I’m not joking when I say these are the best keto chocolate cookies I’ve ever tried (and I’ve tried a lot…job perks!). These cookies are rich, moist, and oh-so-flavourful. Plus, they happen to be gluten free, low-carb, and grain free too!
These chocolate cookies have no added sugar and are only 2.7 grams of net carbs.
These really are the easiest little best low-carb chocolate cookies to make and are just the right size to help satisfy that sweet tooth craving we sometimes have.
Can I Eat Chocolate on a Ketogenic Diet?
Yes, you can eat chocolate on a keto diet but you have to read the nutrition panel and understand which sugar replacements are keto friendly that will not raise your blood sugar.
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You need to be discerning with your chocolate – look for something that is at least 70% cocoa. The higher the better! Of course, you’ll want to watch your sugar intake too.
There are several bars available that are made with low carb approved sweeteners. But there are also plenty of sweeteners that are deceptive and need to be avoided.
Alternatively, you can indulge in recipes like these chocolate cookies that are made with pure cocoa and sweetener. No sugar, no wheat flour, just simple low carb cookies. And if you want keto desserts, I’ve got those for you too.
How To Portion Control Chocolate Cookies
My children love this keto cookie recipe so much that they named them the “best low carb chocolate cookies ever!” and hence the title.
The addition of some 90% dark chocolate really lifts them up and makes them look like a regular cookie but without the added sugar, unhealthy fats and horrendous carbs.
And with these little babies, you really can portion control yourself and stop at just 1. How many times did your cookie dough or an entire batch disappear before your eyes? It really is the perfect choice for enjoying a sweet treat but stay on track with your keto diet!
I think that is the real benefit of low carb baking and this way of eating. With carb-heavy baking, and high-sugar baking, you lose the stop signal and end up eating more and more. With low carb baking your blood sugars don’t rise, your insulin demand doesn’t rise and your appetite stays in control.
Ingredients (what to use and what to avoid)
- For the best results, use almond flour in this recipe. This chocolate cookie tastes best with that lovely, silky texture rather than a grainy almond meal. I often use ground almonds or almond meal in my baking as it is cheaper than almond flour, but I highly recommend running these coarser blends through a powerful blender or coffee grinder to make the low carb flours finer.
- Use erythritol or xylitol. They are both granulated sugar alcohols and keto friendly sweeteners and measures spoon for spoon. Monk fruit sweetener also works wonderfully. I always add a note in my low-carb and keto recipes to add sweetener to taste. Everyone is on a different part of their sugar-free journey. So what one person might taste as just right, another will taste as far too/not enough sweetness.
- Unsweetened cocoa powder – do not make the mistake of buying drinking chocolate. Always check the nutritional information to make sure there are no added sugars.
- Make sure you buy the unsweetened coconut. Desiccated unsweetened coconut
is available as shredded, flaked, thread and fine. For making these keto chocolate cookies I use shredded or fine, and keep the thread and flaked coconut for my grain-free granola.
- Get the highest percentage of chocolate you can. My favourite chocolate, without a doubt, is Lindt 90% Cocoa. If you can’t find this in your local store, use the highest % of cacao you can find.
- Use softened, not melted butter. Simply leave it at room temperature for several hours. I prefer to use salted butter. If you are dairy free, you may wish to use coconut oil. However, you may need to add extra vanilla extract or a pinch of salt to replace the buttery flavor.
How to make sugar free cookie dough
How to make the cookie dough is simple. In a small bowl, cream the butter with your chosen sweetener and unsweetened cocoa powder. This butter mixture is what makes the cookies so soft.
Next, add your dry ingredients and mix well. Roll small balls of dough between your hands and place them on your prepared baking sheet. Press down with a fork to make homemade traditional cookie marks.
Decorating Keto-Friendly Cookies
The best part about this keto chocolate cookies recipe is that you can decorate them any way you wish! You can even add sugar-free chocolate chips, or cacao nibs, to make these double chocolate chip cookies.
Immediately after baking, remove the cookies from the cookie sheet lined with baking parchment paper, and place your chocolate sugar-free cookies on a wire rack. Once they are cooled, you can begin decorating.
Here are few things to try:
- Dip them in an easy chocolate ganache to turn them into double chocolate cookies.
