“The best low-carb cookies I’ve tasted so far”, my husband commented, which was quite a compliment considering that he is a hard-to-please-with-low-carb-stuff guy with a major sweet tooth, and I’ve baked dozens and dozens of different types of low-carb cookies during my lifetime.
Through trial and error and a good deal of curiosity in between, I achieved to create a cookie recipe with which I’m really satisfied. Crispy, crunchy, buttery, vanilla, toffee. Need I say more? Oh yes, and to my egg-intolerant friends out there, did I mention that these cookies are egg-free? Oh yes, they are!
Tips for making these cookies
All the ingredients should be at room temperature. Well, at least the butter.
If you are running out of whey protein, it’s not the end of the world, just use 1 1/2 cups (360 ml = 170 g) almond flour instead, and add 2 teaspoons organic vanilla extract. The texture won’t be that crispy-crunchy, but the cookies are still great.
If you are living in a hot climate, it might be good to chill the dough for a half an hour or an hour before shaping it into balls.
The yield is 18 pieces of cookies with diameter of 2 1/2 inches (6.5 cm) and thickness 1/5 inch (0.5 cm). If you need more cookies, you can double the amount of ingredients.
Last but not least: it’s very important to let the cookies cool completely before removing them from the sheet or even touching them. Try to resist the temptation! These cookies are very fragile when hot. When cool, they hold together. However, it might be good to make thicker cookies, they hold together better than thinner ones.
Vanilla Toffee Butter Bites & Chocolate Toffee Butter Bites
My experiments with these cookies
Flavored stevia is a great invention. You get sweetness and natural flavor in the same package. There are several delicious flavors available from different brands.
I’ve used toffee stevia mainly in drinks and desserts, but this is the first time I tried it in baking. I was very positively surprised how well it fits these cookies. Stevia alone has a quite bitter or licorice-like aftertaste. That’s why I’ve used erythritol in addition. Well, erythritol in turn tends to have a cooling effect if used alone. A combination of these two sweeteners works best. When some vanilla whey protein is added, the combination of all these three is simply heavenly!
My original idea was to create a recipe for Toffee Butter Cookies. After finding out how well vanilla whey protein fits these cookies I had to rename the recipe as Vanilla Toffee Butter Cookies, which I think is not too bad.
My first experiment was simply a combination of 1 stick (4 oz = 115 g) unsalted butter, 1/4 cup (60 ml) erythritol, 20 drops toffee stevia and 1 cup (240 ml = 115 g) almond flour. I liked the buttery toffee taste, but the cookies were quite fragile because of the huge amount of butter.
In my next experiments I tried to get the cookies hold together better and was using xanthan, psyllium husk powder or an egg. None of these brought good results. Cookies with an egg in the dough were quite okay, but the taste suffered from that, I don’t know why.
I also tried with different amounts of almond flour, butter, erythritol and toffee stevia. The cookies were okay and actually delicious, but not perfect.
For one batch I used organic vegetable shortening instead of butter. That made great vegan cookies. I was using 3 oz (85 g) organic vegetable shortening, 1/4 cup (60 ml) erythritol, 20 drops toffee stevia and 1 1/2 cup (360 ml = 170 g) almond flour.
I pondered again how to improve the texture so that the cookies would hold together better and still remain crunchy and buttery. I tried vanilla whey protein, and the result was divine! Not only the texture was deliciously crispy and the cookies held together well, but the vanilla gave also its delectable flavor. Neither could you feel the cooling effect of the erythritol, nor the bitter aftertaste of the stevia. I also tried with unflavored whey protein, but by far prefer the vanilla-flavored whey.
In my first experiments I creamed the butter and the sweeteners together before adding the almond flour. Then I tried just by shortly mixing everything together with a hand-held mixer after combining the almond flour and they whey protein. Absolutely no difference in the end result, so I thought why on earth I should use more complicated methods and gave up creaming.
All in all, the main problem here was to use enough butter to make the cookies crispier and tasty but not too fragile, and use enough toffee flavor so that you could taste it but not the aftertaste of stevia. Also erythritol plays an important role since it gives sweetness. The amount just needed adjusting, not too much so that you don’t taste and feel the cooling effect, but enough to give sweetness.
Vanilla Toffee Butter Cookies Dipped in Dark Chocolate
- 1 cup = 240 ml almond flour
- 1/3 cup = 80 ml vanilla-flavored whey protein
- 6 tablespoons = 3 oz = 85 g unsalted organic butter, softened
- 3 tablespoons erythritol crystals
- 25 drops toffee stevia
- Preheat the oven to 350 °F (175 °C).
