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These low carb brown butter coconut cookies are loaded with dried coconut chips. The cookies are also packed with butter flavor and completely gluten free.
This is the first time I’ve ever done a low carb recipe makeover per reader request. A blog reader was looking to use up a bag of coconut chips and asked me to help convert a recipe for Coconut Brown Butter Cookies found at Smitten Kitchen. Well, I just happened to have a bag of coconut flakes that needed to be used up as well because they were nearing expiration.
For those of you who find a scrumptious recipe online and aren’t sure how to convert it to low carb, I’ll give a few hints in this post. First of all, you’ll want to replace the flour with low carb flours. The easiest way to do this is to use a blend of almond and coconut flour in a 3:1 ratio
You can easily make the flour blend up beforehand, but I just make the blend up when I need it. If you look at the original recipe, it calls for 1 1/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons of regular flour.
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This works out to about 1 cup almond flour and 1/3 cup coconut flour if you use the 3:1 ratio.For those of you who don’t like to do the math, it might be easier to just mix up your own all-purpose low carb gluten free flour mix using 3 cups almond flour and 1 cup coconut flour.
I’ve never browned butter before, so this was interesting learning. I thought I was going to burn the butter for sure, but that’s not where my mishap happened. Once the butter had cooked for a while, it turned a dark brown and I removed it from the heat, then poured it into a Pyrex measuring cup.
It measured just shy of 1 cup, so the original recipe calls to add about 2 tablespoons of water to get it to a full cup. So here’s where things literally exploded. I quickly poured in one tablespoon of cold water and the hot butter foamed up and started pouring out of the top of the Pyrex cup. PLEASE… do not follow my lead. Either allow the butter to cool down a bit or SLOWLY add the water.
I ended up having to brown another 1/4 cup of butter as that is about how much I lost from my hot butter explosion. I should also add that I used salted butter and not unsalted because that is what I had. You can see in the photo above how the brown butter looked after sitting in the refrigerator for a couple hours.
I used a stand mixer to blend everything together except for the flaked coconut. The coconut chips were stirred in at the end with a wooden spatula because the cookie dough was rather thick and I didn’t want to have to scrape it off the beaters. Stirring by hand gave me a much needed workout.
Here’s a few more low carb baking tips. The original recipe calls for brown sugar. I used LC Foods Low Carb Brown Sugar Sweetener – inulin (they also make a brown sugar sweetener made with erythritol) in a smaller amount and increased the white low carb sweetener, but you could just add a touch of molasses, preferably blackstrap which adds a small amount of carbs.
I also increased the amount of egg from one to two because I find that most gluten free baked goods need more egg. The only other change was to add some baking powder which may or may not be needed, but I find it usually helps with leavening.
I decided to make medium sized cookies by doubling up on my 1 tablespoon cookie scoop. So, each one of these cookies had about 2 tablespoons of dough. They came out a good size, but not as large as the ones you typically get at the bakery.
I also experimented by baking some on a Silpat silicone mat and others on parchment paper. Not sure if it was just coincidence, but the brown butter coconut cookies baked on the silicone mat ended up browning up faster.
I’d like to thank Jenn, the blog visitor who asked me for help in converting the original recipe to low carb, for bringing this recipe to my attention. Give it a try. I think you’ll enjoy this brown butter coconut cookie recipe.
It was a terrific way for me to use up some unsweetened coconut flakes I had sitting in the refrigerator. Have a recipe you need de-carbed? Send me a note and I’ll see what I can do!
Brown Butter Coconut Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter 2 sticks or 225 grams
- 2 tablespoons water
- 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons Natvia or Swerve, see note
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup LC Foods brown sugar sweetener - inulin or Swerve with a touch of blackstrap molasses, see notes
- 1 cup almond flour
- 1/3 cup coconut flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 slightly heaped teaspoon flaky sea salt or 1/4 teaspoon table salt
- 4 cups unsweetened flaked coconut 240 grams
Instructions
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In medium sized pot, melt butter on medium heat, stirring frequently. Once it melts, it will eventually foam, turn a clear golden color, and then become dark brown with a nutty aroma.
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Remove browned butter from heat and pour it and any browned bits into a heat safe measuring cup. Slowly add enough water to bring measurement back to one cup. (it takes about 2 tablespoons of water and be careful not to pour the cooler water too fast into the hot butter)
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Place butter in refrigerator for 1-2 hours or until solid.
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Preheat oven to 350°F and line cookie sheets with parchment paper or silicone mat.
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Cream white low carb sweetener and browned butter with electric mixture until fluffy (if using extra white low carb sweetener and molasses, it should be creamed in with the butter as well).
