The Best Cut-Out Sugar Cookies – Plus, they are Keto, Paleo, Low Carb and Gluten-Free!

I’ve been looking for a Healthy Sugar Cookie recipe for a long time. I mean, a very long time! Growing up, my brothers and I would always spend the days leading up to holidays making and decorating sugar cookies with our mom – and loved every minute. From Christmas to Easter and even Halloween, there was always a fun cookie shape that the sugary, buttery dough my mom would make could be rolled into.

Well fast-forward 20-years and although I love the idea of making my own cookie shapes with my kids, I don’t love the ingredients that are generally in them. White flour – no. Butter – no. Sugar – no. I guess I could just “roll out”… eggs?? Haha. No!

Well after messing around with several different recipes, I finally did it! I came up with a dough that not only tastes like the traditional sugar cookies my mom used to make us, it rolls out like a charm (the issue I’ve had with other doughs I’ve made), and doesn’t contain any of the ingredients listed above. A win-win for sure!

So you’re probably wondering, how do you make a sugar cookie without sugar and without butter – since these are the staple ingredients and all?! Especially one that tastes good!? Well, let me show you!

INGREDIENTS:

Cookies:

2 cups Almond Flour
¼ cup Coconut Flour
½ tsp Baking Powder
½ tsp Baking Soda
¼ tsp Salt
1/3 cup butter substitute, softened (I used MELT Vegan Butter – which is definitely one of my favorites!)
½ cup Granulated Erythritol (I use Anthony’s, but here are some other suggestions on Amazon as well)*
2 large Eggs
½ tsp Vanilla Extract

Icing:

¼ cup Butter Substitute, softened (again, I used MELT)
¾ cup Powdered Erythritol* (I just stuck my Granulated Erythritol in a spice grinder until it turned to powder – about 1 minute or so)
½ tsp Vanilla
5 drops (or more) Natural Red Food Coloring (I use Watkins, although here are several brands to choose from on Amazon)

DIRECTIONS:

For the cookies: in a medium bowl, whisk together the Almond Flour, Coconut Flour, Baking Powder, Baking Soda and Salt.
In a large bowl, beat together the MELT Vegan Butter (or butter substitute of choice) and Erythritol until creamy.
Beat in the Egg and Vanilla Extract, and then beat in the dry Almond Flour mixture until the dough comes together.
Turn out dough onto a large piece of parchment paper. Pat into a rough circle and then top with another piece of parchment. Freeze for 60 minutes or so. This isn’t a mandatory step, but will make the dough easier to work with when rolling it out.
Take the dough out of the freezer and roll out to about 1/3-inch thickness. If you want crispier cookies, roll out to ¼-inch thick.
Preheat oven to 325F and line another baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone liner.
Using the shaped cookie cutters of choice, cut out cookies and lift carefully with a small spatula or knife, placing them about a ½-inch apart on the prepared baking sheet.
Re-roll your dough and cut out more cookies. (If the dough gets too soft to work with, you can always put it back in the freezer to harden up for a bit).
Bake cookies for 12 to 14 minutes, or until they are just starting to brown around the edges. However, if you like crispier cookies, cook them another couple of minutes, or until they start to brown all over.
Remove from oven and let them slightly cool on pan before moving them to a cooling rack.
For the icing: beat together MELT and Powdered Erythritol. Stir in vanilla and food coloring. Spread on cooled cookies.

Enjoy!

NOTES:

*If you don’t like Erythritol, feel free to substitute with another sweetener of choice. You can try Xylitol, Stevia for Baking, or something similar. You can also use Coconut Sugar or Organic White Sugar, but those will obviously add sugar grams to the recipe – and then these cookies will no longer be #keto and #sugarfree.