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:
Andtea says
I just made these using honey. I skipped the vanilla and added the zest of a lemon and a hint of fresh finely chopped rosemary. They are amazing. Thank you.
Elana says
Andtea, so glad to hear these were amazing :-)
Heather says
This may be a silly question but can these cookies be frozen and would there need to be anything special done when thawing them? Thank you!
Elana says
Heather, I haven’t tried that so not sure, if you do please let us know how it goes :-)
Paulina says
I just made these cookies. Because I’m on a candida diet, I used Stevia instead of another sweetener. I used the NOW brand ‘Better Stevia’ Extract Powder which comes in a small container with a teeny tiny spoon about an 1/8th of an inch across. Believe me, this sweetener extract is very strong and you don’t want to use too much or you will taste it. It doesn’t get proportionally sweeter like adding extra sugar, but rather leaves an aftertaste if you use too much (at least for my palate).
I used a little less than one tiny spoonful of the very concentrated stevia powder and added one egg to make up for the loss of liquid. I increased the vanilla by an additional 1/2 tbsp. for some additional flavor and added a few hefty shakes of cinnamon. I mixed it all with a hand mixer. I used the dough immediately.
The dough was the perfect consistency to hand mold into any shape. It was not sticky at all. But, I was lazy with most of the cookies and just dropped them from a spoon. I did shape one like a tiny popover and then folded it in half with cinnamon in the middle and pinched the edges together. It would have been great to stuff with any other delectable nut, chocolate chip, etc.
Because I dropped them from a spoon and didn’t flatten them, they took a lot longer to cook. I kept extending my timer by five minutes and may have cooked them for 15-18 minutes total. They didn’t burn but just turned a nice golden brown on all of the edges and the bottom. It took awhile for the middle to cook to the consistency I desired.
But, in the end, they turned out wonderfully! They taste like shortbread cookies. However, it was necessary to cook them until the edges were turning brown to get the texture firmer and the consistency of shortbread throughout the middle. Next time, I would flatten with a fork or even roll out (possible without refrigerating if you change the recipe as I did) and maybe still cook extra time. In fact, after I turned off the oven and it cooled just a bit, I put them back in for awhile to continue to get a bit more dry like shortbread – if that makes sense.
Thanks Elana for another great recipe – which allowed for easy diet modifications! I generally don’t prefer the taste of Stevia so may try another candida-friendly sweetener next time but still like these. I really can’t taste the stevia; it just provided a slight sweetness boost. The sea salt is a great flavor in the final cookie. This is a great base to add any chip, nut, etc. on top or mixed in.
Elana says
You’re welcome Paulina!
Kellylynn says
Ok, I did something wrong….I did exactly what the recipe said and after 5 min. in the oven at 350 the bottoms were burnt and the cookies not cooked all the way. What did I do wrong??
Elana Amsterdam says
Hi Kellylynn,
This sounds like one of two issues. Either your oven needs to be re-calibrated because the temperature could be off. Or, my other guess would be that you might have used a brand of almond flour that does not work in my recipes. To see which brands work, read my almond flour page:
https://elanaspantry.com/ingredients/blanched-almond-flour/
Check on both of these factors and then give it another try. Please let me know your results when you do :-)
Elana
Angie Raimondi says
Hi Elana! This was the first recipe I tried baking with almond flour. I think the brand I used was too course, as the cookies crumbled immediately. Nonetheless, they were delicious. I saw that you use Honeyville flour. Where can I buy this? Do they have it in Costco? Are there other similar brands avalable?
Thank you!
Carmen katz says
I bought Honeyvillevat costco but you can also order on line at their website. This flour is wonderful to bake with.
Joy Morris says
Oh, how I have missed butter/shortbread cookies! But, now thanks to Elana, I can have them again! These were simply divine! Thank you Elana!
Elana says
You’re welcome Joy!
Carol says
Amazing! You posted this recipe in 2007, and it’s 2014 now, still working after 7 years. Thank you! I honestly can’t understand why these cookies WORKED SO WELL. I used every ingredient to the letter, but am astounded there are no eggs or baking soda or any other rising agent, yet they turned out beautiful: just a slight rise, browned perfectly, retained shape, taste utterly delicious. What a triumph!
Marcus Riedner says
I just tried this and it was a cookie fail. It spread into a big sheet of buttery almond crumble. The only difference between ingredients was brand of almond flour – I used Red Mills blanched almonds flour because it is the brand available in my area. A real shame. Any thoughts?
Julie says
Bobs Red Mill is not the almond flour of choice here. Honeyville brand works much better. I find mine at Costco
Cindy says
If you can’t afford the extra cost for Honeyville, you might try using an immersion blender to grind the Bob’s flour finer. Just put it in a deep container, so it won’t spray flour dust all over you. (Immersion blenders are inexpensive, and would probably pay for itself after a few bags of flour.) I can’t promise it will work, but it’s worth a try.
Elana says
Cindy and Marcus, if you try it I hope you’ll let me know if it works :-)
Dan says
I really want to try this recipe but Agave nectar is no better than high-fructose corn syrup, is their an alternative that will work just as good?
Does this taste anything like those famous danish dansk butter cookies sold in supermarkets in a blue round tin? If they do your my savior!
Alesha says
I use a rapadura syrup in place of all liquid sweeteners, works perfectly
http://changinghabits.com.au/recipes-1/maleo
chrissy says
yum…dough in the freezer. I used honey instead of agave and added about 3/4c pecans. I’ll be rolling into balls and flattening instead of rolling and using a cookie cutter. The dough looks perfect.