Healthy Shortbread Cookies
These Healthy Shortbread Cookies are sweet, simple, buttery, and delicious. You’d never know they’re sugar free, gluten free, dairy free, and vegan!
If you’ve ever had Shortbread Cookies, then you know they’re not crazy flavor bombs like Skinny Minties or a decadent Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting.
BUT, you’ll also know how addicting they can be. Despite being so simple and so basic, there’s something about them that makes you reach back for another cookie. And another. And another.
Simplicity isn’t always necessarily a bad thing.
In the case of these Healthy Shortbread Cookies, you’ll find yourself in love at first bite. You’ll keep returning for more and more. But no worries, y’all. These are good for you. Instead of being made with bleached all purpose flour, refined white sugar, and far too many sticks of butter, these cookies are made with whole grain oat flour, all-natural and sugar-free erythritol, and a small amount of coconut oil.
These ingredient swaps make these Shortbread Cookies guilt-free and lower calorie than their sugar- and butter-infused counterpart, yet just as tasty!
Healthy Shortbread Cookies
Ingredients
- 180g (1½ cups) Oat Flour
- 96g (½ cup) Granulated Erythritol
- 1 tsp Double-Acting Baking Powder
- ¼ tsp Salt
- 112g (½ cup) Coconut Oil (melted)
- 60g (¼ cup) Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk (room temperature)
- 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 2 tsp Natural Butter Flavor
- 1 tsp Liquid Stevia Extract
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the oat flour, erythritol, baking powder, and salt.
- In a stand mixer bowl with beater attachment, add the coconut oil, almond milk, vanilla extract, butter flavor, and stevia extract. Mix on low speed until completely mixed.
- Dump the dry ingredients into the stand mixer and mix until completely mixed. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for 1 hour.
- Roll ⅓ of the dough in between two silicone baking sheets until ~⅛" thick. Use a 2" circle cookie cutter to punch circles into the dough. Peel away the dough surrounding the circle shapes, putting the dough back into the stand mixer bowl, and transfer the silicone sheet with the circles onto a cookie tray.
- Bake for ~12 minutes, or until the cookies are golden brown around the edges. Carefully transfer the silicone sheet onto your counter or a wire cooling rack to cool completely (the cookies will be soft out of the oven, but will firm up as they cool). Keep re-rolling the dough and baking until all the dough is used up.
Recipe Notes
Yes, THREE Shortbread Cookies for just 130 calories! On the other hand, three cookies of Keebler’s Sandies Classic Shortbread has 240 calories, 13.5g fat, and 10.5g sugar.
For the same amount of cookies, this healthier homemade version will save you 110 calories. That means you can have a few more, guilt-free, yes?
YES.
Enjoy!
.
-Jess
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Indulge − no strings attached!
Not a big fan of sweets, however, these shortbread look healthy and delicious for anyone seeking physical betterment
O they look so perfect!!!!
What could I use instead of the 2 tsp natural butter flavor as we dont have it in NZ, could I just use butter.
These cookies won’t have that classic buttery flavor without the butter flavor, but I suppose you could try using real butter instead of the coconut oil if you’re not vegan or allergic to dairy. I haven’t tried this but I’m crossing my fingers it works for you!
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I am not able to get granulated erythritol, is it possible to use stevia instead?
Liquid stevia won’t replace the erythritol here. The erythritol affects the consistency of the dough and the final texture. The best substitute would be a granulated sweetener like pure cane sugar, coconut sugar, or maple sugar 🙂
Can’t wait to make these! Just wondering, can I substitute the Almond milk for Cow’s milk and substitute the 2 TSP natural butter flavour for 2 TSP coconut oil and also substitute the 1 TSP Stevia extract for 1 TSP coconut sugar? Thank you!
You can most definitely substitute the almond milk with dairy milk! However, the butter flavor is an extract (like vanilla extract) for flavor, so coconut oil won’t sub for it. If you don’t have butter flavor I suppose you can omit it (although these won’t have a buttery flavor anymore). Also, the stevia extract in the recipe has the equivalent sweetness of 3/4-1 cup of sugar, so 1 tsp of coconut sugar won’t replace it.
Thank you for the quick reply. I appreciate the help very much. So, if 1 TSP of coconut sugar won’t suffice, how much coconut sugar will? 3/4-1 cup of coconut sugar? Thank you.
I would try 3/4 cup of coconut sugar (and if you’re replacing the erythritol, you’ll need 1+1/4 cups of coconut sugar). However, all that extra sugar, a dry ingredient, will throw off the dry:liquid ratio in the recipe. You’ll need to adjust the wet ingredients. You can try adding an extra few tablespoons of coconut oil and/or almond milk, or as needed to form a dough. I haven’t tried this but I’m crossing my fingers it works out for you! 🙂
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thank you for the recipe. I like to keep them longer can I put it in to the fridge or deep freeze them?
Of course!! Store the cookies in an airtight container in the fridge for an extra 4 days or the freezer for ~3 months 🙂
Just be sure to thaw them completely in the fridge!
Can I substitute walnut oil for the coconut oil and leave out the stevia I can’t have either!
I wouldn’t recommend subbing a liquid oil in place of coconut oil, because coconut oil firms up when cold or at room temp, while liquid oil doesn’t. And I don’t recommend subbing stevia because other sweeteners will throw off the dry:liquid ratio.
How many cookies does this make?
It made me 40 circle cookies 🙂