keto gingerbread cookies feature
Christmas, Desserts, Holidays, Low Carb

Keto Gingerbread Cookies

Welcome the Christmas season with these Keto Gingerbread Cookies!

Baking sheet with decorated keto gingerbread cookies.

It isn’t Christmas in my home without gingerbread cookies. I LOVE gingerbread with all it’s gingery-cinnamony-sweetness. This year I have taken my favourite recipe and turned it into these Keto Gingerbread Cookies!

I am so pumped about these cookies, not only so that I can eat as many little men as I please, but my Little Ladies can as well! Christmas is always filled with so much sugar, what better way to break it up than with these sugar free gingerbread cookies? I hope you and your kids love them as much as we do!

Why it works

  1. Perfectly balanced spices play together to bring you keto gingerbread cookies that are as delicious as they are healthy!
  2. Have fun decorating these low carb gingerbread cookies with your kids, using an easy sugar free icing recipe.
  3. Beat the Christmas sugar rush with these tasty cookies!
Baking sheet with decorated keto gingerbread cookies.

Ingredients

Keto Gingerbread Cookies

  • almond flour
  • cinnamon
  • ground ginger
  • nutmeg
  • all spice
  • sea salt
  • baking powder
  • xanthan gum
  • unsalted butter
  • sukrin gold
  • an egg
  • blackstrap molasses or yacon syrup
  • vanilla extract

Optional Icing

  • heavy whipping cream
  • clear vanilla extract
  • powdered monk fruit / erythritol sweetener
  • optional – gel food colouring

Xanthan Gum – A magical ingredient, xanthan gum is not only used to thicken sauces, it can be used to help bind dough together like in these Keto Calzones!

Sukrin GoldSukrin Gold is a sugar free sweetener made to mimic brown sugar. It has been sweetened with erythritol and is perfect for recipes like this Low Carb BBQ Sauce and these Low Carb Baked Chicken Wings.

Blackstrap Molasses or Yacon Syrup – Gingerbread isn’t gingerbread without a touch of blackstrap molasses. In this recipe, the molasses add 0.8g net carbs per cookie, in my opinion, very worth it! For strict keto, the molasses can we swapped for yacon syrup which is a great low carb sub, or it can be skipped altogether, although the cookies would be missing the flavour and would not be as dark in colour.

Clear Vanilla Extract – For the optional icing, clear vanilla is used to either retain the pure white colour of the icing or if it is being coloured, allows the colour to be more vibrant without being diluted with the dark vanilla extract.

Powdered Monk Fruit / Erythritol Sweetener – My favourite sugar free sweetener! I like to use either Lakanto or SoNourished and always buy their granular sweeteners. All it takes is a moment or two in a clean coffee grinder to blitz the granular into powdered.

Gel Food Colouring – If you have never dyed icing or cakes with gel food colouring, I highly recommend you try it! I like this starter pack from Wilton and would never go back to regular food colouring. You only need a really tiny bit to colour your icing and the colour comes out vibrant and beautiful.

How to make Keto Gingerbread Cookies

Prepare the dough

This cookie dough needs to rest in the refrigerator for several hours, it’s best left overnight, so be sure to leave yourself enough time.

Add almond flour to a medium mixing bowl and whisk to remove all of the clumps. Whisk in the cinnamon, ground ginger, nutmeg, all spice, sea salt, baking powder and xanthan gum until fully combined, then set aside.

All of the dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl.

In another medium sized mixing bowl, whip the unsalted butter using an electric beater until fluffy.

Bowl with whipped butter.

Mix in the sukrin gold until fully combined, scraping the bowl in between each addition. Beat in an egg and yes, the mixture will appear ‘broken’ which is totally normal, just continue to mix until the egg is incorporated.

Whipped butter and sweetener with an egg.

Beat in the molasses or yacon syrup and the vanilla extract.

Molasses and vanilla added to the bowl.

Fold the dry into the wet until it becomes a soft dough. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for several hour or better yet, overnight. After several hours the dough will still be a bit sticky, but after being refrigerated overnight, the dough will be much easier to work with.

Keto Gingerbread Cookies dough all ready to be chilled.

Bake the keto gingerbread cookies

When the dough has chilled long enough, heat the oven to 300° and line a baking sheet with a non stick baking mat or parchment paper.

Place the dough onto a piece of wax paper and cover with another piece of wax paper. Roll out the dough until it is roughly 1/4″ thick. Cut out shapes using a cookie cutter, remove the extra dough from around the cookies and place it back in the fridge to keep it cool.

