My regular Christmas sugar cookie recipe is totally out of this world good, and SO not on my diet. But we’ve been doing homemade sugar cookies, and sugar cookies frosting parties on Christmas Eve since my baby girl was born, 16 years ago. So we keep the tradition, and I *ahem* attempt to rely on my willpower to not indulge. Because, until now, I haven’t met a really GOOD gluten free, sugar free, low carb cookie.
Until now.
I mean, there are lots and lots of almond flour based cookie recipes out there. But I just can’t fall in love with the texture of almond flour. It’s squeaky. (yes, I have texture issues)
But THIS cookie is like a soft, Lofthouse style sugar cookie. No squeaky.
For this, we can all give a rousing standing ovation to Susan Y. from the Trim Healthy Mama Facebook group. She had success with making some sugar free, low carb subs to this (also not sugar free) soft sour cream cookie recipe, and generously offered to let me share her successes with you!
So she sent me all of her recipes and links that she used, and I had fun whipping up a couple of batches of cookies this weekend. Thank you SO much, Susan!
I made a few tweaks to her recipe, since she mentioned that her dough was pretty sticky. The texture was just perfect, and I was able to get lovely cut outs that didn’t lose their shape. And I didn’t have to use lots of flour or anything. The dough was very easy to work with!
But let’s talk about frosting…
Specifically THIS mile high French Buttercream. Can you BELIEVE that this is sugar free???
I had some issues with this frosting the first go-round, only to realize that the issues were more with the recipe directions. When I finally figured it out, KAPOW! It’s so amazing! It’s got a cloud like silky texture, and is so, so, so buttery. Which in my book is a really good thing.
I usually do NOT mess with fussy recipes or recipes that take a lot of time or skill. Susan can attest to my frustration with this one at first. But I promise you…if you’ll follow my directions, it will turn out. But if you try to do this with a hand mixer or don’t follow the timing, you’ll be wanting to curse my name.
When we decorate cookies, I usually make several colors of frosting, but during my frustration stage with this frosting, I was having trouble with it “breaking” when I was trying to tint it. (I just hadn’t mixed it enough)
So I opted instead to use some xylitol I had on hand. I tinted a couple of tablespoons with a few drops of strawberry juice, chlorophyll, and turmeric.
This added a lovely natural color and crunch to my beautiful Christmas sugar cookie recipe. 
Aren’t they sweet! Now that I’ve got the frosting figured out, I’m going to play with decorating with different colors next time. Because after mixing it long enough, I tested out tinting it, and it works beautifully.
I love this Christmas sugar cookie recipe, because it uses the low carb flours and ingredients that I already had in my pantry, and sweeteners that you can get in the grocery store.
I adjusted the Baking Blend recipe that Susan sent me to fit the amount of flour called for in her Christmas cookie recipe exactly to keep you from having to mix up another recipe just to make this one. But if you already have a preferred pre-made low carb baking mix, feel free to sub it out for the amount called for in the notes.
I really love the Trim Healthy Mama Baking Blend (my affiliate link to the THM store), but had these ingredients on hand already.
I’m sure we’ll make some of the naughty sugar cookies this year, but I’m VERY happy with my healthy, sugar free version. I love finding new do-able favorites that support me on the Trim Healthy Mama plan! These sugar free Christmas sugar cookies are definitely an S treat, especially if you frost them.
Christmas Sugar Cookie Recipe & Pin
- ¾ cup oat fiber*
- ⅓ cup + 1 tablespoon coconut flour*
- ⅓ cup + 1 tablespoon ground flax meal (I loveFlax USA brand)*
- ½ cup + 1 tablespoon almond flour (I prefer Honeyville)*
- 2 teaspoons glucomannan*
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup (1½ sticks) butter
- 6 tablespoons Truvia, or ¼ cup Super Sweet Blend, or ½ cup THM Gentle Sweet (THM Store)
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup sour cream or 0% plain Greek yogurt
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 3-4 drops pure lemon essential oil, optional
- In a medium bowl, combine the dry ingredients: oat fiber, coconut flour, flax meal, almond meal, gluccie, baking powder, and salt.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter and sweetener together on medium-high speed until soft and fluffy.
