Try these diet specific shortbread recipes

While I was experimenting with variations of shortbread I started thinking about the different diets out there, in particular Ketogenic and Gluten free diets. I was thinking, “Wouldn’t it be great to have a basic ketogenic and gluten free shortbread type cookie to create variations with?” This is when the search for the perfect ketogentic and gluten free shortbread recipe started. Nothing extraordinary came from this search, unfortunately. The two diet specific shortbread recipes I finally tried are below along with my comments.

Keto shortbread ingredients

6 tbsp butter
2 c almond flour
1/3 c granulated sweetener (Splenda, Ideal, Swerve etc.)

Keto shortbread directions

Melt butter in small pan or in microwave.
Add in almond flour and sweetener and mix until fully combined.
Form dough into a cylinder and wrap with plastic wrap to compress. (Dough will be crumbly, but this is normal.)
Chill in freezer for 30 minutes or until firm or in fridge for 2 hours, or until firm.
With sharp knife cut into 1/2 inch slices. If slices crumble, then dough is not cold enough.
Bake on a greased cookie sheet at 350F for 15 minutes or until golden brown and hard.
Allow to cool before removing from cookie sheet.

Keto almond flour shortbread — Ketogenic Almond flour shortbread

Gluten Free shortbread ingredients

8 tbsp coconut flour
4 tbsp butter at room temperature
1 tbsp maple syrup or honey
1/2 tsp vanilla

Gluten free shortbread directions

Preheat oven to 350F and line a baking sheet.
Cream together butter and coconut flour.
Add in maple syrup and vanilla.
Using a spoon or cookie scoop, scoop out 1 tbsp of dough onto baking sheet and flatten with a fork.
Bake for 8-10 minutes until cookies are lightly browned on the bottom.
Let cookies cool completely before removing from baking sheet.

gluten free coconut flour shortbread — Gluten-free coconut flour shortbread

The Keto shortbread recipe above was inspired by the Lemon Almond Shortbread Cookie found in [1]. I just omitted the lemon. It’s both a low carb and gluten free cookie so could be a gluten free alternative as well. The gluten free shortbread recipe above was tried from Coconut Flour Shortbread Cookies found in [2].

The first thing I noticed about each recipe is that they do not contain any flour or white granulated sugar, for obvious reasons. Both diets minimize the carbohydrates that are eaten. The sweetener substitute for the ketogneic recipe was interesting as it forced me to learn about alternative sweeteners. Two that I came across that I had never heard of where eythritol and xylitol. I found both at Bulk Barn and both had a white sugar like appearance and granular feel. I ended up going with xylitol but honestly, I couldn’t tell the difference. For the gluten free recipe I used honey which is pretty common and easily found in stores.

The flours were interesting. The almond flour in the ketogenic recipe turned out to be just almonds ground into a coarse powder. When I mixed all the ingredients together, it was very hard to roll into a cylinder and wrap plastic wrap around the cylinder without it falling apart. I eventually managed to get the dough wrapped up and in the freezer. Even after freeing it for the 30 minutes or more wasn’t enough to prevent crumbling while cutting slices. I had to eventually cut the slices larger than suggested to prevent too much crumbling.

The gluten free shortbread recipe that I tried used coconut flour. The coconut flour was much finer and lighter. It almost had the consistency of cornstarch or icing sugar. This dough was again very hard to roll out into balls or even keep clumped together. I had to use a lot of pressure and then be very careful while placing it on the baking sheet.

For both recipes the outcomes was similar in that after it was baked for the allotted time, they were still very crumbly. The first baking sheet I tried for either recipe, I ended up putting back in the oven thinking they’d harden up and come together more if baked longer. They just got burnt at the bottom. What I did notice is that after taking them out of the oven and
leaving them out and alone undisturbed to cool, the cookies started to stick together and eventually were not a crumbly mess. Lesson learned, don’t mess with keto and gluten free cookiees.

As for the taste, neither tasted like a shortbread. The keto shortbread with the almond flour tasted like almonds, had a crumbly texture, yet hard and was sweet. It reminded me of hard marzipan. The gluten free shortbread was very different and honestly not one I would recommend. It was very chalky in taste and texture; very hard to swallow. It was still crumbly, so rather delicate to pick up. There was no sweetness to it, so the quantity of sweetener I supposed was not enough. My tasters were not impressed either. In the end they were given to the birds who I like to think appreciated them.

As for variations on either of these two recipes or any diet specific shortbread recipe, I would not recommend it. I don’t think the dough of either the keto or gluten free shortbread would hold up well to any variation that included more dry or crumbly ingredients. e.g. S’mores A variation that included something moist may work. e.g. Any cherry or cheddar inspired variant. Chocolate orange with orange extract and some melted chocolate may be possible but I’d stay away from adding cocoa powder or chocolate chips.

In the end, the cream buttery taste of a true shortbread just isn’t there in either of these diet specific shortbread recipes above. As a keto and gluten free cookie with almond and coconut flour, respectively, they are a fine cookie and should be remain as such. But as a shortbread or a shortbread variation, more experimenting would be required to find the optimal mix of ingredients to get the desires texture, taste and shape.

References:

Lemon Almond Shortbread Cookies (Low Carb & Gluten Free), March 2013, I Breathe, I’m Hungry, URL: https://www.ibreatheimhungry.com/lemon-almond-shortbread-cookies-low-carb-gluten-free/
Coconut Flour Shortbread Cookies, Kristine In Between, URL: https://kristineinbetween.com/coconut-flour-shortbread-cookies/
Erythritol – Like Sugar Without the Calories?, April 2018, Kris Gunnars, Health Line, URL: https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/erythritol
Xylitol: Everything You Need to Know, Oct 2018, Kriss Gunnars, Health Line, URL: https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/xylitol-101

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Lani and Norm

I enjoy learning and sharing that knowledge.Sharing has been in many forms over the years, as a teaching assistant, university lecturer, Pilates instructor, math tutor and just sharing with friends and family.Throughout, summarizing what I have learnt in words has always been there and continues to through blog posts, articles, video and the ever growing forms of content out there!