This keto animal cookies recipe is dedicated to all of you who grew up thinking animal cookies were their own food group (that includes me!)…
Because those nostalgic pink and white candy-coated cookies are back on the menu friends.
These low carb desserts are just as fun to eat as they are to make — I used my low carb graham crackers recipe as the base, then dipped the low carb cookies in sugar-free white chocolate, and covered them in sprinkles.
They make for marvelous low carb desserts or celebratory snacks, and I’m SO excited to share this recipe with you!
Psst — Hubby says these are his FAVORITE cookies ever!
Looking for more keto desserts? Check out my keto chocolate chip cookies, keto shortbread cookies, or my keto ice cream recipe.
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What I Love About This Low Carb Animal Cookies Recipe
Hmmm… well… they’re KETO ANIMAL COOKIES! So everything. And…
- Perfectly sweet, nice and crisp, and they’re COATED IN WHITE CHOCOLATE!
- Super easy recipe. The coating is a melt and dip situation, who doesn’t love that!
- Each cookie is small, so it helps with portion control.
- They’re fun to make and decorate. It makes for a great family activity because everyone, no matter how many carbs they eat a day, loves animal cookies!
Recipe Notes
Just a few tips and tricks and you’ll be snacking on these delectable animal cookies in no time!
Ingredient Notes
As mentioned before, the dough for these low carb animal cookies is the same as my keto graham crackers (lightly sweet, similar to animal crackers). So the ingredient list is pretty standard, but there are a few special items I’d like to point out:
Xanthan gum – Since gluten-free flours (in this recipe’s case, almond flour) don’t have the same binding capabilities, we need an additional ingredient to bind everything together. Enter xanthan gum. Works like magic, even in very small amounts!
Almond flour – Use fine-grained almond flour for the most flour-like texture. My preferred brands are Bob’s Red Mill, Trader Joes, or Costco almond flours.
Keto white chocolate – You can make your own (my recipe is super easy if you see yourself eating a lot of white chocolate!)…
Or grab a bag online. I’ve tested two brands and have been shockingly stoked on both: ChocZero and Bake Believe — both are pretty expensive on Amazon, but I was able to find Bake Believe at Walmart for a fraction of the price, yay!
I find that the cooling effect from the sugar alcohol in both these products was minimal once the cookies had cooled and fully set, SCORE!
Food Coloring (and natural substitute) – For the pink version of these cookies, we’ll want to add some sort of coloring.
You can use traditional food coloring, or raspberry powder for a natural alternative (check out all these awesome natural food coloring ideas!). Or, grab a bag of freezer dried raspberries and toss them in your food processor until they’re powdered.
The amount you add will vary depending on how pink you’d like your cookies. Start with a little, and work your way up.
Sprinkles – Ok, don’t yell. I used Milton’s traditional rainbow sprinkles, which contain 4g carbs per teaspoon. I used 2 teaspoons (8g carbs) on the entire recipe of 70 cookies, which means each cookie has .11 g carbs from the sprinkles.
If you’re looking for a keto alternative to these sprinkles, check out The Sprinkle Company on Etsy. I haven’t tested these out, but have heard great things from readers.
Tools To Make
All you’ll need to make these keto animal cookies are a few kitchen tools, plus some fun new cookie cutters:
- Food processor – I find this is the easiest way to mix the dough. You can also do this with a spatula in a large bowl.
- Cookie cutters – Grab some cute mini animal cookie cutters! I love these, these and these.
- Baking sheet – for baking the cookies.
- Rolling Pin – to roll the cookie dough nice and thin.
- Parchment paper – to roll out and cook the cookies on. Also, to cut down on the mess from the white chocolate.
- Microwave safe bowl – for melting the chocolate
- Rubber spatula – for mixing in the melted chocolate
Can You Freeze These?
Totally! This cookie recipe makes a big old batch, so I strongly suggest you do so.
I actually like to store them in the freezer so none of them go to waste, and we have desserts to grab anytime we’re craving them.
Serving Recommendations
These animal cookies are DELICIOUS on their own with a glass of keto milk.
Or take it up a few notches and get creative — you can mix them into a scoop of your low carb ice cream or top your keto cheesecake with them (just a few ideas I grabbed from Pinterest?).
Recipe Variations
Since there are so many potential ingredient swaps for this recipe, check out the ingredient notes above for more variations.
But if you’re looking to switch up the flavor a bit, here are some ideas:
- Dip your cookies in keto chocolate instead of the white chocolate.
- Switch up the shapes — you can make anything you’d like! Alphabet, holiday cookies, you name it.