Rolled out keto gingerbread cookies dough with men shapes cut into it.

Use an offset spatula to move the cookies to the baking sheet, being sure to leave room in between for spreading during baking.

6 raw cookies all ready to be baked.

Bake in the preheated oven for 7-10 minutes, depending on their thickness, until the bottoms have browned a little bit. Allow the keto gingerbread cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before carefully transferring to a cooling rack.

Continue to roll out the dough and cut more cookies, always being sure to keep the dough in the fridge in between batches, until all of the dough has been used up. You should get about 16 cookies. Allow the cookies to fully cool before decorating.

Baking sheet full of cooling low carb gingerbread cookies.

Optional decorating

In a small bowl combine the heavy whipping cream and clear vanilla extract. If you wish to dye your icing a colour, now is the time to mix in a little gel food colouring of choice. Once fully combined, mix in the powdered sweetener, a little bit at a time, until the desired consistency has been reached, about 1/4 cup.

Scrape into a piping bag with a small tip, or use a disposable piping bag and cut a little hole at the end. Decorate as you wish!

Allow the icing to set for a few hours to dry before stacking these keto gingerbread cookies.. we don’t want squished faces, do we?

baking sheet with decorated gingerbread men.

Expert Tips

  1. The dough needs to be refrigerated for so long because the butter needs to harden once again after being warmed and worked. Giving the cookie dough time to rest also allows the flavours in the dough to build.
  2. This dough is perfect after resting overnight in the refrigerator, but will be very sticky until then. If you are in a hurry and only have a few hours, try freezing the dough for a couple of hours or so, and then roll the dough directly onto parchment paper. Cut the cookies, remove the extra dough and then slide the parchment onto the baking sheet to bake. This way you will not have to try to move the formed cookies.
  3. Keep the extra dough in the fridge while shaping and baking the cookies so that it does not warm up. If the dough warms up too much, it can be placed in the freezer for a quick cool down.
  4. These low carb gingerbread cookies are very delicate right from the oven. Be careful with them until they have fully cooled and become firm.
  5. Store these Keto Gingerbread Cookies at room temperature for a few days or if you would like to keep them longer, they will last for a few months in the freezer.

Here are some other low carb sweets you might like:

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keto gingerbread cookies feature

Keto Gingerbread Cookies

Bring in the Christmas season with these Keto Gingerbread Cookies, packed with spice and everything nice, and decorate them with an easy sugar free icing!
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 40 minutes
Course Dessert, Snack
Cuisine Canadian, Low Carb
Servings 16 cookies
Calories 146 kcal

Ingredients
  

Keto Gingerbread Cookies

  • 2 cups almond flour
  • 1 tbsp cinnamon
  • 1 tsp ground ginger
  • ¼ tsp nutmeg
  • ½ tsp all spice
  • ¼ tsp sea salt
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • ½ tsp xanthan gum
  • ½ cup unsalted butter
  • ½ cup sukrin gold sweetener
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tbsp blackstrap molasses or yacon syrup
  • ½ tsp vanilla extract

Optional Icing

  • 1 tbsp heavy whipping cream
  • tsp clear vanilla extract
  • ¼ cup powdered monk fruit / erythritol sweetener

Instructions
 

  • See the notes section below for expert tips and ingredient notes before you begin.
    This cookie dough needs to rest in the refrigerator for several hours, it's best left overnight, so be sure to leave yourself enough time.

Prepare the dough

  • Add almond flour to a medium mixing bowl and whisk to remove all of the clumps. Whisk in the cinnamon, ground ginger, nutmeg, all spice, sea salt, baking powder and xanthan gum until fully combined, then set aside.
  • In another medium sized mixing bowl, whip the unsalted butter using an electric beater until fluffy. Mix in the sukrin gold until fully combined, scraping the bowl in between each addition. Beat in an egg and yes, the mixture will appear 'broken' which is totally normal, just continue to mix until the egg is incorporated.
  • Beat in the molasses or yacon syrup and the vanilla extract. Fold the dry into the wet until it becomes a soft dough. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for several hour or better yet, overnight.