- Combine all ingredients in a large bowl.
- Knead with clean hands until everything is well combined and the dough is smooth without any clumps. This shouldn't take longer than a minute or two.
- Shape the dough into small walnut-sized balls, place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and flatten them with wet fingertips.
- Bake for 5–7 minutes, or until golden brown. Be careful, the cookies get too brown very easily.
- Let cool completely before removing from the baking sheet. (Important!)
- Store in a cool and dry place.
| Nutrition information | Protein | Fat | Net carbs | kcal |
| The whole batch: | 46.5 g | 120.4 g | 13.8 g | 1329 kcal |
| Per cookie if 12 cookies in a batch: | 3.9 g | 10.0 g | 1.2 g | 111 kcal |
| Per cookie if 14 cookies in a batch: | 3.3 g | 8.6 g | 1.0 g | 95 kcal |
| Per cookie if 16 cookies in a batch: | 2.9 g | 7.5 g | 0.9 g | 83 kcal |
| Per cookie if 18 cookies in a batch: | 2.6 g | 6.7 g | 0.8 g | 74 kcal |
| Per cookie if 20 cookies in a batch: | 2.3 g | 6.0 g | 0.7 g | 66 kcal |
Tips for variation
- Add chopped nuts for extra crunch. For example macadamias are great and low-carb
- Dip cookies in melted dark chocolate. Store the dipped cookies in the fridge if not eaten immediately
- Add dark chocolate chips or semi-sweet sugar-free chocolate chips to the dough
- Instead of vanilla-flavored whey you can use other flavors. I tried with chocolate and strawberry, and the cookies were great!
You can also make Vanilla Toffee Butter Bites by baking the dough as walnut-size balls, so just omit the flatten-with-fingertips phase. For Chocolate Toffee Butter Bites replace the vanilla whey protein with chocolate whey protein.
Hope you have fun with this recipe! In case you create your own variations or adaptations, I would be delighted to hear from that.
Hi there, I’ve bought everything to make your delicious cookies, but unfortunately couldn’t find a toffee stevia. Would it be okay to just use normal stevia or perhaps I could add something else to get that toffee flavour in?
Thank you 🙂
Hi, you can order toffee stevia online, for example iHerb delivers worldwide. But no worries if you cannot find toffee stevia, you can use other flavored stevia or just plain unflavored stevia and add maybe a dash or vanilla extract.
Just made a batch…..followed instructions exactly…turned out perfectly! Made 23 small cookies. Wanted to eat them right out of oven but I didn’t give in….waited until completely cooled…..nice little crunch was my reward! Thanks for the delicious recipe….I’ll be making this one over and over.
Wonderful! So great you like them!
Just made these yesterday and LOVE THEM! Thank you for a great recipe! I had to freeze the majority of them or I would have eaten them all! o.O
I didn’t have whey protein powder so I did the extra almond flour and vanilla. They have a great texture and taste!
I made a triple batch as written, took out one dozen in that flavor, then I divided the dough and added Lily’s stevia sweetened chips to one and to the other I added powdered cinnamon, dried orange peel and DoTerra Wild Orange oil (like 15 drops) We all LOVE the orange- going to do that one again for sure- but they were all really good!
Next time I will try my egg white protein powder and some cream of tartar with cinnamon- hoping to get a snickerdoodle taste from them! 🙂
Hi Amber, thank you so much for your comment, so great to hear you liked the cookies! And thanks for sharing your variations – they sound delicious!
GREAT RECIPE!, I LOVE ENGLISH TOFFEE FLAVOR!.
Wonderful! Thank you so much!
I just made these cookies, took me no time at all, but the hardest part was waiting for them to cool. Hubby loved it. I used coconut oil instead of butter and since I didn’t have toffee stevia i added dash of vanilla and some unsweetened coconut flakes. YUMMY
Hi Kasha, thanks for your comment! I’m delighted to hear that you and your hubby liked the cookies. I haven’t tried coconut oil, but it’s great to know that it works as well.
I just love any recipe that has English Toffee in it!.
Yes, English Toffee is a flavor to die for…!
would whey protein isolate work?
Hi, yes, it should work.
I have powdered stevia which has erythritol in it. Would this work? How much to use???? Recipe sounds great!
