Here. Have a gratuitous recipe post. Because you deserve a piece of Vanilla Cranberry Shortbread (or two). Because Valentine’s Day is coming. Because I love you.
Vanilla Cranberry Shortbread
Author: Carrie Brown | Prep time: 15 mins | Cook time: 20 mins | Total time: 35 mins | Serves: 20 – 30 (depending on size of your cutter)
What You Need
- 8 oz / 225g butter, at room temperature
- 4 oz / 110g xylitol OR erythritol
- 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 15 oz / 420g almond flour / ground almonds
- 1 tsp xanthan gum
- 1 tsp konjac flour / glucomannan powder
- 4 oz / 110g dried unsweetened cranberries, finely chopped (also see Top Tips)
What You Do
- Mix butter, xylitol OR allulose, and vanilla together with a hand mixer until well creamed.
- Mix in the almond flour, xanthan gum, konjac flour, and chopped cranberries until a dough is formed. When you start mixing the almond flour in you’ll think there’s no way it’s going to work. It will.
- Turn dough onto surface, using a dusting of almond flour to prevent sticking if necessary.
- Roll dough to ½ inch thick, and use a cutter to cut out shapes.
- Place on a greased baking sheet or use a silicone baking mat in your baking sheet.
- Bake at 300F for around 20 minutes, just until they start to turn very pale brown.
- Remove the baking sheet(s) from the oven and leave the shortbread on the baking sheets until cool. Do not try to move them!
- Step away from the shortbread! Seriously. Leave them to cool.
- Once cool, using a spatula or palette knife, carefully transfer to a wire rack to get completely cold.
- Once they are completely cold, I highly recommend packing them in an airtight container and leaving them overnight if you can possibly stand it. They firm up and have a better texture. If you cannot wait overnight, once they are cold, pop them in the freezer on the cooling rack for a couple of hours. Then pack them in an airtight container to store them.
Top Recipe Tips
- If you keep your butter in the fridge you will find this easier if you leave the butter out overnight before making these. You can also soften the butter in a microwave if you forget to get it out of the fridge ahead of time.
- This shortbread dough can be made in advance, stored in the ‘fridge and baked as required. Allow the dough to come to room temperature before rolling, cutting and baking.
- If you make very small cookies, chop your cranberries very finely otherwise you’l have ugly cookies. Or very rustic, messy looking cookies. If you like that look, don’t worry about chopping so finely.
- Allulose will give you a browner shortbread.
- If you cannot find unsweetened cranberries look for Ocean Spray 50% less sugar dried cranberries. They have significantly less sugar. Even if you use regular dried cranberries, the amount of cranberries in one piece of shortbread is very small. Use whichever works best for your budget, health goals, level of metabolic damage, and BG and insulin status.
- Check out the Ingredients Guide for information on ingredients.
- Where Are The Macros and Nutritional Info?
Helpful Cooking and Recipe Links
- More cookie recipes
- Come laugh and learn with us over at The Kitchen Podcast
- Come hang out in The Keto Kitchen Facebook Group
- For lots more great recipes check out our scrumptious cookbooks!
- Check out the categories and tags at the bottom of the post to help you find more recipes using certain ingredients or from certain categories.
Podcast Episodes and You Tube Videos
- How and Why to Measure Food
- Where Are The Macros and Nutritional Info?
- Keto / Low Carb Treats: should you eat them? Hear what Dr. Ken Berry and I have to say about it!
Substitutions
- Don’t. Just buy the correct ingredients and you, too, shall have a fabulous outcome!
- Xylitol or allulose are the sweeteners I recommend because they work very well. You can use any other sweetener you like, but I cannot guarantee the results if you choose to use something different. In low carb and keto baking sweeteners are generally not interchangeable if you want great results.
- There is no sub for konjac flour. If you leave it out the texture will suffer.
- There is no sub for xanthan gum. If you leave it out the texture and strength will not be as good.
Claire LucasThanks Carrie, can’t wait to make these :-)
allisolHouston, we had a problem. Something went wrong with my batch. They will probably taste OK, but I just took them out of the oven and they look NOTHING like yours, and they didn’t act like you said they would either.
For one, I had to measure the butter using my digital scale (FUN!). Not sure if that was accurate but I was 1.5 oz too short so I had to add the rest from salted butter. Hope that didn’t mess things up. Then the almond flour was in a package of 16 oz, so I took out one ounce and put in the rest of the package. That shouldn’t be a problem, theoretically.
Disclosure: I put in crushed cocoa nubs instead of cranberries. Don’t like cranberries. Have difficulty following recipes to a T. Love to modify. :)
So, the “roll out the dough” part was laughable. It was more like a blob. There was no dough at all. I looked at the recipe to see what liquid I might have added in excess but really there was nothing so I’m thinking it was the butter. I had to put BLOBS of dough on the cookie sheet with a spoon. I tried to spread them out to be 1/2″ thick. In the end it didn’t matter, they flattened like a pancake.
