Low Carb Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Hey everyone! I have some awesome cookies to try!

I have always loved cookies but have rarely made them since I started Keto. The cravings just aren't there like they used to be.

But today was the exception. I had to have a cookie!

I have had a favorite peanut butter &chocolate chip shortbread recipe that I have been making for years and suddenly found myself NEEDING some.

No, they aren't exactly the same but these are pretty damn good,  curbed my chocolate cravings and I felt like hiding them from the tween so I could keep them all to myself. (I didn't, but I wanted to).

They have just a hint of peanut butter and are soft and gooey , low carb -  high fat goodness.

I had mine with a little bit of unsweetened almond milk & it was the perfect afternoon snack before I went back to work.

Nut Butters & the Keto Diet

First, I would like to say that you can use any nut butter in this recipe. My favorite is peanut butter.

No, not the sugar laden, creamy stuff we all grew up on. But, natural peanut butter. You know, the kind with only two ingredients, peanuts and salt.

It takes a while to get used to if you grew up on Jif or Skippy or whatever kind your mom made your PB&J's with.

The "good stuff" separates and you have to keep it in the fridge to keep it in any kind of usable manner. I'll tell you right now that it was an acquired taste for me.

It was only when I had fully committed to losing weight that I finally gave this up the smooth, creamy goodness of the "bad for you" peanut butter.

Not everyone agrees that peanut butter should be a part of the Keto Diet.  There are reasonable replacements out there so if you don't like it than feel free to use almond butter or whatever you like.

But I love it and am here to say peanut butter is okay....if you're reasonable about it.

First, almond butter does have a slightly lower carb ratio and a higher fiber content. But, in this recipe there is 2 tablespoons of peanut butter and up the whole batch by only 4 carbs. If you make 24 cookies they carry 2 net grams of carbs each.

If you make more or less than the nutritional info will be different. Make sure to keep track of that if you are on a very strict Keto Diet for health reasons.

Tips:

• Gather all of your ingredients so nothing gets left out

Because it happens and it's a drag when it does. There are 13 ingredients in these cookies and it's easy to do. (This is not a quick Keto recipe but it's worth it if you need cookies).

These take me as long as regular chocolate chip cookies to make.

• These are the sugar free chocolate chips I use.

They really do taste pretty close to the "real thing". Food producers are catching on and making higher quality ingredients for us low-carbers.

You might notice that I only added ½ cup of chocolate chips to this Keto Cookie recipe.

I have 2 reasons for this~

1. They are a little spendy (but they are a treat and feel like I can justify the cost when it's between going off of the carb rails or buying these). I don't use them often but they are great to have on hand when I want them.

2. They contain Stevia. I don't love Stevia and you can see why in this post about low carb sweeteners.

Again, I feel like I need to choose my food battles and try to choose the lesser of two evils. I prefer erythritol to Stevia and these chips are made with erythritol and only contain a small amount of Stevia. I still don't love to put it in my body but feel like this is better than the inflammation of regular sugar (in small amounts).

The chips are smaller than the regular chocolate chips that come in the yellow bag so they spread out the chocolaty goodness. I feel like this allows me to get away with using less without affecting the chocolate flavor.

My biggest beef with this company is the way that they list the nutritional information on the bag.

Most apps won't pick up this info because they list a serving size as "60 chocolate chips". Who in the hell has time for that? Am I seriously supposed to count each one?

I did the math for this post but really...it seems like they could have listed a reasonable measurement.

Since they don't create an insulin response I suppose I should let it go. But I work hard to calculate nutrition on my site. It seems like food producers should too...rant over.

• No, you cant substitute coconut flour in these on a 1:1 ratio.

You can probably do it if you substitute 1:3 almond flour /coconut flour  ratio but I haven't tried it. If you do let me know in the comments below what happened.

• Don't skip lining your baking sheet with parchment paper.

Parchment paper is a Keto Bakers friend.

• Don't skip warming the cream cheese.

If you are going to do this in the microwave make sure to cover the bowl so it doesn't pop all over and make a mess. If you warm it in 15-20 second intervals you can avoid this.

• You'll know when your cookies are done when they look "dry" on top and don't jiggle too much when you shake the baking sheet a little bit.

Burned almond flour is bitter and makes your cookies suck. The raised parts should be brown. But if the whole cookie turns brown than you have over done them.

Don't worry, you'll get the hang of Keto Baking. It just takes a bit of "un-learning" if you are a seasoned baker.

• Feel free to add a little nutmeg, cinnamon, coconut flakes or whatever you love.
• Let them cool before you snarf them down.

Almond flour is very tender when it's warm. Letting them cool so that they stay together when you are eating them is better.

More low carb cookies:

• Almond Butter Cookies
• Keto Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
• Low Carb Magic Cookies
• Keto Lemon Poppy Seed Shortbread Cookies

The nutritional information on this site is provided as a courtesy. I am careful about my calculations but if you ever feel like anything is off on my website or any website please feel free to do your own calculations.

I hope you love these and find them when you need them most!

Cheers,

Brandy