These wonderful moist chocolate chip cookies are redolent of pumpkin spices. With a small amount of real pumpkin purée and a toothsome topping of pumpkin seeds, these are a delicious fall treat for anyone following a keto or low carb lifestyle. They weigh in at 3 net carbs per cookie.
Ingredients
1/2 cup pumpkin purée
1/2 cup salted butter, melted (3.5 ounces)
1/2 cup granulated golden erythritol-based sweetener (such as Lakanto, Nativo “Monk Fruit” or Swerve, see note*, below) (4 ounces)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg
1-3/4 cup almond flour (6 ounces)
2 to 3 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice (see note**)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sugar-free chocolate chips
2 tablespoons pumpkin seeds
Directions
- Pre-heat oven to 360F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Start by removing excess moisture from the pumpkin (the dough will be too wet if you don’t follow this step). Place the pumpkin purée in a square of cheesecloth or a tea towel and squeeze until you can’t get any moisture out of it…the resulting mass of pumpkin should be fairly dry and crumbly (see note ***). Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, pour melted butter and sweetener (see note*); beat until well combined. Beat in vanilla, pumpkin, and egg until smooth. In a second mixing bowl, stir together almond flour, pumpkin pie spice (see note**), baking powder, xanthan gum and salt. Stir dry ingredients into wet mixture. Stir in chocolate chips.
- Place pumpkin seeds in a small dish. With a medium (2 tablespoon) cookie scoop, scoop out balls of dough and press each ball into the pumpkin seeds to coat one side with seeds. Place on prepared baking sheet and flatten slightly. Bake about 12 to 14 minutes or until set but before the edges start to brown. The cookies will not spread or flatten much while baking. For flatter cookies, if desired, upon removing cookies from the oven, lightly press down with a spatula for desired shape and thickness (pictured). Allow to cool for several minutes on baking sheets then remove to wire racks to cool completely.
Notes
- Per cookie: 3 net carbs, 3 grams protein, 13 grams fat, 139 calories.
- * Sweeteners such as Lakanto, Nativa, Swerve, and Truvia Sweet Complete are almost entirely erythritol based, even though they include other sweeteners such as “monk fruit”, oligosaccharides or stevia. Those additives are always a tiny fraction of the actual contents! Look at the ingredients of your sweetener and as long as it is mostly erythritol, this recipe will work. Of course, 100% erythritol is just fine.
If you don’t have golden, use white!
I have not tried this with any other type of sweetener, please don’t ask if some substitution will work…I have no idea. - ** My pumpkin pie spice was pretty old so I needed a whole tablespoon (3 teaspoons) to get the flavor I wanted. If your spices are fresh, this will be overkill; use the smaller amount. You can also make our homemade DIY Pumpkin Pie Spice blend!
- *** I find the best way to get moisture out of pumpkin purée is to freeze the 1/2 cup first, if you have time. Then allow the purée to thaw out, and a lot of the water will come out of it that you can just pour off. If you don’t have the time to do all that, just squeeze as much out as you can. Some people sauté their pumpkin to help evaporate the moisture.
- This recipe is based on Fat for Weight Loss’s most excellent Keto Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe. I reduced the sweetener a bit and of course added pumpkin, spices and pumpkin seeds.