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:
brenda williams says
love this website just discovered it 2 weeks ago. i’m visiting my mom so had to change things. changed the name to almond butter cookies. used almond extract and maple syrup had to use a hand held mixer forget the frig thing just plop them by the spoonfull flatten with finger and sprinkle slivered almonds on top. i also cook these about 12 to 15 min. so they are nice and brown. i did bring my silpat sheet to put in the cookie pan. i also made sure my butter was good and soft
Tammy says
I love butter cookies. Wondering if I could use sugar as a sweetener though?
Erin says
I have both your books and am really enjoying making the recipes. One of the things I loved to make pre-gluten-free discovery was cut-out butter cookies to decorate. I have a basket and cookie sticks ready to go. I’m making these in flower shapes to stand up in a basket like flowers for a friend. Can’t wait to try them!
celia says
thank you for the butter cookie recipe. I can’t eat butter or agave, but I substituted coconut oil for the butter and glycerine (I do have a very nice glycerine that is palm-sourced that is not hot or bitter). I also can’t have the vanilla extract at this time, so I put some spices in (ginger, nutmeg, cardamon, ceylon cinnamon and cassia)–
and I substituted one/fourth cup of the nut flour with cocoa. Also I used a variety of nut flours, and the texture was very nice. I find that adding nuts works well, too (chopped nuts).
Without your basic recipe I could never have done this, as I am not able to use chocolate chips; cookies are quite limited.
Thank you.
Esther Anders says
I tried these, they were really good. I did over cook some of them a little. Being pregnant I like my sweets just a little sweeter, so I put some jam in between two, and made it into a jam sandwich. Yummy. I might try these as a jelly filled cookie next time.
I just have 3 1/2 or so months to go, and eating more gluten free desserts (and dinners) have kept me at my lowest pregnancy gain so far, about 10 lbs. @ 25 weeks. This is #4, and normally I’ve gained way more then I have (about double) but by eating your brownies, cookies, and lemon bars…ect I’ve kept it way down. We got your cookbook and love that too. My husband loves the Chicken Pot Pie. I don’t eat allot of veggies, so for me it’s a great way of getting more in my diet. This little boy (as well as all the other babies I’ve had) would rather have a Boston cream doughnut then a salad. So I was so happy to have your recipes in my arsenal, it’s helped me so much over these last few months, and well year and 1/2, since we found your site. I wish I had more creativity with Gluten Free baking, maybe someday. Thank you for all your wonderful recipes. And this is a great recipe and super easy! Thank you again.
Heather says
We made these tonight, and they’re quite yummy! We don’t do sugar/agave, so I substituted 1/2 cup erythritol plus a couple of tiny scoops of KAL brand stevia, plus a splash of milk to make up for not using liquid sweetener. I creamed the erythritol with the butter with a hand mixer, and used almond extract instead of vanilla. I also added about 3/4 tsp. of xanthan gum, as I’ve heard it improves the texture of baked goods sweetened with erythritol. Finally, I just grabbed small balls of dough and flattened them, because we were all too impatient to wait for them to chill! My kids gobbled these up with glasses of local raw milk and said they loved them. I might try them with some lemon zest and extract next time. A definite success!
Amberley says
I’m so glad to hear that this recipe works with the erythritol stevia combo :) I’m not supposed to have sugar or agave (which is sugar) either. However, I had some leftover agave and I was out of erythritol so I made the recipe as is. It was fantastic! I’d love to make it with erythritol next time; I was just worried about it being crumbly without egg or anything to hold it together
Kobi says
I’ve been wanting to make these for sometime….wow. They are too good to be true!
Melissa says
Hi! I am looking for an alternative to the traditional “fruit pizza” for a brunch next weekend. Do you think this cookie could be used as the “crust” (traditional recipes use a sugar cookie base)? I was thinking of topping it with a cream cheese frosting, natural jam and of course fruit.
Chrissy says
That sounds genius! I bet it would work. :)
gigi says
These are wonderful! I added cinnamon and they were like snicker doodles. Add about 1 tbsp. YUM!
Cheri says
Hi, first time to visit this site, I’m looking for a gluten free, sugar free shortbread recipe to replace my traditional one. I like making halloween cookies in fun shapes to decorate and haven’t found a great tasting recipe yet. also an alternative decorators icing would be great!
My doc told me to switch to stevia but I’ve had a hard time getting my recipes to come out yummy, either too sweet or not sweet enough or some other stange result. I need help :(