My boys love these Paleo Sugar Cookies because they’re delicious and so fun to make. I love them because they’re quick and easy to throw together and full of healthy low-carb ingredients. They’re adorable as a heart cookie, but you can make them into a variety of shapes depending on the holiday you’re celebrating.
Paleo Sugar Cookies Recipe
These Paleo Sugar Cookies are gluten-free, dairy-free, and do not use refined sugar. This low-carb recipe for Paleo Valentine’s Day cookies has only 7 ingredients total. All you need to make it is almond flour, coconut oil, honey, nutmeg, orange zest, salt, and baking soda.
Gluten-Free Sugar Cookies for Valentine’s Day
For one Valentine’s day, when he was 9 years old, my older son gave out these Paleo Sugar Cookies instead of paper valentines. Because the children in his class had so many different food allergies, these cookie valentines were perfect. Even without ingredients such as gluten, sugar, and dairy, my son told me that the children in his class said they were incredible!
Paleo Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- 3 cups blanched almond flour (not almond meal)
- ½ teaspoon celtic sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 pinch ground nutmeg
- ½ cup coconut oil, melted
- ¼ cup honey or agave nectar
- 1 tablespoon orange zest
Instructions
- In a large bowl combine almond flour, salt, baking soda, and nutmeg
- In a small bowl, mix together coconut oil, honey, and orange zest
- Mix wet ingredients into dry
- 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
- Use heart shaped cookie cutter to cut out cookies
- Bake at 350°F for 5-7 minutes
- Cool and serve
Paleo Buttercream Frosting Recipe
We frost these healthy cookies with my White Chocolate Buttercream Frosting which makes them even more adorable and delicious! This fantastic frosting recipe is super easy to make and has only 5 ingredients.
Easy Paleo Sugar Cookie Recipe for the Holidays
We make Paleo Sugar Cookies into hearts for Valentine’s Day and at Christmas, we use other fun shapes such as snowmen and snowflakes. Rolling out cookie dough and cutting out cookies is a fun project the boys and I love doing together!
More Low-Carb Cookie Recipes
Here are some of my other healthy cookie recipes for you. All of them are far lower in carbs than their sugar-laden, wheat-filled counterparts!
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Kris says
Also, do you think these would turn out ok still if did not use orange zest?
Elana says
Kris, I haven’t tried that so not sure, if you do please let us know how it goes :-)
Kris says
How do you store these when finished baking? And for how long? Trying to figure out if they do best in refrigerator for a certain number of days? Or best if store baked cookies in freezer and pull out when ready to eat? Thank you!
Elana says
Kris, we eat ’em up right away. If you would like to store them, allow them to cool overnight after baking, then wrap up and keep in the fridge for up to 1 week :-)
Judit says
Dear Elana,
Thank you for sharing these wonderful recipes! Your work has inspired me for the last year or so and I have enjoyed baking again. I have done these cookies twice before and came out perfectly fine. Yesterday I wanted to spice it up and added about 1/2 cup finely ground pistachio and 1 tsp ground cardamom but then the dough became very dry. I added more coconut oil, vegetable shortening, it was still too dry and then added 2 eggs. At the end it turned out to be OK but wanted to ask your advice how better balance the moisture of the dough. Many thanks from one of your fans.
Elana says
Judit, thanks so much for your comment! I haven’t tried all of those changes to the recipe so not sure how to adapt it to them. I’m glad that when you followed the recipe it came out perfectly!
audrey says
Haha answering my own question(:
I did use Coconut nectar, and it turned out delicious! I will totally do that again! Not exactly what I’d call sugar cookies, but very buttery, tasty orange cookies! Thanks, Elana!
Jennifer Lynn says
does anyone have a suggestion for what to substitute for coconut oil? thank you!!
audrey says
i think butter works but i haven’t tried it.
Lisa says
Grass fed butter.
Dora says
I have used grapeseed oil and avocado oil with much success. I think butter would work too.
Katelyn says
Hi Elana, I live in Canada and Honeyville does not ship to Canada, do you have any other recommended Almond Flour brands that I may be able to get? I also have had no success with Bob’s Red Mill.
Tina says
Do you have a Costco? They now have almond flour….?
Elana says
Tina, thanks for pointing that out! Many Costcos sell Honeyville, which is the brand of almond flour that I recommend for my recipes. In fact, Honeyville features a recipe of mine on the back of their package. If you see it, I hope you’ll take a snap and leave it on my FB wall or upload it to Instagram and tag me :-)
Pat says
Hi everyone, thanks for the great suggestions. I need a nut-free flour — has anyone used Bob’s GF flour or arrowroot flour?
Thanks!
Pat
Elana says
Pat, thanks for your comment! Here’s a link to my Nut-Free Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cookie recipe for you:
https://elanaspantry.com/pumpkin-chocolate-chip-cookies/
Enjoy!
Elana
Britt in Tx says
Valentine’s coming up I might just make these for my fam and me of course ;) lol Jk ( Just Kidding )
Elana says
Thanks Britt!
Naomi says
We made these today, except I used melted butter and honey instead of agave. And I didn’t have oranges, so I just used a little extra fresh-grated nutmeg. I put them in the freezer for a little over an hour, and they rolled out nicely on waxed paper with my french rolling pin. Thank you for the recipe!
Elana says
Naomi, I’m so glad to hear you’re enjoying this recipe :-)
Heather says
Thank you for this fabulous recipe! I made them last night for Valentine’s Day today. I was way behind schedule and didn’t want to roll and cut, so I rolled each half into a loggish shape and put it in the crook of a folded piece of cardboard (to make the bottom of the heart), then I dented the top with another piece of folded cardboard (to make the top of the heart). I left it in the bottom piece of cardboard and stuck it in the fridge for about half an hour. Took it out of the cardboard, and Voila! just cut off little heart shaped cookie dough! Also, for an extra treat for my kids, I dipped some of them in a mixture of 80% chocolate and coconut oil and stuck them in the freezer. So good! Raves all around!
Elana says
Thanks Heather!