These are the absolute best keto sugar cookies with icing! They have a soft and chewy center with a slightly crisp edge and can be made big and soft or used to make cut-out cookies that hold their shape well.
Sprinkles, Food Coloring, And Decorations As Desired
Instructions
Cream together the softened butter and sweetener until soft and creamy, around 2 minutes.
Add the egg and mix well. Then, add in the vanilla.
Add the almond flour, coconut flour, baking powder, salt, and xanthan gum. Mix until dough comes together
Transfer to a plastic baggie or wrap in plastic wrap and place in freezer 45 minutes to an hour or the fridge for at least 2 hours, or until dough is thoroughly chilled.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
Baking Option #1:Roll the dough into Tablespoon-sized balls and place them on the baking sheet. Flatten with your palm to ¼ inch thick, keeping them at least an inch apart.Baking Option #2:Place the dough on a large piece of parchment paper and cover with plastic wrap. Use a rolling pin to roll dough around ¼ inch thick or slightly thicker. Use cookie cutters to cut out shapes then remove the excess dough. Carefully transfer the cookies to a parchment-lined baking sheet, placing them about 1 to 2 inches apart. If the dough starts to warm up and gets hard to work with, pop it in the freezer for 5 to 10 minutes to firm up. Any cookie dough you tore away from the cutout, you can form a ball with it and roll out again to make more cookies.
Bake 8-11 minutes, or until the edge of the cookies just barely start to brown but still look soft in the center.
Allow to cool 5 to 10 minutes. Then, transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely. Frost using the linked buttercream frosting or icing recipe. Decorate as desired.
Icing:
*Note- This icing sets after about 12 hours, but will initially be fairly soft and is not great for intricate designs.
Using a fork, stir the sweetener, sea salt, vanilla, and 2 Tbsps of water together in a medium bowl. It will be very thick and difficult to stir. Switch to a whisk and whisk in 1 Tablespoon of water at a time until it reaches the right consistency. The icing should be smooth and creamy, yet still on the thicker side. If you lift the whisk and let the icing drizzle back into the bowl, the ribbon of icing will hold shape for a few seconds before melting back into the icing. That's you know it’s the right consistency. If it's too thick add water as needed to thin or if you get it too thin add more powdered sweetener to thicken. If not used right away, cover and keep in the fridge for up to 2 days.
See how easy this recipe is to make on my YouTube video! Watch the full video here: Sugar Cookies YouTube Video
Nutritional information includes the icing.
I personally prefer the buttercreambecause the icing is a bit too sweet for me, but use whichever you prefer!
Don't overbake! If you overbake them they will be crunchy and not soft and tender in the middle. You want to pull them out of the oven when the edges are just barely starting to brown and the center looks underbaked. They will seem very soft when you first pull them out of the oven, but they will set up nicely once they cool.
Allow the dough to rest in the fridge or freezer until thoroughly chilled. If the dough isn't chilled, it will be very hard to roll out and work with. Chilling also keeps the butter cold and prevents the cookies from spreading. If your dough starts to warm after you've rolled it a time or two, you can pop it in the freezer for just a bit to get it cold again.
Don't roll them out too thin. If you roll them out too thin they will easily over-bake and become crunchy. They need to be around ¼ inch thick, or even just a tad thicker when you roll them out to get a nice, soft, tender center.
Don't frost them until they've completely cooled. If you frost them too soon the frosting will melt off!
To bring the butter to room temperature, I love this tutorial from Sally’s Baking Addiction on how to soften butter quickly for perfectly softened butter.
For the sweetener in the icing, I recommend powdered allulose or a powdered monk fruit allulose blend because erythritol-based sweeteners tend to leave a stronger cooling-like aftertaste in frostings and they don't always fully dissolve. Keep in mind that pure allulose is 70% as sweet as other sweeteners, though, so for every 1 cup of sweetener, you'll need 1 ⅓ cups of allulose. The monk fruit allulose blend replaces the sugar cup for cup.
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If you prefer big, soft Lofthouse-style sugar cookies instead of cut-out cookies, simply leave out the xanthan gum!
As long as you don't leave out the xanthan gum, these can also be made with allulose as the sweetener. The benefit of allulose is that it has ZERO aftertaste! Just know that they are a lot softer and more delicate than the erythritol version and will not hold much of a shape.