Hi, it might be that there is not enough erythritol to hold the cookies together. It’s a bit difficult to say without knowing the exact contents.
Oh my merciful heavens! Thus far I have been avoiding sweets, but just happened across this recipe and am definitely going to have to try them! I am so impressed with the creativity used in these low carb alternatives and am so grateful for all the work you’ve put into testing things. Can hardly wait to try these!
Hi Liz, these cookies indeed are heavenly! Hope you like them, too 🙂
What can I use instead of whey??. I am lactose intolerant and the whey makes me sick.
A combination of egg-white protein and hemp protein should work (half egg white protein and half hemp protein). At least that works when making bread, but I’m not absolutely sure how it would work in these cookies, however that’s something that I would first try out.
I made these tonight and they were amazing!! Just delicious. I can’t wait to start experimenting with different flavor combos. Thank you for all of your very hard work.
Hi Melissa! So wonderful to hear that you like these cookies! I still bake them on a regular basis myself, usually I top them with chocolate. I place a piece of dark chocolate on each hot cookie immediately after removing them from the oven. I wait for 5 minutes that the chocolate is melted. Then I spread it with a knife and let set. My family cannot stop eating the cookies!
I, too, have a major sweet tooth. But I needed to lose some weight to keep my HDL, LDL, Chol, & Trigylcerides within the normal limits. So after a great deal of research, I decided the South Beach Diet was a good way of life. I haven’t been perfect at it, but I did lose about 20 pounds about 2 years ago. I recently got re-energized when I gained over 5 pounds back over the winter months.
But my sweet tooth is still a problem. So I LOVE your cookie recipe! I just made it last night. I have to restrain myself not to eat too many.
Hi Sarah, congrats on your weight loss! So great that you like the cookie recipe! I still bake these cookies on a regular basis, too. Tomorrow my son will have a baking day at the daycare place so I’ll bring some cookie dough for him. Hope you manage to control your sweet tooth, for me it took several years to get rid of the sweet cravings but low-carb dieting helped, hope it helps you too!
Thank you, I will go ahead with the recipe and use ground almonds then, I’ll let you know how they come out 🙂
Thanks again,
Elizabeth
Great, you’re welcome! Yes please, let me know how the cookies turned out! Just remember to remove the cookies from the baking sheet after they have cooled down properly, because they are really really fragile when they are hot or warm. Hope you like the recipe!
Hi Elviira,
I was wondering whether you can tell me if this Almond flour is very finely milled, like normal flour ?
Here in the UK we can get ground almonds and only almond flour on the internet but looking carefully at your pictures I thought it would work with ground almonds.
Thanks for everything and I absolutely love your recipes !!!
Elizabeth
Hi Elizabeth, and thanks for your question. The almond flour is not very finely milled, so it’s more like ground almonds. You can also use very finely milled almond flour, but usually you need it less than ground almonds. If you use the same amount very finely milled almonds than ground almonds, you get dry result. The measures are difficult to say. But yes, to my understanding ground almonds should work here perfectly. Hope this helps!
i would like to ask you a question: is.erithrol absolutely necessary? can i use a liquid sweetener instead?
thank you,
Gaia
Hi Gaia! Yes, in these cookies erythritol is necessary, otherwise the cookies won’t hold together. I’m planning to develop more recipes with liquid stevia, so hopefully you will find something suitable in the future.
Actually, if you omit the erythritol and add an egg, that should work. However, the texture won’t be as crunchy as without egg and with erythritol. Hope this helps!
thanks for the answer!
so, erythritol is more a way to obtain a batter crunchiness when you don’t use regular sugar, isn’t it? but, if I make a fluid-like recipe (like your lovely lemon curd) a liquid sweetener will be okay to or I really need erythritol?
thank you again and have a good day!
Gaia
Yes, something like that. Actually, liquid sweetener would work better in fluid-like recipes, since erythritol (especially erythritol crystals) sometimes form big and hard lumps in custards, curds, etc. However, I haven’t found a liquid sweetener which wouldn’t have a nasty aftertaste, that’s why I mostly use erythritol. Moreover, it could be that you have to adjust the amounts of the other ingredients if you try out some liquid sweetener in a recipe where is used erythritol.
