One of the biggest hindrances to a successful diet routine is the cravings that set in a few days after you start dieting. In the beginning, dieters are filled with determination as they create their meal plans and manage their daily intake meticulously. But as time goes by, deprivation sets in, and people start to miss the food that they used to love and eat.
At first glance, keto seems easy to follow. After all, a diet that recommends fat should be a breeze, right? Not really. First off, you’re supposed to eat a variety of healthy fats. Second, the diet minimizes your intake of carbs, which means no grains, no pasta and no baked goodies. This is where diet-friendly alternatives like keto cookies come in.
What’s in a Cookie Anyway?
Everyone loves baked goods - from cakes, pretzels to muffins and breads, it’s our favorite comfort food. They provide us with feelings of warmth and fullness, but baked goods also bring something else - carbs. On average, one muffin contains about 54 grams of carbohydrates and a slice of cake has around 59 grams. This is a problem for keto lovers, as the diet only recommends 20 grams of net carbs per day. So what’s a person to do when they’re feeling deprived and when they need to satisfy their sweet tooth?
Thankfully, there are keto alternatives for all baked goods you can think of, but out of all of them, the keto cookie stands out. Why? It’s all about portions. The cookie is the perfect serving size to satisfy your cravings without going overboard, derailing your diet routine. Want to satisfy your sweet tooth in the middle of the night? Have a cookie. Feeling frustrated that you can’t eat your favorite baked goods anymore because you’re on a diet? Have a cookie.
TheLow Carb Cookie Difference
We’re not just talking about any ordinary cookie though. Cookies may be the perfect serving size and convenient to boot, but a single chocolate chip cookie still has around 10 carbs per serving. This is why keto cookies exist. With just a few ingredient substitutions, you can have cookies that you can enjoy without worrying about counting carbs.
A keto cookie will often have 4 grams of net carbs or less, depending on the flavor and the manufacturer. So what makes the keto cookie different?
Alternative Flour Sources
Most keto cookies contain wheat alternatives like almond flour, coconut flour, or sunflower flour among others. We won’t go into the intricacies of which one is the better choice because all wheat alternatives have their own pros and cons. All these alternatives are better than regular flour for the same reasons.
Wheat flour is high in carbohydrates and the majority of these carbs come in the form of starches, otherwise known as complex carbohydrates. So usinglow-carb floursis not only beneficial for keto dieters, but also for people who want to maintain their blood sugar levels. This is because once digested, starch easily turns into blood glucose, which in turn raises your blood sugar. A low carb - and therefore, low starch - alternative means there’s no danger in spiking your blood sugar levels.
Substitute Sweeteners
Aside from the low carb flour, keto cookies also use substitute sweeteners instead of sugar. Sugar does not only make cookies taste sweet, it helps stabilize and spread the cookie. It also increases your sugar levels, which is something everyone should be careful of. Even people who aren’t on a diet should be mindful of their sugar intake. Around 10% of the population in the US has diabetes, and even more are at risk because of poor lifestyle choices.
A lot of keto cookies use stevia, a sweetener that was once under fire, but is now labeled as safe by the FDA. If you are still wary of stevia, there are other natural sweeteners available, like the ones we use in our cookies -alluloseand monk fruit. Substitute sweeteners are better options because they contain fewer carbs. Every gram of Allulose, for example, only contains around 0.4 calories as opposed to refined sugar’s 4 calories per gram. Meanwhile, Monk Fruit contains 0.5 calories per gram. These natural sweeteners are not metabolized by the body after digestion, which means they don’t affect your blood sugar levels.
Best Recipes forLow Carb cookies
If you want to keep your blood sugar at healthy levels, or you want to stay on track with your keto routine, you might want to bake low-carb cookies. Here are some beginner-friendly keto cookie recipes that will ease your transition into healthier snacking.
- Keto Chocolate Chip Cookies- You can’t go into cookie recipes without mentioning the old favorite, chocolate chip cookies. This award-winning recipe uses almond flour and Erythritol as a substitute sweetener.
- Keto Peanut Butter Cookies- If your palate is looking for more than Chocolate Chip cookies, here’s a nice and easy Peanut Butter cookie recipe. It only uses 3 ingredients, so you won’t have any problem preparing these.
- Thick and Soft Keto Lemon Cookies- You read that right! The recipe title itself guarantees the resulting cookies will be thick and soft - perfect for people who don't like crunchy cookies. Bake yourself a batch if you want to snack on something tangy instead of sweet.
- Keto Shortbread Cookies Recipe- If you’re looking for something simple, why not some vanilla-flavored shortbread cookies? Aside from baking yourself a nice treat, you can use this recipe for other baked goods, such as crusts for keto pies.
- Matcha Green Tea Coconut Cookies- If you’re tired of the usual cookie flavors, here’s a unique combination - green tea and coconut! These cookies contain 1 gram of net carbs and uses almond flour and Monk Fruit as ingredient substitutes.
- Chocolate Orange Cookies- Chocolate orange is an acquired taste, but a pop of citrus definitely enhances the taste of dark chocolate. If you’d like something that’s not too sweet and a bit tangy, this is the perfect recipe to try.
Don’t feel like trying to find these ingredients?
That’s perfectly understandable. Ingredient hunting is probably the most tedious part of making something that requires alternative ingredients. Although low-carb flours and natural sweeteners are available online, you may have to order ingredients from various places if they are not readily available at your local stores.
ingredient substitutions change the consistency and shape of the final product., your cookies will have varying textures depending on the flour and sweetener combination you use. Therefore, it’s rather difficult to substitute one low-carb flour for another if you can’t find the exact flour you’re looking for.
If you would rather skip the ingredient sourcing and get right down to baking your delicious keto cookies, then use ourChipMonk dry mixes. All ingredients have been carefully measured and assembled for you to bake around 20 small, soft, and low-carb cookies. Our dry mixes come in a variety of flavors like Snickerdoodle, LeMonk lemon, and of course, Chocolate ChipMonk.
Don’t feel like baking?
But what if you don’t feel like baking, either? What if you just want to sit back, relax, and munch on cookies to reward yourself for following your meal plans, or exercising regularly?
No problem! We also havegourmet cookiesthat are ready to eat and enjoy. All cookies are guaranteed low-carb (between 1-4 net carbs per cookie), are naturally sweetened with Allulose and Monk Fruit, and taste just as great as mom’s baking. Our cookies are available in the following flavors:
- Chocolate ChipMonk
- White Chocolate Macadamia
- Snickerdoodle
- LeMonk Lemon
- Peanut Butter
- Coconut
Shipping is free for all cookie boxes, so if this is your first foray into the world of keto, you can do so without breaking the bank. A word of caution, though: our Keto cookies are delicious and awesome, but they shouldn’t be the foundation of your diet. Deciding to go the healthier route doesn’t mean simply augmenting your dessert of choice.
Good healthy lifestyle choices, whether it’s to maintain your blood sugar, shed a few pounds or simply take care of your body better, should start with your meals and physical activity. Diet-friendly desserts like keto cookies are there to help you stay on track and keep you happy so that you can achieve your health goals easily.
