This simple Paleo Butter Cookie recipe is made with just 5 ingredients –almond flour, butter, honey, vanilla, and salt. I love baking cookies with heart healthy almond flour because it’s so easy to use!
This easy paleo cookie recipe is one that my friend Mary and I like to bake when we get together. We met on the first day of orientation of college at Columbia University and have been very close ever since. She is one of the smartest, funniest people I know. When we were younger we ate our way through New York City, and spent countless hours in the kitchen together as well.
Yesterday, Mary emailed me and asked for, “that cookie recipe with almond flour and butter.” Well, that would cover a couple dozen of my recipes. After a bit of email back and forth, we narrowed it down to one of the recipes I had concocted a few years ago, when I still lived in New York. Here it is, Mary, my recipe for Paleo Butter Cookies.
Butter Cookies
Ingredients
- 2½ cups blanched almond flour (not almond meal)
- ¼ teaspoon celtic sea salt
- ½ cup salted butter, cut into pieces
- ¼ cup agave nectar or honey
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Pulse together almond flour and salt In a food processor
- Pulse in butter, honey, and vanilla until well combined
- Separate dough into 2 balls and place each on a piece of parchment paper
- Cover each ball of dough with another piece of parchment paper and roll out ¼ inch thick
- Place in freezer for 30 minutes
- Using a 2 inch cookie cutter (or the top of a 2-inch wide jelly jar) cut out cookies *
- Bake at 350°F for 5-7 minutes
- Cool and serve
Please note, if your cookie dough becomes too soft to work with, roll it out again between the 2 pieces of parchment paper and return to freezer for 10 minutes.
Here are some of my other easy cookie recipes:
Amy says
I made these today. The only thing I did differently was I formed them into a log and sliced them (as another commenter suggested.) They turned out really yummy. I would definitely make these again. Thanks Elana!
Heidie Godfrey says
I made these wonderful cookies.. but just dropped them on a cookie sheet and pressed my thumb in the middle and used all fruit blackberry jam in the “thumb print” YUM YUM YUM
Carol Hahn says
This recipe is wonderful and I added 5 Medjool pitted dates to the mix and it was enjoyed by all. Also I formed the dough into 2 long rolls in wax paper and placed in freezer for about 40 to 60 minutes. Slice and bake in 1/4″ slices, of course, using parchment paper for easy removal and cleanup. This was much easier and no excess mess. My cookies were about 2″ in diameter. YUM!
Karen says
Did you add the dates in addition to the sweetener she listed or instead of……… I’d love a good date cookie!
Elana says
Thanks for your comment Karen! I don’t have any date cookie recipes, but I have a wonderful recipe for Date Bread here:
https://elanaspantry.com/paleo-date-walnut-bread/
Enjoy!
Elana
Amber says
Elana,
I am in desperate need for a GF/CF biscuit for a 6 year old little girl. My daughter was just diagnosed with major food allergies, and she is craving biscuits. I made the biscuits from your book. They were awesome, but she is used to a “white” biscuit. Do you have any recipes for biscuits using coconut flour that looks a little more like a traditional biscuit?
Thank you so much,
Amber
Mary says
There is a recipe for a coconut flour biscuit in Bruce Fife’s book “Cooking with Coconut Flour.” Can make it plain, or with bacon, or cheese. It’s a pretty good substitute for a wheat biscuit, and it is white.
Gina says
Hi Elana, I was excited to come across your site and have tried your delicious lemon poppy seed muffins. The only thing is, I am on the candida diet which is super strict, so I am only allowed Stevia for a sweetener. My butter cookies crumbled when I tried to take them out of the pan. They were delicious, I just wish they would stay in cookie form! :) Any suggestions? (I was using the liquid extract, not the powder form of Stevia). I’m trying to figure out the consistency of the agave nectar and level of sweetness compared to Stevia.
By the way, I adore you for your healthy, functional, simple and delicious recipes- keep up the admirable work!
Maeve says
I made this last night, with a number of substitutions.
I halved the recipe, used almonds I’d ground up at home instead of store-bought almond flour, substituted the agave with half brown rice syrup and half apple syrup (reduced fresh apple juice), and substituted the butter with half grapeseed oil and half toasted hazelnut oil.
I baked them at 350 for about 8-9 minutes.
They were a little greasy for me, and a little sweet (I don’t eat refined sugars anymore, the sweetest things I get these days are apples). I figure the extra greasiness is due to the oils instead of butter. Next time, I may add in some glutinous rice flour or something to make them slightly tea-biscuit-y-er. I suspect oat flour could also be a very nice accompaniment.
They did smell utterly fantastic when baking up. It’s been a long time since I’ve had cookies I could actually eat. :)
Robert says
Very good recipe. I substituted an equal amount of honey for agave syrup — perhaps I should have adjusted the amount up, since I hear agave syrup is sweeter than honey. The first thing I noticed was that it took ~15 minutes to bake instead of 5-7. This may be a result of my oven being untrustworthy, although it seems to be fairly modern. It also was less sweet than I would have liked, but was incredible with a little dollop of raspberry jam or honey on top.
kristy says
Elana
I love your site and your recipes!
I am gluten intolerant. I have not had the Celiac test yet as my doctor only recommended that I follow a gluten free diet at this point.
I attempted to make these cookies but they came out very bitter, I am not exactly sure what I did wrong.
Do you think it is possible
that I did not add enough Vanilla???
If that is the case would they be bitter?
What kind of butter do you use?
I am excited to try more of your recipes.
Thanks
Kristy
Layne says
Mine were bitter too! I am a great baker and have never had a bitter result. I have made the CC cookies and they were great. I can only assume that it is my butter. I used maple syrup for sweetener.
Won’t make these again
jessica says
i’ve made these a dozen times (followed the directions, used the exact ingredients) and they always come out tasting great…
i would try making them again, without substituting ingredients, also making sure your ingredients are fresh (ie. salted butter)
Jessica says
Mine turned out bitter too. Just bought the Honeyville almond flour 1 1/2 weeks ago and it’s been stored in the fridge…fresh butter, etc. Still bitter.
Amanda says
I would also suggest that you make sure your almond flour is fresh. I always keep nuts and nut flour in the freezer as they can go rancid. I suspect this might not be as much of a problem with the blanched almond flour, but I would keep it in the freezer just the same. The butter could be the culprit too.
Carey says
This is my second fave recipe thus far..the first being the chocolate orange truffles. I tried rolling them out but it didn’t go too well. So, I balled them up and smushed them by hand. This was more fun.
Stefani says
Elana, I have a few new recipes that call for bulgur wheat. What do you think would be a good gluten free substitution for that?