- Beat in the eggs, sour cream, and vanilla and blend until creamy.
- With the mixer on low speed, add in the dry ingredients ½ cup at a time, mixing just until incorporated and evenly mixed.
- Turn the dough onto plastic wrap, and flatten into a disk- wrapping securely and chill 1-2 hours or overnight.
- Divide the dough into two portions, re-wrap the saved dough in plastic wrap and place it back in the fridge.
- Roll out one section at a time on parchment paper OR with a little additional oat fiber on your board to avoid sticking. Don’t work the dough too much or it will get tough. You can also oat "flour" your rolling pin and cookie cutters to prevent sticking if needed.
- Roll the dough a little over ¼″ thick.
- After rolling, cut the cookies- see how many you can get out of that round! I tell my kids to fit the cookie cutters on like puzzle pieces.
- Peel off the extra scraps and then transfer to a cookie sheet using a spatula. I got about 24 medium to large cookies out of one batch of dough. I gently reform the scraps and re-roll until I use it all up.
- I recommend using parchment paper for baking- it helps with clean up, and you can slide all of the cookies off of the sheet at once and use the sheet to bake another batch
- Bake the cookies for between 8-10 minutes at 350 degrees. Bake until the bottoms are JUST beginning to brown. You don't want to get these crispy or well browned.
- Allow the cookies to cool completely before frosting.
- 4 egg whites, at room temperature
- 6 tablespoons Truvia ground fine, or ⅓ cup Super Sweet Blend ground fine, or ¾ cup Gentle Sweet (THM Store)
- 1 tablespoon hot water
- 2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
- 10 ounces (2 ½ sticks) of butter,at room temperature-cut into tablespoon chunks
- ½ cup whipped cream cheese spread
- pinch of salt
- 2-4 tablespoons heavy whipping cream, optional to reconstitute after chilled
- In a heavy duty mixer with a whisk attachment, whip egg whites until soft peaks form. (Soft peaks means that you lift the beater, and it creates a curled over peak.)
- While beating egg whites, combine sweetener, hot water, and vanilla, and stir to mostly dissolve sweetener.
- When you hit soft peak stage, turn the mixer down to medium speed and drizzle in sweetener mixture.
- Now you're going to add in the chunks of butter, and curse my name, because it will look like it's broken and ruined. But it's NOT. I promise.
- Once the butter is all added, drop in the whipped cream cheese and salt. It still may look like cottage cheese, and spit in a bucket, but you're not allowed to curse my name yet.
- Turn the mixer up to high speed, and set a timer for 10 minutes. Promise me that you won't start cursing my name until the timer goes off. You may need to whip another 5 minutes, but some sort of magic WILL happen that turns the gloopy-glop into gloriously fluffy incredible buttercream frosting.
- Once the frosting is FULLY whipped, you can tint the whole batch, or scoop out smaller amounts and use gel tint to color it.
- Use frosting immediately, and refrigerate unused portion as well as frosted items.
- Once chilled, this buttercream firms up. So if you want to chill an unused portion to use later, simply remove it from the fridge, and whip it again for 10 minutes with about 2-4 tablespoons of heavy whipping cream. That will bring back the magic.
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Ok-dough is in the fridge chilling. Two problems I had. The directions say baking soda but it wasn’t in the ingredient list. I added one teaspoon. I hope that was enough. Second, I only had light source cream for the frosting so I added 1/2 cup light sour cream and 1/2 cup Greek yougurt.
Frosting has been beating for 10 minutes and still looks like cottage cheese. I can’t turn my Mixmaster on high because it Flys right out of the bowl. What am I doing wrong???!!!
Oops! I did only use baking powder. I’ll fix the directions.