They smell amazing, but I will follow instructions and wait until tomorrow to eat them. I’m a little worried about the xylitol. My sensitive digestive system does not like a lot of -ol sugars. When I was measuring it out it seemed like a lot. I might have to make them less SANE and do half xylitol and half sugar. What would the measurements be for that? We’ll see. Perhaps moderation is key. I’ll find out tomorrow. So will the rest of my household.
Let me know if you have any thoughts about my dough that was blobby. Thanks!
PS: My kids are begging me to eat them so something must be right!
carrieHmmm. Given that there is no liquid in them except vanilla extract, and I doubt you put a significant amount of that in more than the recipe stated, the only thing that makes sense (assuming that you weighed everything correctly) is that you live in AZ and it was warm. Very warm. And the butter about melted. In which case you would need to pop the “dough” in the ‘fridge to firm up before kneading it and rolling it out. Or, once you have done the creaming part, put it in the ‘fridge for a bit to firm up before you add the almond flour.
Also, I would not worry about the xylitol. It is not the same as other sugar alcohols you may have run into like sorbitol or mannitol. Plus, unless you eat the entire batch in one sitting, the amount in each cookie is small. I would not advise swapping out any for sugar – you will defeat half the purpose of making them SANE. When I first ate xylitol I had a “tiny” reaction for the first few days and then it totally went away. Now I can eat an entire batch of shortbread or whatever crammed with xylitol with no effect whatsoever.
Hope that helps!
AllisolOh yes. I think that was it. The butter was very very soft. I’ll put the next batch in the fridge. There will be another batch soon. I know you said to wait but I’ve had three so far and hubby and daughter both had one. We all looove them. Daughter is begging for more. She has 11 year old taste buds so she is used to full on toll house cookies. For her to like these is huge!! I see lots of experimenting in my future! And no xylitol problems, just like you said. Hugs to you for a great treat.
carrieYAY!!! And PHEW!!!
ScottHi Carrie – Do you have any advice on where to find dried un-sweetened cranberries? Thanks!
carrieScott – huge apologies – that was an over-zealous typo on the cranberries. Cranberries I have not found unsweetened. All other dried fruit, yes. I’ve corrected it!!
SuePlease help me with the sweetener.
I have the small packets of xylitol and the big bag of stevia in the raw.
4 oz of either doesn’t seem right. (Almost half of the big bag)
I’ve made both your biscuits and they were fabulous, but I think I sould finally learn the correct way to measure the sweetener.
Thank you for your help.
carrieSue – I just emailed you in order to help you with this.
SierraHas ANYONE been able to wait until the next day to eat these? Delish! And my toddler and hubby don’t even know they are SANE!!! Hooray 4 Carrie!!!!
carrieHa ha, Sierra! No one who taste-tested these had any idea they had no flour or grains. In fact I had people ARGUE with me as they ate them because they couldn’t believe it!!
Ladyp1234Delicious. Swapped cranberries for 85% cocoa chocolate, and now my 11 yr old takes them to school for snack instead of crisps. And I eat them with coffee in evening when I need some comfort food!
carrieAh, yes…coffee and shortbread. Fantastic! Especially when it’s SANE :-)
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Jenny FarrellHi! I’ve introduced myself to this new healthier eating lifestyle this week. I am from Manchester UK and had stumbled upon a Podcast by accident. To cut a long story short, I have a sweet tooth, and being in a transition stage (only on day 3 so far) wanted something sweet to eat. I have made this recipe today and am really impressed with the taste and consistency. I will definitely be making more. I am still struggling to move my head out of the ‘how many calories?’ cloud and worry that these might make me fat! I have only eaten one though and I’m sure time will tell. Fingers crossed :)
carrieGO, Jenny!! :-)
rosalynHi…can you tell me if i don’t. Want yo roll them out….can i just flatten and bake,like a small round flat shortbread cookie? I cannot wait to try these!!!! And also do you think drained maraschino cherries would work?? Thanks!!
carrieHi Rosalyn – the cherries would work if they are drained VERY well, but they are pretty high in sugar. Yes you can flatten them, but if they are much thicker than the recipe states them you will probably have to adjust the cooking to longer and maybe lower the temperature so they cook all the way through without browning too much. Hope that helps!
rosalynAlso in cups, can you tell us how much almond flour and how much xylitol…..thanks!
SarahIs it passable to interchange xylitol and Erythritol?
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Cinnamon Pecan Cream » The Real Carrie Brown[…] all goes a lot better when I’m not fueled by sugars. A couple of unsweetened cranberries in a cookie, or a couple shards of apricots in a cupcake here and there, but that’s it. Dried fruit […]
JEAN HAASThanks for sharing these today! I am excited to try them over the long weekend. ?
SherylThe ingredients say Xylitol OR Erythritol but the instructions say Xylitol or Allulose?? Would Allulose not make them too soft?