Tag Archives: low carb thumb print cookies

Desserts, Recipes

Start the Year Off with Cream Cheese Cookies

Photo: Cream Cheese Cookies

I haven’t made these lovely little cookies in years, but I love the taste of cream cheese in my cookie. I found a recipe that I adapted to a low carb version and they came out delicious. You can use any sugar-free jam for the filling. I made some with apricot jam and some with raspberry. I also put pecans on some and sugar-reduced craisins on others. If you can think of something else you’d like to top them with, it will probably work.

When I made my batch, I used three different flour options — Bakesquick from DCC, coconut flour (1/4 equals 1/2 cup of other flour), and vanilla whey protein powder for 1/4 cup of it. It worked okay, but unless you like the slightly grainy texture of the coconut flour, I would stay away from it for this recipe. You can use almond flour or any other low carb flours to make this.

Cream Cheese Cookies

2 sticks of Butter, room temperature
8 ounces of Cream Cheese, room temperature
1 cup Sugar Substitute
2 Eggs Yolks
1 tsp. Vanilla Extract
2 cups Low Carb Flour
Sugar-free jam – Any flavor

In a large bowl, mix the cream cheese, butter,and sweetener together until smooth. Scrape the bowl if the mixture builds up on the sides. Add the egg yolks and vanilla and mix until combined.

If you are using a combination of low carb flour types, mix them in a bowl before adding to the creamed mixture. Add about 1/4 cup at a time until you’ve mixed it all in. The dough will be stiff.

Chill dough for at least two hours to firm up the butter and cream cheese.

Prepare baking sheets with parchment paper or a silicone mat.  Preheat oven to 300 degrees

Use a teaspoon of dough to roll into a ball about 1-inch in diameter. Place on baking sheet and flatten the top until about a 1/2-inch thick disc is formed. Make about a dozen on the cookie sheet, then go back and press a little well in the middle of each cookie for the filling. Put about 1/4 teaspoon of sugar-free jam in the well, or you can top them with a half pecan or two or three sugar-reduced craisins.

Bake for about 12 to 15 minutes until the bottoms turn slightly brown. Remove and let sit to cool for about 10 minutes to firm up.

Use a spatula to move them to a wire rack to continue to cool.

Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

Nutrition Information Image

Desserts, Recipes

Scrumptious Cream Cheese and Thumbprint Cookies

When I was a child, I learned to make these delicious cookies from my mother. We put the dough into a cookie press (remember those?) and out would come wonderfully shaped holiday cookies like wreaths and snowmen and stars. A little icing on top and it was a magical Christmas cookie. You can still buy these presses, although in wide assortment of prices and quality. I may actually still have a press around here somewhere, but usually I just make these as drop cookies.

You can also easily turn them into thumbprint cookies, those little cookies with a shallow well filled with jam in the middle. Smucker’s has a nice line of sugar free and low carb jams that will work fine for the filling or you can make your own low carb jam. I sometimes use my cranberry jam, which is easily made with sugar substitute, about 1/4 teaspoon lemon and a sprinkle of cloves and let it cook down after the berries pop. It has enough pectin to set up on its own.

So, here’s the low carb version of this recipe and it is wonderfully delicious, and the best part is they are only about 1 net carb each — a little higher for the ones with jam. If you ice them with powdered sugar icing made from sugar substitute, you aren’t adding any more calories or carbs!

Cream Cheese Cookies

1/4 Cup Unsalted Butter (room temperature)
2 oz. Regular Cream Cheese (room temperature)
3/4 Cup Confectioner’s Sugar substitute*
.5 Tsp Baking Powder
1 Egg (room temperature)
1/2 Tsp Pure Vanilla Extract
3/4 cups CarbQuick baking mix
2 tablespoons Coconut Flour
1 tablespoon Vanilla Whey Powder

About 1 dozen

In a large bowl, cream the butter and cream cheese in a mixer bowl. Add powdered sugar substitute* and baking powder and mix in, then add the egg and vanilla and beat until it is all mixed well and the dough is fluffy.

Mix the flours and the whey powder (if you are using it) together and add it to the cream cheese mixture, about 1/3 at a time and beating in each addition before adding the next. Put it in the refrigerator for a minimum of 30 minutes for drop cookies or at least an hour for rolled cookies.

About 10 minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 365 degrees. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Scoop cookies by rounded teaspoons and roll each cookie ball in granulated sugar substitute (like Ideal or Splenda or Stevia). Place on cookie sheets.

Thumbprint cookies with apricot jam and cranberry jam in them.

For cut out cookies, roll dough out on a lightly floured with coconut flour or other low carb flour pastry board into a 1/3 inch thick square. Use cookie cutters to cut out shapes. Reform the dough and roll again until you can no longer cut any shapes. Place cookies on the baking sheets and sprinkle with granulated sugar substitute.

For thumbprint cookies, after the dropped cookies are placed on the cookie sheet, use the back of a spoon or your clean thumb to press a small well in the middle of each cookie. Fill with about 1/4 teaspoon of sugar free, low carb jam, such as Smucker’s Apricot Jam or Smucker’s Raspberry Jam or homemade low carb jam or cranberry sauce.

Bake for 7 to 10 minutes. Check at 5 minutes and shorten or extend cooking time if needed. Cookies should be lightly brown around the edges. Cool for a few minutes on cookie sheets to allow them to set up, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

* If you can’t find powdered or confectioner’s sugar substitute, you can make it by putting a granulated sugar substitute in a food processor and processing until it turns to powder. Measure after it has been processed.

Makes about 12 to 16 cookies.

Nutrition Info per cookie (14 cookies)
Calories: 69.6 Fat: 6.1 g Net Carbs: 1 g Protein: 2.2 g

Thumbprint Cookies
Calories: 70.3 Fat: 6.1 g Net Carbs: 1.3 g Protein: 2.2 g

POSTED BY RENE AVERETT AT 12/20/2013