Chewy Sugar-Free Keto Gingerbread Cookies

These Keto Gingerbread cookies will bring you way back in time and are so yummy with a cup of tea or coffee. This recipe will show you how to take an old fashioned recipe and make it a low carb version.

Gingerbread cookies remind me of my childhood. My mother used to make them and dunk them in her tea. It also stands out in my head because when I was young, one of my favorite stories to read was the one about the gingerbread man. 

When you taste gingerbread cookies they have those typical autumn flavors of cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg. Then added to that is a touch of molasses and a few other things and voila….gingerbread.

Gingerbread cookies, like all other cookies, are usually very high in carbs, but in this recipe, we are going to show you how to enjoy one of your favorite cookies in a low carb version and still keep the same yummy taste. 

Sugar-Free Gingerbread is so easy and you can make them in any shape that you would like to.

What Are Gingerbread Cookies?

Gingerbread cookies are an old fashioned cookie that has never gone out of style. They have been passed on throughout the generations in one form or another. They are timeless and very much an autumn/winter cookie because of the yummy spices that we tend to gravitate to at this time of the year.

What Are Gingerbread Cookies Made of?

Gingerbread cookies are made from flour, baking powder to help it rise, sugar or honey or corn syrup to make it sweet, molasses which give it the darker color, and a bunch of spices.

Where do Gingerbread Men Come from?

Gingerbread men go way back in time, hundreds of years ago. In the 16th century, Queen Elizabeth was known for elaborate royal dinners, and one of her staff was a royal gingerbread maker, who always made her gingerbread men. 

When visiting dignitaries came to dinner, she would have these gingerbread men made in their own likeness. So, as a result, she was known for the invention of gingerbread men. 

Some people in more modern times believed that spices heat you up in the Winter, hence the reason for the winter spices in gingerbread. Gingerbread gets its name from the root ginger and its color from molasses. Ginger has also been long associated with a lot of health benefits in holistic medicine. 

What Does Gingerbread Taste Like?

Gingerbread itself has such a classic and unique flavor, like nothing else that I can relate it to. It tastes like a combination of all the spices that are in it….ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, and cloves. Added to that is the taste of molasses and a sweet taste. 

Can You Make Gingerbread Low Carb?

Now that we have talked about where gingerbread cookies came from and how they taste, you may be wondering how to make these yummy treats to fit into your Keto/ low carb diet.

Like most other recipes, especially baked goods, one of the most important things to do is to replace your regular white flour with a low carb flour. In this recipe, we use almond flour which is totally made from almonds and nothing else. The almonds are finely ground up to form a flour. 

In ¼ cup, it is 6 grams of carbs and 3 grams of fiber, which makes it 3 net carbs per ¼ cup.

The other most important step to lowering your carb intake is to replace your white sugar with a good low carb sweetener. 

In this recipe, we used monk fruit which is one of the best sweeteners to use. There are zero NET carbs in the monk fruit, plus there is no special mathematical equation to figure out the portion to use because if your recipe calls for 1/2 cup of sugar, then you use ½ cup of monk fruit.  So already you can see how to convert your favorite cookie recipes into low carb recipes. 

What Ingredients Are In Keto Gingerbread Cookies?

Almond flour – The most popular nut flour that is used in many low carb baked goods. It’s made from just almonds which makes it very low in carbs.

Monk Fruit, golden – Monk Fruit is one of the best sweeteners for low carb baking, and the golden one is good for this recipe because of the color of the gingerbread.

Butter – A source of fat that is used in many low carbs and Keto recipes.

Egg – A binder in most low carb foods and desserts. 

Vanilla – Feel free to add a little more if you want to. It’s one of my favorite spices.

Molasses -This is what gives gingerbread its darker color.

Baking Powder – Helps your cookies to rise.

Cinnamon, Ginger, Nutmeg, Cloves -The dominant flavors in these cookies.

Different Variations of Gingerbread

When I did some research about gingerbread I found all kinds of recipes.