- Drizzle chocolate all over with a fork.
- Press a walnut into the center of the cookie.
- Enjoy them with a swipe of almond butter.
- Sprinkle them with sea salt or keto chocolate chips.
Storage
These healthy cookies are best stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days. You can freeze them for up to 1 month. Place your cookies on the kitchen countertop for an hour to defrost.
Best Low Carb Chocolate Cookies Recipe
Ingredients
- 55 g butter softened
- 4 tbsp cocoa powder (unsweetened) unsweetened
- 2 tbsp granulated sweetener of choice or more, to your taste
- 100 g desiccated/shredded coconut unsweetened
- 2 eggs – medium
- 200 g almond meal/flour
- pinch salt
Instructions
- Mix the softened butter, sweetener and cocoa together until smooth.
- Add all other ingredients and mix well.
- Roll mixture into 14 small balls, then place on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Press down with a fork.
- Bake at 180C/350F for 15-20 minutes.
Nutrition
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Yayyyy thank you <3
Yayyyy thank you. Can’t wait to try tonight <3
These look awesome! Going to make them with my daughter after school 🙂
These look awesome. Thanks!
I noticed that for 1 cookie that it says there’s 20.3 g of fat.
Yes, that is from the butter, almonds and coconut. They’ll keep you nice and full and you’ll be able to stop at 1 or 2 🙂
Sounds great. Could I use almond flakes instead of the coconut?
Probably not as the dessicated/shredded coconut helps keep the mixture together and almond flakes won’t have that property.
Is this biscuit crunchy?
Not as crunchy as a regular biscuit because it si the sugars and the gluten that make the crunchy and the chewy textures.
These look delicious Libby and something many will enjoy.
I like the 90% Lindt dark chocolate too …
All the best Jan
I love it both because it is incredibly low in carbs, but also because I actually savour the 1 or 2 pieces I nibble on rather than inhaling a block of dairy milk 😉
Would it be possible to used refined coconut oil or something in place of the shredded coconut? I really dislike the taste of coconut, so any substitution suggestion here would be greatly welcome!
No the shredded coconut is dry, shredded and part of the make up of the biscuit whereas coconut oil is completely different. You may want to try my nut free peanut butter cookies as these chocolate cookies are heavily based on coconut so you may not like them.
Hi Libby, can I replace the ground almonds with coconut flour ? Almonds are so expensive now.
You could try but coconut flour has totally different properties. It will thicken like flour would and won’t go crispy like almonds do. I use ground almonds as they are so much cheaper here than almond flour. Maybe look for linseed, LSA etc or even grind your own almonds if your blender is powerful enough.
These are truly delicious, I ate 3 for lunch! So much for only needing one! The kids weren’t too happy but this is only our first week of ditching the carbs. So taking it slowly slowly, lunchbox first, brekky second 🙂
Ha ha, funny how biscuits ‘disappear’ from the kitchen 😉 Once you have gone low carb for a while, your appetite changes, this is what I have welcomed more than anything. For some lunchbox ideas take a look at my post showing 1 month of my children’s lunch boxes and for breakfast, start with something simple as scrambled eggs then maybe try the grain free granola and serve with berries and unsweetened yoghurt or cream – happy days ahead.
I’ve been loving your lunch box ideas, have decided to cut the sugar out primarily especially for my fussy 2 yo, I made the choc smoothie for brekky today, but put too much cocoa in..experimenting with these ingredients at the moment, I will eat anything…my kids not so much, but their lunch boxes are exemplary now 🙂 thank you so much xx
You can roll this into a log. Then slice into thinner biscuits, for a crispier variety. But be sure to watch they don’t burn. dependant on oven temperatures.
Thanks Colleen for the tip. I like the idea of thinner biscuits.
I made these, but swapped the almond meal for hazelnut meal (almond allergy), and the sweetener I used was 1 TBSP of a “stevia baking blend” plus 1 packet of stevia. I LOVE THESE. They came out not very sweet at all, but I strangely love them that way. They have a wonderful, meaty heft to them, a great consistency, and I’m just in love. Thank you for sharing your recipes!
