Soft and chewy keto chocolate cookies are made with nut butter and sweetened with stevia. Beware – they are addictive!
I always loved chewy cookies. It’s Ok if the edges are crisp, but as far as I’m concerned, the inside must be chewy, or they’re simply not worth the calories.
If you’re like me and prefer your cookies chewy, I think you are going to love these! They are so tasty and their texture is just wonderful. My only complaint is that it’s very difficult to stop at one. 🤭
This recipe took a lot of work
I worked really hard on this one. Sometimes I get an idea for a recipe, perform quick Internet research, come up with a recipe, and it’s an immediate success. These keto chocolate chip cookies are a great example.
Other times, I have to keep trying and tweaking until I get it just right. Ever since I started using stevia in my baked goods, this is usually the case, because removing granulated sweeteners, or even liquid sweeteners, from baked goods, requires some major adjustments.
This is one of those recipes where I had to make quite a few experiments until I got it right.
How I developed this keto chocolate cookies recipe
At first, I tried to adapt several recipes that I found online. For some reason, they all turned out really dry.
Finally, it occurred to me to start with my recipe for flourless peanut butter cookies and adapt that to include cocoa powder and to use stevia instead of honey.
This was finally a success, and perhaps even too successful, because I ate FOUR of these instead of the two I was planning to eat. 😳
On the bright side, any recipe that causes me to overeat is an excellent recipe.
The ingredients you’ll need
You’ll only need a few simple ingredients to make these tasty keto chocolate cookies. The exact measurements are included in the recipe card below. Here’s an overview of what you’ll need:
Natural creamy nut butter: I use tahini (sesame seed) butter, but any nut butter should work, as long as it’s fairly runny and not very thick.
Eggs: I use large eggs in most of my recipes, including this one.
Sweetener: I use stevia glycerite. You might be able to use a granulated sweetener instead, possibly adding a bit more water. But I haven’t tested it.
Unsweetened cocoa powder: It’s best to use natural cocoa powder. See the discussion below.
Salt and baking soda: If you’d like to try using baking powder (though I haven’t tested it in this recipe), remember that 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda is equivalent to 1 teaspoon of baking powder.
Chocolate chips: As dark as you can go and still enjoy them.
How to make keto chocolate cookies
Scroll down to the recipe card for the detailed instructions. Here are the basic steps:
Whisk the nut butter with the eggs, adding about 1/4 cup water to make the mixture easier to mix.
One by one, mix in the remaining ingredients. After adding the cocoa powder, add more water as needed to achieve smooth batter, usually about 1/4 cup.
Spoon 18 mounds of the mixture onto two parchment-lined cookie sheets. Top with chocolate chips.
Bake the cookies for about 8 minutes at 350°F. Cool them completely in the pan before removing them.
How to get the batter to be the right consistency
It’s an easy recipe, with one big caveat: it’s not foolproof. You will have to adjust the amount of water you add based on the consistency you get in your own kitchen. This will largely depend on the nut butter you use.
Nut butters vary greatly in their consistency. Even when using natural creamy nut butters, which is what you should use to make these keto chocolate cookies, their consistency can be quite unpredictable.
You can pretty much use any natural creamy nut butter you like. I used sesame butter (tahini) by Achva, which is quite runny as you can see in the video, and I still needed to add a total of 1/2 cup of water to the batter to get a nice and smooth consistency.
I assume you will need to use a similar amount of water, but I can’t know for sure. So my best advice to you would be to adjust as you go. You want the batter to be thick and smooth (the video shows you how it looks right before I scoop the cookies into the cookie sheets).
You don’t want the batter to be sticky or dry, but you also don’t want it to be thin and liquid. Thick, smooth and easy to mix is what you’re after.
Use natural cocoa powder
I recommend using natural cocoa powder, not Dutch-processed cocoa powder, when making these keto chocolate cookies. Natural cocoa powder is acidic and will react with the baking soda, helping the cookies become nice and tender.
Dutch-processed cocoa powder will state that on the container. Sometimes it will say “alkalized,” “European style” or “Dutched.”
I will note, however, that Cooks Illustrated claims that you CAN use them interchangeably. But I haven’t tried that with this particular recipe.
Allow the cookies to cool completely
Do allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 10 full minutes. They will be too soft to remove from the baking sheet when you pull them out of the oven.
And after you transfer them to a cooling rack, give them 20 more minutes to cool completely.
I tried having one when it was still warm, and it wasn’t good. It was too soft and the flavors didn’t fully develop. So naturally, I just had to have three more once they WERE perfect! 😀
How to store leftovers
I keep leftovers in the fridge, in an airtight container, for 3-4 days. I warm them up very gently in the microwave, 5 seconds per cookie on 50% power, before enjoying.
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Keto Chocolate Cookies
INGREDIENTS
- 1 cup natural creamy nut butter, no sugar or salt added (I used sesame butter)
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 cup water, divided
- 1.5 teaspoons stevia glycerite (equals 1/2 cup sugar)
- Pinch salt
- 1/2 cup natural unsweetened cocoa powder, not Dutch-processed
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/3 cup dark chocolate chips (1.5 oz)
INSTRUCTIONS
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
- In a medium mixing bowl, whisk the nut butter with the eggs until smooth. When mixture becomes sticky and difficult to mix, start adding water gradually, a tablespoon at a time, until you reach a smooth consistency. You will likely need to add 1/4 cup water.
- Whisk in the stevia and, if using, salt.
- Using a rubber spatula, mix in the cocoa powder. Just as in step 2, you want a smooth, easy to mix batter, so add water until you reach that consistency. How much water you will need to add depends on the consistency of the nut butter you use. I usually end up using a total of 1/2 measuring cup of water in this recipe. So I add about 1/4 cup in step 2, and 1/4 cup in this step.
- Mix in the baking soda.
- Using a cookie scoop, or a 2-tablespoons measuring scoop, spoon 18 mounds of the batter onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing the cookies 1.5 inches apart (they expand as they bake). Do not flatten the mounds.
- Top each cookie with 5-6 chocolate chips, gently pressing them in.
- Place the cookie sheets on the middle and bottom oven racks. Bake the cookies for 8 minutes. The cookies will be very soft at this point, but they will set as they cool. Don’t try to remove them right away.
- Cool the cookies 10 minutes in the pan, on a cooling rack, then use a cake server to carefully transfer the cookies directly to the cooling rack to cool completely. Do let the cookies cool completely – about 20 more minutes – before serving them, or they will still be the wrong consistency – too soft.
- Once completely cool, you can store leftover cookies in the fridge, in an airtight container, for 3-4 days. Very gently heat them in the microwave, 5 seconds per cookie on 50% power, before enjoying.
WATCH THE VIDEO:
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Vered DeLeeuw, LL.M., CNC, has been following a low-carb real-food diet and blogging about it since 2011. She's a Certified Nutrition Coach (NASM-CNC), has taken courses at the Harvard School of Public Health, and has earned a Nutrition and Healthy Living Certificate from Cornell University. Her work has appeared in several major media outlets, including Healthline, HuffPost, Today, Women's Health, Shape, Reader's Digest, and Better Homes and Gardens.