There are some gingerbread cookies with powdered sugar, chocolate, black pepper, apple gingerbread pancakes, gingerbread waffles with chocolate, gingerbread with granola which is a great cereal topper for breakfast.

Cinnamon sugar gingerbread doughnuts, Gingerbread cheesecake, and the list goes on and on. The nice thing is that all of these things can be made in a low carb version!

What Shapes of Gingerbread Cookies Can I Make?

You may wonder what shapes you can make with your gingerbread dough besides making them in the shape of gingerbread men, or women. The possible shapes are endless and you can make them with any cookie cutters that you have or that you can buy. Some of my favorites are making them in the shape of:

• Snowmen
• Snowflakes
• Stars
• Hearts

Decorating Gingerbread

When I think of decorating gingerbread, I right away think of gingerbread houses. How many of us at least one time in our childhood helped someone to decorate one? I’m not sure what was more fun, decorating it or eating it afterward.

As with any other cookies or cupcakes, it’s always fun to decorate. It brings yummy treats to life that would otherwise be so plain looking without it. The nice thing is that you don’t need an occasion to decorate cookies. It’s just a fun thing to do. It’s a fun project to do with kids or a fun project to have an excuse to do that brings out the kid in you!!

Just like you would decorate a gingerbread house with candy and other fun and colorful confections, the same is true with your gingerbread shapes. 

You could use frosting to make eyes or buttons or just random designs. If you are a little talented or artistic you can do it freehand. If not you can buy a stencil, for instance, to decorate your stars. I’ve seen some beautiful designs on them. 

My suggestion would be to check your local supermarket for decorating supplies or go online to get some ideas.

By the way, our Keto Gingerbread dough is totally strong enough to make a house out of! My friend and her kids just used our recipe to make gingerbread houses and they said they came out perfect!

How to Make Keto Gingerbread Cookies

We are going to walk you through all the steps on how to make low carb gingerbread cookies and then you can figure out what shape that you want to make them in and whether or not you are going to decorate them.

The Dough

The first step to making sugar free gingerbread cookies is to get a large bowl and put the monk fruit, and butter in your bowl and mix. 

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Next, add the egg and vanilla and mix.

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In a separate bowl combine your flour, baking powder, and the spices.

Add the flour mixture into the bowl with the butter mixture. Then add the molasses and mix completely. 

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When you are finished mixing your gingerbread dough, you should be able to form it into a ball.

Wrap the Dough – When your dough is all mixed up just form it into one large ball and wrap it in a piece of plastic wrap and which is then going to go into the refrigerator

Chill the Dough – This is a very simple step but an important one. You want to make sure that when you are finished making the dough that you place it into the refrigerator for at least 30 min, or even longer if you aren’t ready to roll it out.

At the very maximum, you could leave it in there for 2 days.  

This will make it easier to roll out the dough and also help the cookies to keep their shape better.

Rolling the Dough – Before you can roll the dough you need to get 2 large pieces of parchment paper and roll the dough in between the 2 pieces. 

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Roll it out to about ¼ inch. The reason to use the parchment paper is that it makes rolling the dough easier.

Cutting Them – To cut your gingerbread men or any other shape of gingerbread cookies, you need to use a cookie-cutter. We prefer the classic gingerbread man shape, but you can try some different shapes of cookie cutters.

They aren’t expensive to buy and the variety is nice.

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They are fragile, so use a metal spatula to transfer each cookie to a parchment lined cookie sheet. 

Keep re-rolling the remaining dough and making cookies until you don’t have any dough left.

Cooking Them

Take your gingerbread cookies out of the oven when they are a golden color. If you cook them until they are brown then you have let them go for too long and now they are overcooked and will fall apart.

When you are making low carb cookies including these gingerbread men, low carb ingredients handle differently than high carb ingredients, especially the flour and sweetener. Low carb cookies come out softer at first and then, later on, they harden up enough to take them off the parchment paper. 

