Can I really call these shortbread cookies? Well yes. The consistency is pretty crumbly, similar to shortbread. The sweetness aspect, however, isn’t much like them at all. Think tea-cakes when you take a bite into this crumbly goodness.

The second you put these in your mouth, it’s hit with a refreshing wave of lemon. Hints of salt might come through before the rosemary finally takes the first strike. When it does, the herbaceousness will fill your mouth for only a moment before the lemon fights back. Balanced fantastically between each other, the lemon and rosemary battle against each other in a vicious war to create a fantastic explosion of flavor in your mouth.

The salt acts as an exchange in the flavor profile that I really can’t get enough of. I’m not the biggest sweet tooth out there, in fact I mostly prefer eating savory dishes, but these have hit the spot for the candy-craver and the meat-muncher.

I’ve been experimenting with different types of almond flour lately. I had stocked up on Bob’s Red Mill almond meal, but I was recommended to try Honeyville Almond Flour. I really have to say that it was one of the best baking recommendations of my keto cooking career that I’ve gotten. It’s so much easier to work with and the final result comes out MUCH better. Almost like real flour, even!

Yields 24 total cookies

The Preparation

6 tablespoons butter

butter 2 cups almond flour

almond flour 1/3 cup granulated Splenda (or other granulated sweetener)

granulated Splenda (or other granulated sweetener) 1 tablespoon freshly grated lemon zest

freshly grated lemon zest 4 teaspoons fresh squeezed lemon juice

fresh squeezed lemon juice 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

vanilla extract 2 teaspoons rosemary*

rosemary* ½ teaspoon baking soda

baking soda ½ teaspoon baking powder

*I used dried rosemary, but fresh would be even better.

The Execution

1. Gather all your ingredients together. Ignore the egg I have pictured, I was initially planning to add it to the dough if I had to, but it turned out I didn’t.

2. In a large mixing bowl, measure out 2 cups of almond flour, 1/2 tsp. baking powder, and 1/2 tsp. baking soda. Mix these together well.

3. Add 1/3 cup Splenda, or other granulated sweetener to the mixture.

4. Zest your lemon with a microplane until you have 1 Tbsp. lemon zest.

5. Juice half of the lemon to get 4 tsp. of lemon juice.

6. In the microwave, melt 6 Tbsp. of butter. I took me about 20 seconds to do this. Add vanilla extract to this and mix together.

7. Transfer your almond flour and sweetener to a small mixing bowl. Put your butter, lemon zest, lemon juice, and chopped rosemary into the now empty large mixing bowl. Add your almond flour back into the wet mixture slowly, stirring as you go.

8. Keep mixing together the dough until all the almond flour is added.

9. Wrap the dough tightly in plastic wrap. This will be the shape your cookies will be when they’re finished.

10. Place the wrapped dough in the freezer for 30 minutes, or until hard.

11. Preheat your oven to 350F.

12. Remove your dough from the saran wrap, it should look like a log.

13. Cut your dough in ~1/2″ increments with a sharp knife. If this knife isn’t sharp, it will make the dough crumble. If the dough is still crumbling, that means it needs more time in the freezer.

14. Get your cookie sheet out. I use these silicon pads which are nonstick and a huge help when baking.

14. Grease your baking sheet with SALTED butter. This adds a great hint of flavor to the bottom of the cookies.

15. Place your cut cookies onto your baking sheet, you should have about 24 cookies depending on the size.

16. Allow them to cook for 15 minutes, or until golden brown.

17. Allow the cookies to cool for about 10 minutes. After that you can remove them from your cookie sheet and enjoy!

This makes a total of 24 servings of Lemon & Rosemary Low Carb Shortbread. Each serving comes out to be 79.92 Calories, 7.56g Fats, 1.14g Net Carbs, and 2.04g Protein.

Lemon & Rosemary Low Carb Shortbread Calories Fats(g) Carbs(g) Fiber(g) Net Carbs(g) Protein(g) 6 tablespoons butter 611 69.11 0.05 0 0.05 0.72 2 cups (224 g) almond flour 1279 112 48 24 24 48 1/3 cup granulated Splenda 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 tablespoon freshly grated lemon zest 3 0.02 0.96 0.6 0.36 0.09 4 teaspoons fresh squeezed lemon juice 4 0.05 1.4 0.1 1.3 0.07 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 12 0 0.53 0 0.53 0 2 teaspoons rosemary 8 0.37 1.54 1 0.54 0.12 ½ teaspoon baking soda 0 0 0 0 0 0 ½ teaspoon baking powder 1 0 0.64 0 0.64 0 Totals 1918 181.55 53.12 25.7 27.42 49 Per Serving(/24) 79.92 7.56 2.21 1.07 1.14 2.04