If you love shortbread cookies but want to make them a little bit healthier, with fewer carbs, and avoid wheat flour, this is the recipe for you. Almond Flour Shortbread cookies are made with a handful of ingredients and ready in no time to enjoy for breakfast, snack, or dessert.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
These 3-ingredient almond flour cookies are super simple to make and ready in less than 30 minutes. Plus, the recipe fits most diets as it is:
Gluten-free – almond flour is 100% gluten-free flour. Paleo – this recipe doesn’t use grain or xanthan gum, often used in gluten-free baking. Vegan – these cookies are egg-free and dairy-free. Egg-Free Dairy-Free Paleo Low-Carb Keto-Friendly
Ingredients and Substitutions
To make this simple recipe, you need to gather only 3 simple ingredients. Let me share my tips with you to select the best healthy ingredients for this recipe.
Almond Flour – make sure you are using ultra-fine almond flour and not coarse almond meal. The recipe works with both, but an almond meal adds a gritty texture to cookies and a darker color. Maple Syrup – or agave syrup. I didn’t try the recipe with any other liquid sweetener. Coconut Oil – this is a gluten-free shortbread cookie recipe with coconut oil. Coconut oil is a great plant-based fat to make crunchy vegan cookies. You can use refined coconut oil to avoid the coconut flavor from the oil. Don’t replace it with any other oil, or the cookies would be way too soft.
Optional ingredients
Of course, you can add a few flavorsome ingredients to add flavor to these healthy vegan shortbread cookies. I highly recommend it, but if you want to keep the recipe simple, and make plain shortbread cookies, don’t bother adding these little extra ingredients. My favorite add-ons are:
Almond extract – add 1/2 teaspoon to the cookie dough. Vanilla extract – add 1/2 teaspoon to the cookie dough. Sea salt – add 1/4 teaspoon to the cookie dough. Orange zest – add 1 teaspoon to the cookie dough. Chocolate chips – add 1/4 cup of dark chocolate chips into the dough to make vegan chocolate chip shortbread cookies.
How To Make Almond Flour Shortbread Cookies
This is an easy vegan almond shortbread cookie recipe meaning they are egg-free, dairy-free cookies. Consequently, their texture is slightly softer than a regular shortbread recipe but an amazing healthy shortbread cookie recipe without butter! In fact, these are vegan shortbread cookies with coconut oil, a plant-based fat perfect for making crunchy cookies. All you have to do is combine the dry ingredients (photo 1) with the wet ingredients until they form a sticky cookie dough (photo 2). Then, form 12 cookie dough balls using a measuring cup (photo 3) from the dough and place each ball on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper. This cookie dough won’t expand in the oven, so you don’t have to leave much space between each cookie. Finally, press each ball slightly with the back of a fork to flatten it into a 0.4 inch (1cm) thick cookie (photo 4). The thinner, the crispier they will be. Finally, bake in preheated oven 325°F (160°C) for 12-15 minutes. They are ready when the sides are slightly golden brown and slightly soft in the middle. Cool completely at room temperature, first 5 minutes on the cookie sheet, then on a cooling rack. These cookies firm up with time and get their best texture after 3 hours at room temperature.
Step-By-Step Video
Decorating The Cookies
You can add some sprinkles on top of your cookies, as you see in my picture, to make healthy Christmas shortbread cookies. Or drizzle melted chocolate chips on top.
More Vegan Almond Flour Cookie Recipes
I love to use almond flour in my cookie recipes. It not only adds delicious almond flavor, but it also decreases carbs and adds lots of plant-based proteins and nutrients. Below I listed my favorite cookie recipes made with almond flour for you to try.
