These Keto Gingerbread Cookies are fantastic - spicy, easy to work with, & no spread. Great for decorating with my sugar free royal icing!
We have more low carb cookies on hand than we’ll ever know what to do with, but such is the life of a recipe developer, I guess!
I am so excited to finally be able to share this keto gingerbread cookie recipe with you!
Developing sugar-free gingerbread cookies was no problem at all - I started these holiday cookies out as pumped up version of my Pumpkin Spice Cookies, which were already fantastic and PERFECT for decorating.
I knew that it wouldn’t be hard to develop a recipe for chewy gingerbread cookies (my fav!), that tasted and worked just like traditional gingerbread cookies.
Not for the cookies themselves, but for the Sugar Free Royal Icing they needed.
Once I had THAT all worked up, we were *golden*.
These might just be my favorite cookies of the season: perfectly spicy (I use a homemade gingerbread spice mix), with a great soft texture.
The dough is a dream to work with, and bakes up with little to no spread.
This delicious recipe is definitely one to get you in the holiday spirit, gotta say!
So, put on your favourite Christmas music, check out my Decorating Sugar Cookies tutorial, and have some fun with it!
The Nutritional Data
These low-carb cookies are the perfect sweet treat for anyone low carbing, and are even keto diet friendly.
As with all of my keto recipes, I look at the grams of net carbs:
In this case, 6 grams of carbs per cookie come from sugar alcohols. Add that to the 1 gram of fiber per cookie, and you're left with 2 g net carbs per cookie.
(Note: My Keto Royal Icing is essentially 0 net carbs, with only a fraction of a carb coming from the egg white in them!)
My husband isn’t on any kind of a low carb diet at all, and loves these. He says:
“I love the texture, it’s softish and satisfying, I definitely wouldn’t have known they were keto without you telling me.
They’re a little different from the regular ones I’m used to, a little softer - but they’re fantastic!
It’s nice to be able to make a single batch of cookies for when we’re both decorating the Christmas tree or whatever, and BOTH be able to enjoy them!
Anyway, let’s get to it!
Ingredients
If you’ve done any of my low-carb recipes for baked goods, you’ll find the low carb ingredients in this gingerbread cookies recipe to be pretty familiar.
It’s a pretty easy recipe, and most of these low-carb ingredients should be easy to find in any grocery store.
As always, I have some notes for you:
The “Flour” Mixture
Flour is the main ingredient in any gingerbread cookies recipe, and I use a few different ingredients to most closely mimic wheat flour, in all of my cookie recipes.
When it comes to cookies, this mixture involves:
Super Fine Almond Flour
Vanilla Flavored Whey Protein Powder
Coconut Flour
Xanthan Gum
It works SO well, and tastes great. I recommend it for all of my baking, as well as for it’s intended use. All-around, it’s a fantastic protein powder.
If you can’t get your hands on it, feel free to use any vanilla protein powder that you like - “LIKE” is important.
If you don’t enjoy drinking it, don’t use it in your baking!
Keto Sweeteners
This recipe uses a brown sugar substitute, as that brown sugar flavor is the closest we can get to replacing the blackstrap molasses that tend to be used in traditional gingerbread cookie recipes.
There are 2 different ways that you can go with sweetening your cookies, both of which will have little to no impact on blood sugar.
If you like to use an erythritol and monk fruit sweetener, you can sometimes find it as a brown sweetener. When I was still using erythritol, I used Swerve Brown Sugar Substitute.
Several months ago, I switched over to allulose - I like that it doesn’t crystallize, and doesn’t give the “cooling” sensation in the mouth, that erythritol does.
So, I use Brown Allulose in this recipe.
The big thing you need to know is that allulose isn’t quite as sweet as erythritol blends, so you need to use slightly different amounts.
For this recipe, you’ll use 1 cup if Swerve, and 1 ¼ cups if Brown Allulose .
Brown Food Coloring
This one is optional, but nice.
I’m a bit fussy over how things “should” be, and the lack of molasses in this recipe means that the gingerbread cookies it turns out are a bit more pale than their traditional counterparts.
So, I’ll add just the smallest drop of brown Gel Food Coloring to the wet ingredients mixture.
Don’t overdo it - just a little will make the dough *look* like it *tastes*!
Everything Else
Rounding out this recipe, you will need:
Unsalted Butter
Large Eggs
Pure Vanilla Extract
Allspice
Cinnamon
Ground Cloves
Ground Ginger
Baking Powder
Salt
... I just don’t have anything to add, for these last few ingredients!
Equipment
You don’t need any super specialized equipment to make this recipe, but a few niceties go a long way to making the BEST keto gingerbread cookies.
First off, you’ll need a rolling pin.
I LOVE using my Rolling pin with adjustable thickness guides.
The guides make it super easy to specify how thick you want to roll your dough out, then rolling it out to an even, accurate thickness is a cinch!
It came with a silicone mat, so cleaning up after is super easy. All around - highly recommend it!
When it comes to decorating, you’ll want at least one piping bag.
I like to keep a pack of Large Pastry Bags on hand - it comes in useful for so many things.
Not only are they great for Decorating Gingerbread Cookies , I use them for things like filling mini bundt pans with keto cake batter, getting the filling into my Armadillo Eggs and Smoked Jalapeno Poppers, etc.
How to Make Keto Gingerbread Cookies
The entire recipe - including exact measurements - is in the recipe card at the end of this post. This is the visual walk through:
In a medium bowl, whisk together all dry ingredients (except brown sugar substitute) until well combined, set aside.