Ever experimented with alternative proteins for this recipe? Plant based and/or egg white or even a combination? I know you tried your fluffy bread recipe with egg white protein and it completely changed the texture (still haven’t made it myself, but I will this weekend!) so I am curious what a different protein in this recipe would do. I am willing to experiment if you give me a suggestion as to which (plant or egg) or if I should use a combination of them. I have both on hand, but the vanilla flavor of the plant based one is not very strong and the egg white is unflavored because I bought it for the bread. Let me know your thoughts!
The more sweet goodies I can have on hand the better. My children and I are all gluten free (for about 9 months now) and I am more recently completely grain and sugar free. I try to keep my son as sugar free as possible as it affects his ADHD significantly. Since he has been GF his symptoms have decreased to almost nothing, but certain things set him off and sugar {especially HFCS omg!) is a huge culprit, along with food coloring. If he gets his hands on a conventional soda, especially Mt Dew, I can’t even be around him for like 2 hours! If he has gluten it’s a good 3 days before it is out of his system.
Anyway the point of this ridiculously long post is that I want to make him (and my daughter and me!) good tasting, wholesome treats that aren’t too complicated. That is why I am so glad I found your blog, which in turn led me to the discovery of erythritol! All of the GF alternatives for sweet treats still have as much sugar as their conventional counterparts (ie GF cookies) so I have to limit them. Plus they are just darned expensive!
Anyway, thank you again for your wonderful recipes and for always responding to posts. I look forward to your thoughts on this one.
It’s amazing how big effect a simple diet has! It’s great that you have found that GF and SF diet benefits you and your family.
I tried these cookies with egg white protein instead of whey protein and they turned out great, maybe slightly more fragile than with whey protein. My egg white protein was also unflavored, so I added 1 teaspoon vanilla extract to the butter and sweetener mixture. That brought nice vanilla flavor. I don’t know how plant-based protein would work, but at least pure egg white protein works well. Currently I have some hemp protein as plant-based protein and it turns everything green… Somehow I doubt it would work here, but I cannot say for sure. Anyway, hope you like the cookies if you try them out 🙂
I try to answer all comments and questions, anyway I’m here for you 🙂 Sometimes it may take almost a day, like now; my toddler is keeping me busy while my husband is on business trip… Hope my answers are not too late.
Oh yes, still one thing: you might want to make quite thick cookies, then they hold better together.
I’m wondering if I could use this cookie dough as a pie crust…we certainly liked it as cookies. Before I actually try it, would you comment on my chances for success?
Kathy, thanks for your question! I haven’t tried these cookies as pie crust, however I would expect that the result would be too crumbly, i.e. the crust doesn’t hold together very well. But like I said, I’m not absolutely sure about that. If you try out, please tell me how it turned out!
Thanks for your answer. I was afraid that you might think the cookie dough would be too delicate for a pie crust, but I thought that I’d ask because the flavour is so lovely.
Mmmm. I made these tonight. I didn’t have toffee stevia, so used a mix of regular and vanilla stevia and butterscotch extract because that was the closest I had to toffee. These are really great cookies. Both the texture and flavor are fabulous. 🙂
Tara, thanks for your comment, great to hear that you like them!
I just made the vanilla toffee cookies with vanilla stevia instead of toffee and then crumbled a couple over a little dish of the LC lemon curd and it tastes just like lemon meringue pie. So delicious!!!!
Cortney, thanks for leaving a comment! Great idea to crumble some cookies over lemon curd!
I have baked both the original recipe, and the chocolate variation, both enjoyed, but I think that we preferred the original by a slim margin. I did not have any toffee stevia so I subbed another brand flavouring, but now I will order some on-line. These cookies did not affect my husband’s blood sugar level..it is great to be able to make a dessert he can eat without guilt. I’m so glad that I found this site! Thanks for all your efforts to refine the recipe.
Kathy, so glad to hear that you and your husband like the cookies!
Hope this isn’t too much of a bother for you but could you answer a few questions for me related to the Crispy Tofee Cookies? What is erythritol? How is it sold in the grocery store? Where do you get almond flour?
Thanks,
Sal’s Girl
Sal, erythritol is a great substitute for sugar. Wikipedia has an article about it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erythritol. It has a bit “cool” aftertaste, like xylitol. It doesn’t usually rise blood sugar at all, and your stomach normally tolerates it better than for example xylitol or maltitol. You don’t find erythritol from a grocery store but you can order it easily and actually cheaper online. I order mine from iHerb (click the link in the recipe, it leads you to the product). Almond flour you get from health food store or online (also link in the recipe). There are other vendors as well, but especially erythritol is pretty cheap in iHerb.