I used a whipped cream cheese for the frosting…not sour cream or greek yogurt, so not sure how those would work. It has to beat for a LONG time on a very high speed. You may want to try draping a towel if your spatters. My mixer has a spatter guard, so I didn’t think about that. 🙂
That frosting is deeelicious!! Thanks so much for this recipe :).
I’m confused. The ingredient list calls for baking powder but instructions say to mix in both baking powder and baking soda. I need clarification please. Thank you in advance.
Oops! I’ll fix that. I used only baking powder.
Gwen, could this be used as a pie crust?
I think it would be too soft to be a pie crust, but it could work for a trifle type deal. 🙂
I don’t have any sort of mixer besides a hand mixer and it only has one set of beaters. Will I still be able to make this recipe? And, I only have normal 1/3 fat Philadelphia cream cheese. Can I use that? What changes would I need to make if I use it instead of the spread? THANK YOU!!!
Hi Sarah,
I wouldn’t try this with hand beaters. It really takes forever to whip, and on my highest setting on the stand mixer. Maybe try a different frosting recipe …the ones in the book look great, and are just a blend of sweetener, whipping cream, and cream cheese. 🙂
Looks brilliant! Will be making them for Christmas. Thanks Gwen!
Hi Gwen,
Thank you so much for this cookie recipe! I will be trying it out tonight. Also, I’m sending you a big hug your way for everything you do on your site. I enjoy reading and learning from it so much.
Have a very merry Christmas and a healthy and happy New Year to you and your family.
Thank you so much, Nadine! (((hug)))
I made these cookies yesterday and the taste was fabulous. I had two problems though, even after chilling, they were too sticky to roll out. I ended up making drop cookies. Also, after 15 minutes in the oven they were still super soft. Any advice?
Hmmm…they shouldn’t really be sticky even before chilling. Did you make any subs or make a measuring error? The low carb flours are kind of tricky to sub, since each one seems to do a specific thing well, but none of them act like one another. 🙂 And some even vary pretty significantly from brand to brand.
If it were me, and it was sticky after mixing, I’d add in just a little more flour to get it just past that stage into “somewhat soft cookie dough” territory. 🙂
Hi Gwen! I’m hoping to make these tomorrow, but wondering if you.. or anyone else.. has tried making the cookies and frosting with a food processor? I don’t have a stand mixer, but I do have a Cuisinart food processor! Thanks!
The cookies would be no problem in a food processor, but the frosting has to be whipped at high speed, so I don’t think it would work. But you can certainly make another type of sugar free frosting. 🙂
Well.. I mixed the dough in the food processor on Dec 26th (later in the day than I intended) and put it in the fridge to chill. I FINALLY rolled them out and baked them last night! They are AMAZING, Gwen!!! Thanks! I skipped the frosting since I don’t have a stand mixer, but the cookies are great all by themselves. And they are so satisfying, I only eat two at time (I just use a small round biscuit type cutter). I’m thinking of making more dough and putting small ‘logs’ in the freezer so I can pull one out at night (or in the morning) and put it in the fridge to slice and bake later.. but not have so many cookies so I don’t have to ‘share’. 😉
Oh, I LOVE the frozen log idea! I may do the same. 🙂
I wish I had read the comments before making the frosting. I had NO idea that an electric hand mixer did NOT whip like a Kitchen Aide type mixer. (I just thought they were bigger for more dough) Using the THM blend and Gentle Sweet made for delicious cookies. Unfortunately, the “magic” never happened with our blender….even though I did 10 minutes on the highest setting and 20 minutes on power boost. (until the motor started smelling like it was burning!….I was desperate to make this work! lol) At least it got (somewhat) spreadable. By the time they were ready, I had eaten so much cookie batter, I just spread and popped them in the freezer. Just had one and it is yummy! SO NOTE TO OTHERS: Do NOT use an electric hand held beater for the frosting. 🙂 ❤
I mentioned that in the blog post, “But if you try to do this with a hand mixer or don’t follow the timing, you’ll be wanting to curse my name.”