Be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl a few times, to make sure everything is incorporated into the mix.
Add the eggs and vanilla extract to the mix, beating well to combine.
If you want to add a really small amount of brown food colouring, do so now. It’s totally optional, and just makes up for some of the brown you lose, by not using molasses.
With mixer turned down to low speed, slowly add dry ingredients mix to the mixing bowl of wet ingredients, and carefully mix until well incorporated and smooth.
Wrap gingerbread dough ball in plastic wrap, chill for 1 hour. This is an important step for any gluten free cookie dough, don’t skip it!
Lightly dust work surface with a little more protein powder, roll dough out to about ¼ inch thickness (can be slightly thicker).
Use a cookie cutter to cut out whatever shapes you’d like, place cookies 2″ apart on prepared cookie sheets.
Cover each baking sheet and chill for 30 minutes.
Bake cookies in the preheated oven for 8-10 minutes, or until golden brown on the bottom. Keep an eye on them - smaller cookies will be done faster than larger ones will be.
As they come out of the oven, transfer each cookie sheet to a wire rack to start cooling. After 5 minutes, cookies can be removed from the pan and allowed to cool on their own.
Gently press down, only enough to level them.
Gently pressing the hot cookies with a pan results in perfectly flat cookies - the best to decorate!
A freezer bag works well for undecorated gingerbread men cookies, but once decorated, they should be stored in a single layer, to keep the decorating intact.
Decorating Keto Gingerbread Cookies
These low carb gingerbread cookies can be decorated using my Sugar Free Royal Icing - essentially a 0 net carb recipe!
While the frosting works a little differently than my traditional, full-sugar royal icing, the principles are the same.
Read the recipe post for the basics, then check out my Decorating Sugar Cookies tutorial for more information on decorating!
More Keto Cookie Recipes
Looking to indulge your sweet tooth in a way that won’t spike your blood sugar? Here are some delicious recipes for low carb cookies to try!
Apple Pie Cookies
Biscotti
Candy Cane Cookies
Chewy Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Chocolate Protein Cookies
Ladyfingers
Lemon Cookies
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Peanut Butter Pecan Chocolate Chip Cookies
Pecan Pie Cookies
Pumpkin Spice Cookies
Red Velvet Cookies
Rolled Sugar Cookies
Snickerdoodles
Soft Peanut Butter Cookies
Sugar Free Royal Icing
Triple Chocolate Cookies
Witch Finger Cookies
... but wait, there's more! We have a whole keto desserts section: Keto Dessert Recipes! Check it out!
Share the Love!
Before you chow down, be sure to take some pics of your handiwork! If you post it to Bluesky, be sure to tag us - @CelebrationGen. We're also on Pinterest, so you can save all your favourite recipes to a board!
Also, be sure to subscribe to my free email newsletter, so you never miss out on any of my nonsense. Well, the published nonsense, anyway!
... and hey, if you love the recipe, please consider leaving a star rating and comment! (Sharing the post on social media is always appreciated, too!)
Keto Gingerbread Cookies - Gluten Free, No Spread!
Equipment
- 2 large baking sheets
- Parchment paper
Ingredients
- 1 cup Superfine Almond Flour
- 1 cup Vanilla Whey Protein Powder
- ⅓ cup Coconut Flour
- 1 tablespoon Ground Ginger
- 2 teaspoon Cinnamon
- 2 teaspoon Xanthan Gum
- ½ teaspoon Baking Powder
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- ¼ teaspoon Allspice
- ¼ teaspoon Ground Cloves
- ½ cup Unsalted Butter softened
- 1 cup Brown Sugar Substitute packed. Use 1 ¼ cups if using brown allulose.
- 2 Large Eggs
- 2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- Brown food colouring optional
- Sugar Free Royal Icing
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, whisk together all dry ingredients (except brown sugar substitute) until well combined, set aside.
- In a separate bowl - the bowl of a stand mixer fixed with a paddle attachment, or a large bowl, if using a hand mixer - cream butter and brown sugar substitute until smooth and fluffy.
- Be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl a few times, to make sure everything is incorporated into the mix.
- Add the eggs and vanilla extract to the mix, beating well to combine.
- If you want to add a really small amount of brown food colouring, do so now. It’s totally optional, and just makes up for some of the brown you lose, by not using molasses.
- With mixer turned down to low speed, slowly add dry ingredients mix to the mixing bowl of wet ingredients, and carefully mix until well incorporated and smooth.
- Wrap gingerbread dough ball in plastic film, chill for 1 hour. This is an important step for any gluten free cookie dough, don’t skip it!
- Line 2 cookie sheets with pieces of parchment paper.
- Lightly dust work surface with a little more protein powder, roll dough out to about ¼ inch thickness (can be slightly thicker).
- Use a cookie cutter to cut out whatever shapes you’d like, place cookies 2″ apart on prepared cookie sheets.
- Cover each baking sheet and chill for 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 350 F.
- Bake cookies in the preheated oven for 8-10 minutes, or until golden brown on the bottom. Keep an eye on them - smaller cookies will be done faster than larger ones will be.
- As they come out of the oven, transfer each cookie sheet to a cooling rack. After 5 minutes, cookies can be removed from the pan and allowed to cool on their own.
- Note: The secret to perfectly flat cookies for decorating is to place a clean baking sheet over the pan of freshly baked cookies, as soon as they’re taken from the oven. Gently press down, only enough to level them.
Notes
Nutrition
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