Keto Chocolate Chip Cookies

Generally speaking, I have no problem sticking to my keto lifestyle.

I eat “clean” as much as possible, and indulge my sweet tooth with the odd low-carb dessert as necessary.

Getting into keto baking has meant some freedom in this sense - I’ve come up with Keto Raspberry Coconut Bars, for instance. Tastes and feels just like the real thing, so I don’t feel like my taste buds are missing out on anything.

One thing that’s eluded me?

A traditional chocolate chip cookie.

Such a simple thing, but I was pretty much stuck buying low carb chocolate chip cookies. The Quest Chocolate Chip Protein Cookies - or their Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies - are decent... but they’re also around $4 each, locally.

So, I recently decided that enough was enough, ad I was going to develop a recipe for the BEST keto chocolate chip cookies.

The first time started with an almond flour and protein iisolate base, and they turned out pretty good!

Check it out:

It needed a bit of tinkering - I wanted more protein and a better texture.

After a few tries, I came up with this great recipe - it’s nut free, gluten free, fairly high in protein, doesn’t have anything weird in it (unlike those premade cookies).

Also?

They look at taste LEGIT. These do not feel like a “diet cookie”, or “decent for a sugar free / gluten free” cookie.

These register as just a normal cookie - think like a lower end grocery store brand chocolate chip cookie.

TOTALLY acceptable in general, and WILDLYgood when we’re talking about something so specialized.

Oh, and now that I’ve figured some things out, expect more keto cookie recipes to come!

I’ve already perfected a Keto Chocolate-Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe and a peanut butter cookie recipe.

Keto snickerdoodle cookies are still being worked on, but I digress..

Nutritional Breakdown

While many keto recipes for cookies end up being either peanut butter based - or done as almond flour chocolate chip cookies - I wanted to skip the nuts in this particular recipe.

Not only does this make the recipe more inclusive for those with food allergies, it’s also a texture issue. I don’t find that almond flour gives a great texture to cookies like this.

When developing these low carb cookies, the goals were to keep them under 4 grams of net carbs per cookie, and have a decent amount of protein in them.

In the end, I definitely hit my target for the carbs:

Not counting the chocolate chips (which vary wildly in terms of stats), these cookies worked out to 11 grams of carbs.

Of that, 1 gram of fiber, and 8.5 grams of sugar alcohol come from sugar alcohols, for a total of 1.5 g net carbs per large cookie.

Depending on the brand of chocolate chips used, they’ll usually add 1 net gram of carbs per cookie. (You’ll have about 1 tablespoon of chocolate chips per cookie.)

Perfect for anyone following a low carb diet - even those on a keto diet!

Beyond the carb count, you’re looking at 9 g protein in each gluten free cookie!

Could I have gone higher on the protein and fiber?

Maybe... if I was willing and able to have things like “soluable corn fiber” and “calcium caseniate” as ingredients... or was willing to take a hit on taste or texture.

... nah. These are a good cookie as-is.

Maybe a little TOO good - the pass for regular chocolate chip cookies, which makes them susceptible to theft! LOL.

Ingredients

This keto chocolate chip cookies recipe uses some fairly simple ingredients, most of which can be found at any grocery store.

Depending on your local shops, you may need to order an ingredient or two online. A few notes:

Sugar Substitutes

This recipe uses 2 different products - one as a substitute for regular sugar, and one as a substitute for brown sugar.

In general, I like to use an Erythritol / Monkfruit Blend Sweetener blend, as it tastes - and has a better mouth feel - than pure erythritol.

For the brown sugar sub, I use Swerve Brown Sugar Substitute.

The “Flour” Mix

Rather than using an almond meal / almond flour mixture for this, I use Unflavoured Whey Protein Isolate to take the place of most of the wheat flour that would normally be used to make cookies.

Be sure to use “whey protein isolate”, specifically, as just “whey protein” can mean wildly different things, formula wise. Isolate behaves more like regular flour / all purpose flour than most varieties of “whey protein” do.

I also use Coconut Flour and a small amount of Xanthan Gum, to give it a good texture.

Sugar-Free Chocolate Chips

There are several brands of sugar free chocolate chips on the market.

Personally, I tend to go with Lily's Chocolate Chips, which are available as both Dark Chocolate Chips and Milk Chocolate Chips.

I like this brand because it’s sweetened with stevia, rather than maltitol (As Hershey's Sugar Free Chocolate Chips are.)

Maltitol can negatively impact blood sugar levels, so I try to avoid it whenever possible.

Milk

You can use whatever milk you like.

I use unsweetened almond milk, as it’s what we have on hand. To keep these cookies nut free, you can use dairy milk, soy milk, coconut milk, etc - whatever works for you!

Everything Else

Rounding out this recipe, you’ll need:

Unsalted butter
Large eggs
Vanilla extract
Baking soda
Baking powder
Salt
Xanthan gum

... I just don’t have anything else to say about these ingredients 🙂

How to Make Keto Chocolate Chip Cookies

The full recipe is in the recipe card at the end of this post, this is a pictorial walk through of the techniques!

In stand mixer - or in a large mixing bowl with a hand mixer- cream butter and sugar substitutes until fluffy.

Add eggs, milk, and vanilla, beat until everything is fully incorporated and smooth-ish.

In a separate bowl, mix together remaining ingredients - except chocolate chips.

Slowly add this dry ingredients mix to the mixing bowl of wet ingredients, and carefully mix until well incorporated and smooth.

Fold in the chocolate chips until well combined. Cover cookie dough and let rest at room temperature for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 375F (190 C), line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper.

Roll ~ 1 ½" balls out of the cookie dough, or use an ice cream scoop/cookie scoop. You want to get 16 cookies from the batch.

Arrange dough balls on baking sheet leaving at least 2" between cookies - they flatten out a fair amount.

Gently press the tops of each slightly - flatten JUST enough to prevent the dough from rolling around on the cookie sheet.

Bake for 10-12 minutes. Cookies will look puffy, but flatten out as they cool. For best results, do not over bake!

Note: For soft centers and a chewy texture, don’t flatten the cookies much, and bake just until browned on the underside.

Allow cookies to cool for 2 minutes before removing from baking sheets - you can put the cookie sheets on a wire rack if you have one.

Cool cookies completely before storing in an airtight container. These cookies will keep at room temperature for about a week.

More Low Carb Cookie Recipes

Looking to indulge your sweet tooth in a way that won’t spike your blood sugar? Here are some more recipes for keto desserts to try!

Apple Pie Cookies
Biscotti
Candy Cane Cookies
Chewy Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies
Chocolate Protein Cookies
Cowboy Cookies
Gingerbread Cookies
Ladyfingers
Lemon Cookies
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Peanut Butter Pecan Chocolate Chip Cookies
Pecan Pie Cookies
Pumpkin Spice Cookies
Raspberry Chocolate Thumbprint 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!

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