Low-Carb Pecan Shortbread Cookies are made with only 7 ingredients. This no-fuss recipe calls for almond flour, pecans, honey, butter, vanilla, salt, and baking soda. As you can see, these cookies are made with wholesome ingredients. What you don’t yet know is that they taste incredible!
While these are an amazing gluten-free Christmas cookie, we enjoy Pecan Shortbread Cookies all year long. Made with a base of almond flour, these gluten-free cookies are a quick and easy low-carb dessert. They’re fantastic for those on special diets because they are not only gluten-free, when made with honey and butter they are SCD and GAPS compliant.
These cookies are so good fans tell me they’re addictive. Go ahead, bake these buttery treats and see for yourself!
Pecan Shortbread Cookies
Ingredients
- 2½ cups blanched almond flour (not almond meal)
- ¼ teaspoon celtic sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 cup pecans, toasted and chopped
- 5 tablespoons honey or agave nectar
- ½ cup salted butter or palm shortening , melted
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- In a large bowl combine almond flour, salt, baking soda, and pecans
- In a small bowl, mix honey, butter, and vanilla
- Mix wet ingredients into dry
- Place dough in center of a piece of parchment paper
- Form into a log approximately 2½ -inches in diameter
- Place in freezer for one hour, until firm, unwrap and cut into ⅛-inch thick slices
- Place slices on a parchment paper lined baking sheet
- Bake at 350°F until lightly golden, 7-10 minutes
- Cool for 1 hour
- Serve
Since Pecan Shortbread Cookies do not contain chocolate they are a wonderful cookie for your little ones if you’re trying to keep them off caffeine. My children and their friends love eating this egg-free cookie dough raw whenever I make a batch. Here are more paleo cookie recipes for you.
This post is an oldie but goodie from the archives, I first published this recipe in 2007.
kim says
does anyone know if you can substitute vegan shortening with coconut oil for all these cookie recipes?
Tressa says
Yes you can. I used grass fed butter because they are for a work party and they turned out great. I think all fats are interchangeable. Regular coconut oil might give them a hint of coconut flavor but refined wouldn’t.
Tressa says
These are yummy! I too ate a lot of the batter raw, and plan to dip them in melted chocolate before bringing them to my work Christmas party on Monday. I also subbed honey for the agave. I will make these again and use them in rum balls! Your cookies are always my favorite out of all the paleo sites.
Loll says
I am following the Paleo/Primal eating plan, but TTC so I can’t have chocolate or caffeine. Was searching for a delicious cookie recipe to take camping (so we can have treats just like the others on SAD) This recipe is AMAZING, thanks very much Elana! And an added bonus is the batter can be eaten raw, which a lot of it was!
P.S. I made your salmon burgers out the recipe book and they went down very well.
Organic Food says
This site is epic, I’m going to put this in the bookmarks before I lose the address, I don’t think I’ll ever make it back here again otherwise :)
Melissa says
OHHH Elana! Major Yummy! I just managed to come across your lovely site and promptly started to prepare these cookies. I am so glad to see your lovely readers had ad-libbed some of the ingredients so I did as well as my pantry was lacking agave.
I used 4 tblsp organic maple syrup and 1 tblsp Lucuma
added into the liquid ingredients 2 drops Medicine Flour Coffee Extract and 2 drops
English Toffee Stevia
I also added in abut an 1/8 teaspoon of nutmeg and 1/2 Chinese Five spice
I’ve been wishing for shortbread or spice like cookie….I got both.
Thank you, for sharing your talents and your lovely readers for their adjustments…especially the reader mentioning Silan…didn’t know what it was but I do now and now know how to make my own at home.
Shannon says
Just curious, if I wanted to use stevia in place of the agave nectar, what would the conversion be?
Claudia says
Hi Shannon,
perhaps this helps – http://www.stevia.net/conversion.html
-Claudia
Leanne says
I made these for a get together with gluten intolerant friends, along with your lemon curd. Wow. Can’t stop eating them!
Brenda says
YUM! Made these today. It’s the second recipe I’ve tried of yours, and the second success! :) THANK YOU!
(I used honey instead of agave nectar, and added a bit of cinnamon.) I love the little bursts of salt flavour when eating the cookie (from using the more coarse sea salt).
Rao says
I made a small batch of these today and am very pleased! As a low-carb diabetic, being able to have relatively healthy cookies on hand is so wonderful. I made a few mods/substitutions which may help others – I made a 1/4 batch, so keep that in mind when noting the amounts I used. Instead of the agave, I used 2 scant tbsp splenda and 1 tbsp beaten egg. I will try stevia and egg next time. Also, I left out the baking soda. Since there is no acid used in the recipe, the baking soda will actually remain un-reacted sodium bicarbonate and leave your cookies with a “soapy” taste. I meant to add a tiny pinch of salt but forgot. It is essential to freeze the dough for 20-30 min because this helps it keep its shape while baking. The egg also helps bind the cookie. I baked at 350 for 9 min, and they turned out awesome! Perfect texture and just right sweetness. FYI – I’m at 5000ft. Thanks Elana for posting your recipe!
Trish says
Made these tonight! Wonderful!! I switched the agave necter for raw honey very good.