Bake the keto gingerbread cookies

  • When the dough has chilled long enough, heat the oven to 300° and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a non stick baking mat.
  • Place the dough onto a piece of wax paper and cover with another piece of wax paper. Roll out the dough until it is roughly 1/4" thick. Cut out shapes using a cookie cutter, remove the extra dough from around the cookies and place it back in the fridge to keep it cool. Use an offset spatula to move the cookies to the baking sheet, being sure to leave room in between for spreading during baking.
  • Bake in the preheated oven for 7-10 minutes, depending on the size and thickness of each cookie, until the bottoms have browned a little bit. Allow the keto gingerbread cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.
  • Continue to roll out the dough and cut more cookies, always being sure to keep the dough in the fridge in between batches, until all of the dough has been used up. You should get about 16 cookies. Allow the cookies to fully cool before decorating.

Optional Icing

  • In a small bowl combine the heavy whipping cream and clear vanilla extract. If you wish to dye your icing a colour, now is the time to mix in a little gel food colouring of choice. Once fully combined, mix in the powdered sweetener, a little bit at a time, until the desired consistency has been reached, about 1/4 cup.
  • Scrape into a piping bag with a small tip, or use a disposable piping bag and cut a little hole at the end. Decorate as you wish! Allow the icing to set for a few hours to dry before stacking these keto gingerbread cookies.. we don't want squished faces, do we?

Notes

Expert Tips

  1. The dough needs to be refrigerated for so long because the butter needs to harden once again after being warmed and worked. Giving the cookie dough time to rest also allows the flavours in the dough to build.
  2. This dough is perfect after resting overnight in the refrigerator, but will be very sticky until then. If you are in a hurry and only have a few hours, try freezing the dough for a couple of hours or so, and then roll the dough directly onto parchment paper. Cut the cookies, remove the extra dough and then slide the parchment onto the baking sheet to bake. This way you will not have to try to move the formed cookies.
  3. Keep the extra dough in the fridge while shaping and baking the cookies so that it does not warm up. If the dough warms up too much, it can be placed in the freezer for a quick cool.
  4. These low carb gingerbread cookies are very delicate right from the oven. Be careful with them until they have fully cooled and become firm.
  5. Store these Keto Gingerbread Cookies at room temperature for a few days or if you would like to keep them longer, they will last for a few months in the freezer.

Ingredient Notes

  • Sukrin Gold – Sukrin Gold is a sugar free sweetener made to mimic brown sugar. It has been sweetened with erythritol and is perfect for these keto gingerbread cookies.
  • Blackstrap Molasses or Yacon Syrup – Gingerbread isn’t gingerbread without a touch of blackstrap molasses. In this recipe, the molasses adds 0.8 g net carbs per cookie. For strict keto, the molasses can we swapped for yacon syrup which is a great low carb sub, or it can be skipped altogether, although the cookies would be missing the flavour and would not be as dark in colour.
  • Clear Vanilla Extract – For optional icing, clear vanilla is used to either retain the pure white colour of the icing or if it is being coloured, allows the colour to be more vibrant without being diluted with the dark vanilla extract.
  • Powdered Monk Fruit / Erythritol Sweetener – My favourite sugar free sweetener! I like to use either Lakanto or SoNourished and always buy their granular sweeteners. All it takes is a moment or two in a clean coffee grinder to blitz the granular into powdered.
  • Gel Food Colouring – If you have never dyed icing or cakes with gel food colouring, I highly recommend you try it! I like this starter pack from Wilton and would never go back to regular food colouring. You only need a really tiny bit to colour your icing and the colour comes out vibrant and beautiful.
 

Nutrition Facts

Nutrition facts are an estimate only! The ingredients you choose could have different nutritional values than the ingredients I have used.  
 * Net carb count excludes both fibre and sugar alcohols, because these do not affect blood sugar in most people.
Deduct fibre ( 1.9g ) and sugar alcohols ( 3g ) from the total carbs to get 2.1 g net carbs per cookie.

Nutrition

Serving: 1cookieCalories: 146kcalCarbohydrates: 7gProtein: 3.5gFat: 13.8gSodium: 42mgFiber: 1.9g
Keyword keto gingerbread cookies, low carb gingerbread cookies
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

4 thoughts on “Keto Gingerbread Cookies

  1. 5 stars
    All the healthy flour and the awesome flavors makes these Keto Gingerbread surely delicious . Best gifting option for the festive season too. Cute and Creative.

  2. georgie says:

    5 stars
    these look phenomenal! I can’t believe they’re keto too, what a fantastic recipe! I love that I can still have my favourites but in a healthier version too!

    1. Aleta says:

      Thanks Georgie!

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