BUTTER COOKIES

3 ounces almond flour (3/4 cup )

1/8 teaspoon salt

2-3 tablespoons granular Splenda or equivalent liquid Splenda *

2 tablespoons butter, softened

1/4 teaspoon vanilla

1 egg white

Mix all of the ingredients well in a small bowl. Everything should be moist and the dough should hold together. Freeze about 15-20 minutes to firm up the dough. Drop the dough by teaspoons onto a parchment or silicone lined 12x17" baking sheet. Roll each piece of dough into a ball. I used a 1 teaspoon cookie scoop and skipped the rolling into a ball step. Cover the balls with plastic wrap and take a baking powder can, that has about an 1/8" rim around the bottom, and press down firmly over each ball of dough. Be sure to press all the way down to the baking sheet. Peel off the plastic wrap and discard. Prick the cookies with a fork.

Bake at 325º for 15-20 minutes, or until golden brown.

Makes about 20 cookies

Can be frozen

* These aren't as sweet as sugar cookies and remind me of the butter cookies my Grandma used to make. You may want to add the 3rd tablespoon of Splenda if you prefer a sweeter cookie. The carb counts were so close whether I used 2 or 3 tablespoons of granular Splenda or liquid Splenda that I decided to go ahead and use the counts for the sweeter, granular Splenda version. Unless you eat the whole batch, you'll only be saving about half a carb or so if you use liquid Splenda.

Per Cookie: 37 Calories; 3g Fat; 1g Protein; 1g Carbohydrate; .5g Dietary Fiber; .5g Net Carb

Per 4 Cookies: 147 Calories; 13g Fat; 5g Protein; 4.5g Carbohydrate; 2g Dietary Fiber; 2.5g Net Carbs

While eating some Buttery Sesame Crackers the other day, I realized that they reminded me of butter cookies. So, I made a sweet version by leaving out most of the salt and the seasonings and adding more sweetener and some vanilla. I ended up with a very tender, almost shortbread-like cookie. I like shortbread nicely browned but if you prefer it more pale then don't bake them as long. I bet that these would be super yummy with a little melted dark chocolate sandwiched between two cookies. Click the photo to see a close-up.