SO sorry you had trouble with the frosting. 🙂 I can relate, since the first go-round the recipe I tried instructed mixing on low. I was SO frustrated with why it wasn’t working. This is definitely one to save until you get a stand mixer. 🙂
Just made these cookies a couple days ago and I just have to say they are definitely one of the best THM cookies I’ve made yet! Thank-you so much for the recipe. . .the cookies are so soft, light and airy and taste fantastic! I’ve had to hide some away in the freezer so I don’t keep eating them all. 🙂 I didn’t made the icing for on top, but I thought the cookies tasted amazing all on their own. Although I’m thinking next time of dipping them in (skinny) chocolate!
SO glad you enjoyed them! I need to make another batch and freeze them. 🙂
What would the conversion be if using the THM baking blend? I don’t have any glucomannan to make my own. Also do you know what the conversion would be for using Pyure sweetener? I am dying to have a lofthouse sugar cookie. So far I haven’t had good luck with the baked things on THM other than the banana cake. I am hoping getting the baking blend will help with that.
Gwen, do you know if this recipe could be used for a cheesecake crust? Would you half it or make the entire recipe?
This looks absolutely wonderful. I would love to give them a try. I will certainly look up the ingredients when I have some free time.
I don’t have anything but a hand mixer. I do have a nice blender. Will either of these work?! I really want Christmas cookies!
I don’t know if a hand mixer could handle this dough, but you could try.
I made this using the Baking Blend and my dough turned out really sticky still even after. Even after leaving it overnight in the fridge. Can I add a bit more flour or is it too late?
I’d knead in a little more oat fiber to take away the stickiness.
Hi! I really want to make these cookies, but do not have almond flour. would it be possible to make with Briana’s baking blend?
I haven’t tried them with Briana’s Baking blend. Let me know if you do!
Just wanted to check…it’s safe to eat raw egg whites (in the frosting)?
I am comfortable with it, because I get farm fresh eggs. It’s one of those at your own risk things. 🙂
Pardon me if this has already been asked but could you use this recipe in a cookie press?
I haven’t tried it, Linda. Let me know if you do!
I am going to give this recipe a try but I don’t have oat fiber. Is there a good sub? I was just going to add a little more of each type of flour. What do you think?
I would seek another recipe using almond or other alternative flours if you don’t have oat fiber. 🙂 It’s very difficult to sub with these alternative flours.
Thank you for this frosting recipe! It’s delicious! I didn’t have whipped cream cheese on hand so I used 1/3 less fat block cream cheese. I started out by adding about 4oz of it. I let my Kitchen Aid work hard for 10 minutes and it wasn’t coming together. I let it go another 10 and still nothing. Then I decided to add the rest of the block of cream cheese and the magic happened! It came together and made a beautiful, soft, fluffy buttercream that is still soft enough to spread today straight out of the fridge. I haven’t tried the cookie recipe yet but am really looking forward to that. My whole family loves the frosting and my diabetic sweet tooth thanks you 🙂
Cookies are chilling now! I used gentle sweet and a hand mixer. Frosting is amazing!!! Taste like it’s a cheat!! Whipped about 10 min on high then 10 min on power boost. Finally came together! Rich and oh so good! Can’t wait to roll out cookies with the kids soon!
The buttercream frosting was a pain in the arm with a hand mixer! It took 30+ minutes to fluff up. I highly recommend a stand mixer. The cookies and frosting are both so delicious! Note: the frosting separates even if kept in the fridge. Whip it back up with a mixer or food processor and it’s just fine!
I am so excited for this recipe! Sugar cookies have been a holiday treat in our household forever but since starting THM and trying to be healthier I had given up hope that we would have use for those cookie cutters ever again. Thank goodness I didn’t throw them away. I just told my girls about the recipe I found and there were squeals of delight.