Libby, I so love your page, I am really inspired and motivated by it. I have tried only two of your recipes so far, and the first went straight to the bin, we just couldn’t handle the taste of stevia (not your recipe’s problem!). I have just made a batch of these, I do think they are a bit over-sized as they are quite dry. They will not make a good lunch box addition as they really do need cream (or milk if you have enough carbs left). It is only very early days for me, I don’t bake as a rule, but I am going to plough through most of your ideas and suggestions, because I want to free my kids of their carb addiction. Thank you for all of your ideas, you are super at this!! LOL, no, really 🙂
He he, I think your comment is a compliment 😉 It does take a while to get used to how much stevia to use and which brand you like. For example I don’t get on with the liquid drops whereas others swear but them. Always add a small amount, taste, then you can always add more. The ingredients we use are too good to muck them up. I’m so glad your working your way through my recipes, my children’s favourite at the moment is the keto brownies because they can all take them to school because they’re nut free – yay. Another goodie is the ham cups and bacon quiche for their lunch boxes. Good luck 🙂
Anything you can swap the almond for in the case of a nut allergy? (Allergy to all nuts unfortunately!)
You can use seed flours which are coming onto the market such as pumpkin/sunflower. Some other nut free baking treats you may like are Nut Free Keto Brownie and Grain Free Granola Bars, but use a mixture of seeds, not nuts to make them. 🙂
Almonds are seeds ☺️
Hi Libby,
am uk based just switching to LCHF based diet, and looking for recipes etc. Have signed up for the newsletter, and building a shopping list for my sweet tooth, but have a question…..what can I use in place of coconut? Unfortunately I do have a strong allergy to coconut, both ingested and applied ( makes me Drunk, and beaks my skin so it weeps), however I am fine with all other nuts! So in dire need of a coconut substitute for these recipies, xxx
That is difficult as so many recipes call for coconut in place of wheat and grains. You can try my keto brownie. It has coconut oil but no desiccated coconut or coconut flours. If you cannot tolerate the coconut oil, you can replace it with butter instead.
These look sooooo yummmmmyyyyy. Do they freeze okay so I don’t eat the whole batch in one sitting? haha!
I’m sure they would, ours never hang around long enough with a family of 5. Just pop in an airtight container and have layers of baking paper in between to stop them sticking to each other.
I cooked your low carb chocolate cookies, very easy and a great treat, thanks for the recipe
Are the almonds measured before grinding, or after? I have almond meal, Im not grinding them myself, thanks – so LOVE your site!
I buy ground almonds instead of almond flour because it’s cheaper. You can easily use almond meal (I can’t be bothered grinding them myself either 😉 )
I like coconut palm sugar. Its all natural and its 4 grams carb per tsp. Its very sweet and I use one T for an entire muffin recipe and it’s perfect.
Did I miss something? I don’t see instructions for the toppings and/ or the chocolate.
The chocolate is just melted chocolate high % drizzled, dipped or added walnuts as per pictures 🙂
That’s easy! Thanks
Can i use coconut oil insted of butter?
Sure but you may ned to add a pinch of salt and some other favouring such as vanilla? The butter tends to add a lovely creaminess whereas the coconut oil can be a bit bland sometimes. It is easy to fix by just being aware of it, taste the mixture and adapt the recipe accordingly to your taste. How about adding some chopped walnuts too?
These are fantastic!! I’d been looking for a good chocolate cookie! They definitely made the cut ?
Brilliant!
Thats Helpful, I really Like almond and coconut, I should have try one
Another delicious recipe – and so quick to make!! I’ve got a 3 week old baby so these were perfect to whip up quickly while she napped and kept me away from the naughty chocolate bars! Love the richness of them – didn’t have any dark choc to hand so kept them plain, still v tasty. Thanks for the recipe Libby!
Congratulations on your new baby, such a busy but delightful time. I’m so glad you loved these. I’ll see if I can come up with some other delights for you 🙂
Just saw these on your Instagram. Excited to make them as a Vday gift for my husband 😀
Remind him how lucky he is 😉
I’m a novice when it comes to baking so can you pls tell me when do you add the chocolate and nut on top of the cookie? Once it’s done? :(((
Yes. Bake the cookies then when cooled, add frosting/icing and decorate any way you like. Great news that you are beginning to cook. That is awesome. Libby.
