you were to reduce the quantity of sweetener, the texture would be off.
The best option to reduce the sweetness is to use pure erythritol (not a stevia/erythritol blend). It’s slightly less sweet than sugar for the same volume.
Yes, sure freeze in zip bags and thaw at room temperature the day before.
I haven’t made the recipe yet but I thought all shortbread cookies were supposed to be crispy and flakey. I want to make sure they’re crispy before I try them.
Most shortbread cookies are as you descirbed but some varieties are soft. This is a soft shortbread cookie recipe. For crunchy cookies, maybe try my keto sugar cookie recipe instead.
I look so forward to making these! I love all of your recipes,thank you for them!
Can flax eggs be substituted? Would that work?
Unfortunately, no flax eggs won’t work here you need eggs.
Hi! really looking forward to making these! I was wondering if I could add some cocoa powder to make some chocolate cookies in addition! I’m not sure how much extra sweetener or how much cocoa powder would be needed though
Probably but you will have to reduce the coconut flour or they will be very dry. I didn’t try so I am not sure how much, enjoy
Can you use coconut oil or vegan butter in this recipe? Thanks.
Sure
Could you just use powdered sugar as the sweetener? Also do these freeze well?
Yes but it won’t be sugar free anymore unless you are using a sugar-free powdered sweetener. They freeze for up to 3 months in zip bags, thaw the day before at room temp.Enjoy!
Deserves a five stars. However please check your coconut flour, it says half a cup? I used about 2 cups to get it to form a dough. I also switched off the oven afterwards and when almost cool popped the biscuits in for a while to crisp. Came out amazing! Thank you!
I am glad you love them but I am not sure how you could have use 2 cups of coconut flour for this ratio of liquid! I made this recipe probably 10 times and I can assure that 1/2 cup is what you need, the dough should be soft, wet and not dry or crumbly.
I think the problem with mine and using the larger amount of coconut “flour” could be that I milled desiccated coconut to make coconut flour? Thanks for replying. I will try next with store bought coconut flour. Awesome cookies!!
Well, that explain why! Coconut flour is not made from grounded desiccated coconut. In coconut flour, the fat has been removed which make it super dry and highly liquid absorbent
I love these cookies. Thank you so much. You make a difference.
Thank you so much for this lovely feedback! I am so happy to read it. Enjoy the recipe on the blog, XOXO Carine
I love receiving your recipes. They all look so good and don’t require unusual ingredients or impossible skills. Thanks! Going to make these shortbread cookies.