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Add egg and beat until well combined, scraping bowl as needed. Then beat in vanilla.
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Mix brown sugar sweetener, almond flour, coconut flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in medium bowl.
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Pour half of the dry flour mixture into creamed butter mixture and mix until combined. Mix in the other half of the flour mixture.
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Stir in unsweetened coconut flakes, half at a time.
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Scoop dough into desired size balls on prepared baking sheets, leaving room between to spread. (1-2 tablespoons or 2-inch scoop)
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Flatten each dough ball with fingers or spoon.
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Bake 10-11 minutes for 1 tablespoon scoops, 12-14 minutes for 2 tablespoon scoops, or 14-16 minutes for 2-inch scoops. (these are approximate times, cookies are done when deeply golden all over)
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Allow cookies to cool at least 15 minutes before removing to cooling rack (they may crack if moved when still hot).
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Since these are sugar-free cookies, I recommend storing in the refrigerator.
Recipe Notes
Others have noted that these cookies may be overly sweet. May want to decrease total sweeteners to about 3/4 cup (1/2 white plus 1/4 brown)
LC Foods Low Carb Brown Sugar Sweetener made with inulin should be added with dry ingredients, but molasses and regular low carb granular sweetener is creamed with the butter.
Makes about 28 large cookies (2 tablespoons dough each)
Nutrition per cookie: 149 calories, 14.8g fat, 13.9mg sodium, 10.1g carbs, 5.3g fiber, 3.45g erythritol, 1.3g net carbs, 2.7g protein
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Adrien Chandler says
You mention LC brown sugar sub with inulin. Have you ever made this with Sukrin Gold brown sugar substitute, which is erythritol? I find it comes the closest to the real thing in flavor and smell. Doesn’t caramelize, of course. Also, I have seen brown sugar sub from monk fruit, but haven’t tried it.
Lisa says
You can use Sukrin Gold, but I haven’t used it in this recipe. I find it a good substitute for brown sugar as well.
Kelly says
I added sugar free chocolate chips because sometimes you feel like a nut and sometimes you don’t!!! Lol They were great !!! Thanks forall the yummy recipes .
Lisa says
Great idea adding in some chocolate!
Ashley Bryant says
were they pretty solid once they cooled down or were they more flaky/fall apart? Taste is great just don’t know if I messed up somewhere along in the receipt. I also cut the sweetener down by about half
Lisa says
They came out to be soft cookies when I made them.
Mimi says
I really appreciate the detailed descriptions of substitutions, cooking instructions and tips. Thank you for the extra effort.
Lisa says
You’re welcome! 🙂
Christin says
These are so good! The only changes I made were to use less sweetner as suggested and add a little coconut extract, cause I love coconut.
Lisa says
I agree on using less sweetener! The original amount is way too much. I’d probably cut to almost half.
colin possamai says
I spilt hot butter on me, and it hurts. I went to the hospital and they gave me some cream and wrapped it in a bandage. The rest of the butter, about half a cup is there waiting for me to continue making the biscuits.
Lisa says
Oh no!
Kristen says
I am so impressed with the results of your makeover. I always take my hat off to folks who can take a recipe and make it over like this.
Lisa says
Thanks Kristen. It really isn’t very difficult to convert recipes like this, but often a little tweaking needs to be done to get sweetness just right.
Susan | LunaCafe says
These look so delicious. Love coconut.
Lisa says
They are just as good as they look.
Stephanie @ Back for Seconds says
These look almost too good to be true! You just can’t go wrong with brown butter and coconut!
Lisa says
My first time trying brown butter and it certainly won’t be my last.
Loanne says
I’m questioning your calculation of net carbs in this cookie recipe. Net carbs is calculated by the total carbs per serving minus the fiber, which in this case is 4.8 net carbs per cookie. I probably would not make them since there’s so much sweetener. I don’t use low carb sugar anything. I might make them and reduce the sweetener a lot, plus leave out the low carb brown sugar. Otherwise, they look wonderful! I’ve copied many recipes from your site, but just had to comment on these.
Lisa says
Loanne – Net carbs is actually the total carbs minus fiber and any sugar alcohols. I used Natvia, a stevia erythritol blend that has 2.3 grams of sugar alcohol per teaspoon so I subtracted that from the total which included this sugar alcohol erythritol (most people exclude erythritol from the total carb count, but I include it to be accurate). The other sweetener I used is LC Foods Brown Sugar sweetener which is all fiber and no sugar alcohols so that added no net carbs. To be honest, they weren’t overly sweet, but would likely be great with the sweetener reduced as most on a low carb diet prefer less sweetener.