Light and fluffy Christmas cream cheese cookies with a hint of peppermint. These festive Keto Peppermint Cream Cheese Cookies melt in your mouth.
These cookies were a special request, so I figured I’d give them a try.
They turned out pretty darn good! These have a consistency between a cookie and cake. Soft and chewy. And the red and green colors really pop and add to the Christmas spirit. And the addition of peppermint is just enough to add a subtle flavor layer to the cookie without overpowering the cream cheese.
FYI: most food colorings that you get in grocery stores and craft stores will have sugar and/or cane syrup, however, the amount would have to be teenie tiny, so I wouldn’t stress too much over it.
Also, it’s really hard to get around the dye issue, specifically with red. You can buy natural colorings but they don’t look very nice. Very muted and dull. Again, it’s probably a small amount and if you generally avoid dyes, this little amount shouldn’t be a big deal.
If you want to give the natural dyes a try, you might consider Natural Candy Store’s food dyes, however, I have not tried them so I can’t give a first hand account of how they work. FYI: they contain maltodextrin.
After rolling the dough into balls, the heat from your hands can make them sticky and spread more when cooking. I suggest refrigerating them for about 30 minutes before baking to help them keep their shape.
You can leave them in a ball for a thicker cookie or slightly flatten them to get more of a cookie look. Next time I’ll leave them in a ball, so they are thicker.
- 8 oz cream cheese softened
- 1/2 cup butter room temperature
- 1 1/4 cup Swerve granular
- 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp pepperment extract
- 2 1/2 cups almond flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- Red and green food coloring
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Preheat oven to 350 F degrees.
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Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or use silicone mats.
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In medium sized bowl, beat cream cheese and butter together until smooth and fluffy.
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Add Swerve and beat until fully incorporated.
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Add eggs and extracts and mix.
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In a separate medium-sized bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, xanthan gum, and salt.
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Add dry ingredients to the wet mixture and stir just until combined.
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Separate the dough into three small bowls.
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Add red food coloring to the mixture in one bowl. Green into another and leave one bowl without any coloring.
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Refrigerate for 60 minutes. If dough is still hard to work with, chill longer.
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To create marbled cookie, scoop about 1 tsp of each color dough into your hands and GENTLY roll together between the palms of your hands, forming a ball. Do not over mix or colors will blob together and make a yucky looking hue. Think brown instead of pretty red and green. 😛
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Place marbled dough ball on prepared baking sheets and chill for 30 minutes in the refrigerator. You can flatten them a bit before refrigerating if you want more of a cookie look or leave in a ball, so they’re a bit thicker and more cake-like. They will spread a little, so don’t put them too close together. Dough tends to warm up after handling it, so refrigerating helps some with the spreading.
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Bake 18-20 minutes. Cookies should be light in color and will seem a bit under-cooked, but do not over bake.
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Cool cookies on the baking sheet for about 15 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling. Cookies will firm up yet remain soft and a bit cake-like.
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Store in a tightly sealed container for up to two weeks, or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
The secret to marbling the dough without mixing the colors is to chill the dough thoroughly. The dough is super sticky and can be difficult to work with when at room temperature.
*Nutritional label does not include sugar alcohols or net carbs, so I’ve added that below as well as the NET CARBS.
Total Carbs: 5.8g
Dietary Fiber: 0g
Sugar Alcohols (erythritol): 4.1g
NET CARBS: 1.7g
Nutritional information is provided for recipes as a guide only. It cannot be 100% accurate. It’s included as a courtesy to give a general account of a recipe, so one can see if the macros are within the ballpark of where he/she needs to be. It is automatically calculated using WP recipe software integrated with a nutrition API. Please calculate your own nutritional information with the exact brand and ingredients you used before relying on the ones included with the recipe.
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