- Use frosting (such as my keto cream cheese frosting) instead of white chocolate. This stuff is easy to make at home and less expensive.
- Use freezer dried fruit for sprinkles — you can use crushed freezer fried raspberries, blueberries and strawberries for a touch of color to decorate your cookies. Check out my keto cream cheese cookies where I did this to get an idea.
More Keto Dessert Recipes
Looking for more keto desserts to add to your recipe tin? Here are my favorite recipes:
- Keto Oatmeal Cookies
- Cookie Dough Fat Bombs
- Strawberry Cheesecake Fat Bombs
- Keto Whipped Cream
- Keto Fudge
Keto Animal Cookies
Print Recipe Pin RecipeIngredients
Cookies:
- 1 1/2 Cup Almond Flour
- 1/2 Teaspoon Kosher Salt
- 1/2 Teaspoon Xanthan Gum
- 1/2 Cup Swerve or Lakanto (see sweetener notes below)
- 2 Tablespoon Unsalted Butter cut into 1/4" cubes
- 1/4 Cup Almond Milk unsweetened. Can use low carb milk of choice
Frosting:
- 1 1/2 Cup Sugar Free White Chocolate
- Red Food Color or Raspberry Powder*
- Rainbow Sprinkles optional! See notes below**
Instructions
- Add almond flour (1 1/2 cup), salt (1/2 teaspoon), xanthan gum (1/2 teaspoon), and erythritol (1/2 cup) to a food processor. Pulse several times to combine.
- Add unsalted butter (2 tablespoon) and almond milk (1/4 cup), occasionally scraping down the sides of the food processor to thoroughly combine everything. Process until the dough forms into a ball.
- Form the dough into 2 small balls, and press each into a disk.
- Roll each disk between 2 pieces of parchment paper until 1/8" thick -- The thinner the dough, the crisper your cookies will be.
- Remove the top sheet of parchment, and cut the dough using cookie cutters. If your dough is picking up off the bottom parchment, place it in the freezer for 15 minutes (this allows the butter to harden and make it easier to work with).
- Place cut cookies in the freezer for 15 minutes (this makes the cookies more mobile and easier to spread out on your cookie sheet).
- Preheat oven to 350 F.
- Remove cookies from the freezer and spread them out on a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet.
- Bake in preheated oven for 8-11 minutes. You'll know they're done once the edges are golden.
- Allow your cookies to cool completely on the parchment paper before moving.
- Meanwhile, melt the sugar-free white chocolates (1 1/2 cup) in the microwave, using 30-second intervals. Stir the chocolate every 30 seconds until smooth.
- Divide the melted white chocolate into 2 bowls. Add food coloring or raspberry powder to one of the bowls and stir. Add more/less depending on how pink you would like the pink version to be.
- Dip the cookies into the melted chocolate, switching between the white and pink. Place them on a cookie rack nested into a rimmed cookie sheet. Option to sprinkle the cookies with rainbow sprinkles.
- Allow cookies to set completely by placing them in the fridge for at least an hour. Enjoy!
Fans Also Made These Healthy Recipes:
Lindsey's Tips
- Almond Flour. Using fine-grained almond flour will yield the most "flour-like" results. My favorite brands are Bob's Red Mill, Trader Joe's, or Costco brands.
- Chocolate. I love Lily's chocolate chips for this (they make dark, semi-sweet, and milk) but you can always make your own low carb chocolate by following my recipe!
- Lakanto, Swerve, or Erythritol. I stick to Lakanto and Swerve which are a 1:1 swap with traditional sugar. If using a different brand of Erythritol, keep in mind it's 70% as sweet as sugar, so you may need to add more to taste.
- Milk. I swap between unsweetened light almond or coconut milk.
- Xanthan Gum is necessary for binding the ingredients of this recipe together, you CAN'T SKIP OR SUB!
- Food Coloring: I use dehydrated raspberries that I process into powder in the food processor.
- Sprinkles: Many of you may choose to skip the sprinkles. There are 4g of sugar per teaspoon of sprinkles, and I used 2 teaspoons for the entire recipe.
- Serving Size: Using this recipe, I was able to make 70 cookies. Which would mean the nutritional information below is based on 2 cookies. This will vary with the size of your cookie cutters, etc.
- Nutritional information: based on using Better Bake white chocolate chips, 2 teaspoons of Wilton's rainbow sprinkles, and 2 tablespoons of raspberry powder. Each serving has 4.8g sugar alcohols, 2g fiber, and .2g NET CARBS:
These cookies are the best..I can’t help but munch them all the time ?
I feel you Roxie! It’s so gooood! ? I’m so glad you enjoyed it as much as I do!?