Hey Libby….how do you make your icing? I’ve got a Lindt 90% cocoa bar.
The icing you see is just melted Lindt 90%. Really quick and easy to do, and because it is so dark and rich, you don’t need too much.
I love this cookie recipe!!! I just made a batch over the weekend and ate them all by myself in 2 days!!!
Loving your recipes. I have got to give props on many of these. These were great. Thank you!
I came across your recipe, and made these for my mother-in-law for Mother’s Day and they were a big hit! I’m making them again today for me and the hubby, because our taste test cookie for her batch really impressed us. Thank you for the fantastic recipe!
Hi! what stevia does everyone use? I tried one but it tasted so yuck so i threw it out! 😉 thanks in advance:)
I use Natvia which is a blend of stevia and erythritol, and I also am moving ore towards plain erythritol by using Swerve. Both give good results. You can see what I keep in my pantry here.
Thanks heaps?
Hi Libby,
Do you have a version that uses peanut butter and cocoa ;p
This looks great
You could try my nut free peanut butter cookies. You can replace the tahini for peanut butter and add some cocoa powder. Yum.
Ok. My husband is Tyoe 2 diabetic and I am trying so hard to find what are healthy yet still yummy treats to make for him. Just made these and wow……bitter!? Followed the recipe perfectly and others as well and I’m coming up nothing but frustrated! Help me get it PLEASE!!!
Did you add enough sweetener? I always say add to taste as everyone is on a different part of their sugar free journey so you may require a lot more than I do. Try icing them with Lindt 90% too, that is yummy and rich.
add some ripe mashed bananas they will add moisture and sweetness
6.7g per cookie??? Is this net?
No, all my values are total. I wish I could stipulate that but it just says “carbs”. Just deduct the fibre = net.
You might be better to say each Bisquit has a nett nominal 2.7 grams of carbs, if you make 14 bisquits , using this recipe
Thanks for another delicious recipe Libby. I’ve made these cookies a few times and they are always a big hit with the hubby & kids. I find I also get quite a few more biscuits from the mix, so obviously make them a bit smaller than yours. I still find 1 cookie satisfying enough, so it just means less carbs!
Hi There. Can i replace with macadamia flour. have a packet in cupboard. and how much if i can
Bless you for sharing this recipe I really need a little snack that’s healthy for me and tasty. Thank you.
Hi, so is the 6.7g carbs – is that the total for the 14 cookies or per actual cookie?
6.7g is the total per serving and they have 2.7g net carbs per serving
There is no serving size listed. How many cookies is a Serving?
The recipe states ” serves 14″. It makes 14 cookies 🙂
Good recipe! I used a Tablespoon (20 mls) of mixture for each biscuit. Made 26.
These are so the bomb! I added a mixture of 60% cacao chips blended with butter on top and some walnuts or pistachios.
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I’ve gone though so much almond meal trying to achieve a crisp cookie. Do these turn out crisp? Any suggestions on how to avoid the soft cookie syndrome? Would coconut flour be better for that?
These are a soft (ish) cookie than a crisp one. It is difficult to find a true crispy low-carb cookie, because the crunch in cookies comes from they high sugar content! 🙁 My favourite cookie, which my children love, are my chocolate chip low-carb cookies. They are crispier than these, depending on how long you bake them for.
I’ve made these quite a few times and they never disappoint. I’ve even substituted coconut flour (50g) and they come out great! They sort of remind me of a “no-bake cookie” with the shredded coconut but mine always come out a little drier than your picture. Various flours come to different conclusions I suppose. Still delicious none the less! Thank you for sharing!
Thank you Emily 🙂
Hi Libby, can I use something else instead the coconut? I am allergic and I would like to try them
You could try and use extra ground almonds or another ground nut/seed that you can tolerate. However this would need a bit more “tweaking” of other ingredients to make sure it turns out beautifully. But that would actually be an amazing cookie indeed.
Try using psyllium husk. Very low carb and gives good results
Made these tonight and the flavor was good but they were extremely dry. It seemed like 2 C (USA) almond flour was way too much “dry” base for them. The 24 I made also seemed quite large compared to the ones in the pic. Did I miss something?