Making the Icing

If you want to decorate your gingerbread cookies and still keep them Keto and low carb, you can make a very simple sugar-free icing out of only 3 ingredients.

• ¼ cup Powdered Swerve
• 1 ½ Tbsp Heavy Cream
• 1 tsp Vanilla

Blend together with a spoon. It should be a creamy consistency and should only take about 5 minutes to blend thoroughly. 

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Decorating

Once your cookies are out of the oven, it’s time to decorate our gingerbread men (and women)!

To decorate your gingerbread cookies you can use the low carb frosting recipe mentioned in this recipe. I suggest putting it in a frosting bag or decorating bag with different tips on it to make your decorations on your cookies. 

The icing takes about 15-20 minutes to set so don’t stack your cookies on top of one another so that you don’t smudge your frosting.

You could also decorate with some of the same candy that you would use to decorate a gingerbread house, such as using gumdrops or small pieces of jelly beans for buttons…etc.  You could make your frosting all one color or do a few colors. Be creative and have fun with it.

Tips for Making the Best Gingerbread Cookies

• Parchment paper is important to use on top of your cookie sheet so that your cookies will come off easily when they are done. With all of the low carb baking that we have been doing, I have really come to love using parchment paper and no kitchen should be without it!
• Don’t overbake your cookies or they will be too crispy and will crack and break. Gingerbread needs to be soft and chewy, so just bake them until they are golden in color. If you do that they will come out soft and chewy.

How to Keep Gingerbread from Spreading

Normally cookies spread when you are dealing with regular sugar and other high carb ingredients. But when you use low carb ingredients you don’t have to worry about your dough spreading. So where you place your cookies on the parchment paper they stay in place.

Making Them Crisper

The way to make your cookies a little crispier is to roll your dough out thinner. The thinner the dough the crispier the cookies. The thicker the dough, the softer the cookies will be.

One word of caution, it’s easy to over bake thinner cookies so watch them closely because they will overbake quickly.

Other Diets This Recipe is Good for

Gluten-free – I love making baked goods for people that can’t have gluten. These low carb gingerbread cookies are one of the many that we can make for our gluten-free friends.

Vegetarian – All ingredients are good for a vegetarian.

What to Serve with Gingerbread Men Cookies?

These Low carb yummy cookies can go so well with a cup of tea or coffee. Or at this time of the year when it’s so cold outside, you can have your cookies with a nice cup of Sugar-Free Hot Chocolate…a low carb cup of hot chocolate with homemade whipped cream on top.  

For another delicious treat, try the gingerbread cookies along with a hot cup of Keto Eggnog.  This is the best version you’ve ever had and you won’t even want to go back to a regular one once you try it!

You can get both these recipes on our website by clicking the above links.

Can I Make the Dough Ahead?

You may wonder if you can make your dough ahead of time because most other cookie doughs can be. Yes, you can make Keto gingerbread dough ahead, even as far in advance as 2 days ahead. 

Once you make the dough just wrap it in plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator.

How to Store Gingerbread Cookies

Once you make your gingerbread cookies, you can store the leftover ones in an airtight container on your counter for a few days. 

One trick if your cookies soften up too much, you could pop them into the oven for a few minutes to crisp them up again.

Can I Freeze Gingerbread Cookies?

Yes, you can freeze gingerbread cookies. The best way to freeze them is to wrap them very tightly in a plastic container to keep any air out. 

And we would recommend that if you are going to freeze them do so before you put the icing on them. The icing will not freeze too well. It may become runny and as a result, also make your cookies too moist.

So freeze the cookies only, for up to 2 months, and then put your icing on the day you are planning to eat them.

Low Carb Cookie Recipes

If you’re in the mood for some other Keto-friendly Cookies, check out our:

• Raspberry Jam Thumbprint Cookies
• Keto Linzer Cookies
• Almond Flour Shortbread Cookies
• Keto Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Low Carb Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Pumpkin Snickerdoodle Cookies
• Keto Magic Cookie Bars

All of them are Keto-friendly and low carb, and will have your friends raving!

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