Sugar Free Lemon Cookies
These Soft Sugar Free Lemon Cookies are low carb and made with almond flour and fresh lemon zest. This is the best quick and easy recipe for healthy, gluten-free cookies.
Servings 12 cookies
Calories 190kcal
Ingredients
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter Softened
- 1/3 cup sweetener
- 1 egg
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice See notes
- 2 tablespoons lemon zest
- 2 1/2 cups blanched almond flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Cream the butter and sweetener in a mixing bowl using a stand or hand mixer on medium speed for about 2 minutes.
- Add the egg, lemon zest, and lemon juice. Use the mixer and blend on low for 30 seconds. And then blend on medium for a couple of minutes or until light and fluffy, scraping down bowl.
- Add in half of the almond flour and beat.
- Add in the remaining almond flour, salt, and baking soda. Beat.
- Line a sheet pan or cookie sheet with a silicone baking mat. This will prevent the cookies from over-browning.
- Form balls with the dough (I measured 1 1/2 -2 tablespoons for each) or use a cookie scoop. Flatten the top with your hands or with a spoon. Using a cookie scoop will result in more, smaller cookies.
- Bake for 8-12 minutes or until golden brown. When checking in on the cookies they should look really soft, but golden at the edges and on the bottom when ready. They will harden up as they cool. You don't want them to look firm in the oven. That will result in burnt cookies. Mine were ready right at 10 minutes.
- Remove the cookies and cool on the silicone baking mat and cookie sheet for 5 minutes before moving them to a cooling rack. This is important. If you move the cookies too soon, they will crumble. Give them a chance to firm up.
- Cool on the cooling rack before serving.
Video
Notes
- You should use blanched almond flour (superfine) in the recipe. If you don't the cookies will be dry. You buy blanched almond flour.
- You will likely need at least 2 lemons, unless you use a really large one. I keep a few on hand just in case.
- I don't use store-bought lemon juice. There's an obvious difference in taste and quality.
- You can also use less lemon juice and lemon zest and add lemon extract for flavor. This is pretty common. I prefer to use the flavor from just the fruit. If using lemon extract, use 1 tablespoon of lemon juice, 1 tablespoon of lemon zest, and 1/2 to 1 tablespoon of lemon extract.
- Using the amount recommended in the recipe will result in a medium dose of lemon flavor, which is what I prefer. If you want really bold lemon flavor, you may want to use lemon extract in addition to fresh juice and zest.
- I prefer large cookies and measure them with 1 1/2 tablespoons -2 tablespoons of dough per cookie. I don't use a cookie scoop.
- You cannot substitute baking powder for baking soda.
- You cannot substitute coconut flour. If you would like to use coconut flour, I recommend finding a recipe that uses it.
- Watch these closely while they are in the oven. You want it to appear as though you have under-baked the cookies at first. The cookies should never look fully baked while they are in the oven.
- Once the bottom of the cookies begin to turn brown and the cookie has taken shape and appears somewhat firm, remove the cookies from the oven. Almond flour bakes fast. If you leave the cookies in too long you will end up with burnt cookies.
-
Every oven bakes differently. I notice that items toward the back of my oven brown faster than food toward the front. Sometimes I have to rotate the positioning of sheets and pans to take this into account, otherwise, some cookies would turn out done while others were way too soft. Become familiar with how your oven bakes.
Nutrition
Serving: 1cookie | Calories: 190kcal | Carbohydrates: 2g | Protein: 6g | Fat: 18g