Mine came out very dry too. The dough was very stiff. They are tasty, but maybe I’ll use less almond flour and dessicated coconut. Or maybe we can add an extra egg? Not sure.
Same here. I’m thinking an extra egg would be amazing.
These are delicious!! Added a tsp of vanilla ??
I was very excited to try this recipe but honestly everything about it sucked. It was crumbly and the consistency was so bad. I don’t understand how this ever worked for you. Such a waste of time
Sorry I can’t see this clearly confirmed reciepe makes 14 cookies but is 1 cookie a serving?
Just above the ingredients it states makes 14 servings ie: one cookie. 🙂
These were awesome! Especially straight out of the oven! I didn’t decorate them afterwards like in the picture. I just used a home brand cocoa powder as it was the lowest carb one I found and with my brand of ingredients it worked out to only 1.5g net carbs! Thankyou for the recipe…will be making these again for sure!
I wonder did you even try these cookies after you make them. I had so much “” batter that I made three different versions of the cookies the first one with one cup of almond flour since 2 Cups seemed Way excessive the second batch with an added half a cup of coconut flour those also turned out horrible so in the last batch I added another tablespoon of butter horrible so tasteless and unsweet, like eating chocolate sand! No wonder you had to decorate afterwards, the added sweetness from the icing would be the only way I can imagine these cookies being tolerable. I even added Lillys chocolate chips to some of them and it didn’t help at all! What a waste of expensive precious ingredients!
So I have not rad all the comments to see if anyone else noticed this but you have the US conversion wrong.
100 g desiccated/shredded coconut unsweetened Equals 1/2 cup not 1cup
200 g almond meal/flour Equals 1 cup not 2 cups
Sorry, but I beg to differ. 200g almond flour actually = 2.08 US cups and 100g = 1 US cup. Then there is the problem of whether people scoop or pour flours/ingredients into the measuring cups. This can affect the ingredients measured by over 50% which is why it is such an inaccurate way to cook/bake. As much as I would love everyone here to cook by WEIGHT rather than cups, I give both measurements which are accurate and calculated 🙂
Yumm!!I made this recipe the other night and they were delicious!couple things thougj,i added 1 more Tbsp of erythritol and 1 tsp of vanilla extract.I didnt have medium eggs so i used 2 large eggs.Baked for 20 minutes and turned out chewy and yummy!Will mkenit again!
How much sweetener to use is so personal, which is why I always say “or more to your taste”. We are all on different parts of our sugar-free journey. I like your additional vanilla, I’m a vanilla fan too.
These are most Disgusting cookies I have ever, ever, EVER tasted! I have been eating paleo since 2012 and my palette is well adjust to low carb tastes but these cookies are just horrible to say the least!!!
I’m sorry to read this, let’s figure out what went wrong.
Oh man. These were so delicious. So happy!!! Exactly what I needed to curb my choc/sweet tooth. THANK YOU
Perhaps I did something wrong with the conversions, but I personally did not like the flavor of these cookies. Thank you for a wonderful blog though and nothing personal.
No offence taken. 🙂 We all are on different paths of our sugar-free journey and what may taste amazing to one reader, perhaps isn’t too appealing to another. You might like these choc chip cookies instead?
I substituted shredded coconut with 1/2 cup coconut flour & 1/2 cup coconut flakes and added 1 tbsp of sweetener. They came out a bit dry and I know that’s because of the coconut flour but otherwise great. For my son’s taste I could’ve used another tbsp of sweetener.
We are doomed if this is the best chocolate cookies ever. Dry. Dry. Dry. Any suggestions on what to add to make them moist?
Hi Liz, this cookie seems to be hit or miss with readers. You can add an extra egg to add more moisture the cookies. How are you measuring the almond flour? If you scoop the flour with the measuring cup it compacts the flour and can result in almost 50% more flour than needed. That will definitely make the cookies dry. I always recommend scooping the flour a spoonful at a time into the measuring cup to make sure it is nice and aerated. This makes a huge difference in the texture of the cookies. Thanks!
I don’t know how I would do it better. They were very hard and dry. I did exactly what you said, I looked at the cookies after 15 minutes and they seemed done but I was not sure what I was looking for. I lowered the temp to 375 for the last 5 minutes.
Besides making them a bit sweeter, how can I make them softer??