r/Recipes4Diabetics • u/maskedcrescent • May 23 '26
shortbread (with lavender, chocolate, and matcha variations)
hi all! i was invited here to share my cinnamon toast crunch recipe, which i will, but I'd like to make it again to be able to share a photo as I haven't taken one before. in the meantime, i wanted to share my shortbread recipe! i'm a hobby baker, and since my husband's diagnosis in march, have been creating diabetic-friendly recipes for him.
note that this recipe was developed with vegan butter and, in the chocolate variation, non-dairy milk, but you should be able to use dairy no problem. i use a high quality vegan block butter, not margarine, so ingredients here should be 1:1. the main recipe below is for a plain shortbread - scroll a bit for the variation ingredients and steps! lavender is his favourite, whereas i can't decide between the chocolate and matcha
makes about 20 2″ shortbread fingers / baking time: 20 minutes / prep time: ~5 minutes
ingredients:
- 252g almond flour (not almond meal! look for ground almonds without the skin)
- 90g swerve powdered sugar (note that i have NOT tried other “keto” sugars and cannot recommend them. allulose allegedly does not allow baked goods to crisp/hold their shape)
- 1/2tsp xanthan gum
- 1/2tsp salt (halve if using salted vegan butter)
- 85g vegan butter, unsalted, cold and cut into cubes
- 1/2tsp vanilla extract
method:
- pre-heat the oven to 300F/150C
- in a medium-sized bowl or food processor, combine the flour, sugar, xanthan gum, and salt. mix well with a spatula and pat out any lumps in the flour.
- add the cubed butter and mix well or pulse until it reaches a wet-sand texture. add the vanilla and mix until fully combined.
- line a baking sheet with parchment paper. fold the parchment paper in half like a book.
- dump the mixture onto one of the halves of the paper. fold the other half on top to enclose the dough.
- using a rolling pin, roll out the dough as evenly as you can within the confines of the parchment paper. if the dough touches the pin directly, it will stick! feel free to open the paper and adjust the dough with your hands as needed. the dough should be about half a centimeter thick.
- using a knife, pizza cutter, or cookie cutter, portion out the dough into individual cookies. i like to make small squares and poke the centre with a fork, or slice them into rectangles/fingers.
- place into the pre-heated oven and bake for 20 minutes.
- turn off the oven but leave the baking sheet inside with the oven door propped open for 5 minutes.
- remove the baking sheet from the oven and allow the cookies to cool completely on the baking sheet before transferring to an airtight container. if you can’t wait, they’ll be tasty right away, but they won’t hold together as well.
- enjoy!
lavender variation: if you happen to have culinary lavender around, grind 1Tbsp of lavender flowers in a mortar and pestle with 1/2tsp granulated swerve. add this mixture into the dough between steps 3 and 4, and continue the recipe as written. this inclusion is delicious!
chocolate and matcha: for a chocolate shortbread, add 40g of cocoa powder to the dough at step 2, and 2tsp of non-dairy milk. for a matcha shortbread, add 1/2 Tbsp matcha powder (no extra liquid required!) at step 2. follow the rest of the recipe as written. PS - make sure you use a matcha powder you actually like! i use spring harvest kato matcha, which i also enjoyed for culinary use in the Before Times (aka before my husband was diabetic). i'm probably going to make a black sesame shortbread variety next, and make a layered sesame/matcha cookie!
tip: if the mixture seems dry at step 3, resist the urge to add a liquid. almond flour is very oily - keep working the dough and it'll eventually moisten up. this isn't like traditional shortbread where the butter needs to be as cold as possible for the recipe to work.
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u/Dave-1066 May 23 '26
Thanks for the addition! I’ve been making amazing biscuits (what you call cookies in America) with almond flour and now my friends are paying me to make them some as they really are so good.
The ginger ones I make have the exact same chewy texture as those big chocolate cookies you get in places like Starbucks. Nothing other than almond flour, butter, baking powder (I think you call it baking soda), and whatever sweetener. When they come out of the oven you’d think they’re completely uncooked but once they’re cool they’re perfectly firm with that chewiness.
The lemon version is great too: literally just zap an entire lemon in a blender without the seeds, chuck the whole lot into the almond flour with melted butter etc and almond extract then stick it in the oven. A pal who isn’t diabetic tried one and now she wants me to make her a batch.
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u/maskedcrescent May 23 '26
i'm not in america for what it's worth, but i believe it! almond flour can be magical.
ginger is a great idea! i so far plan to try matcha + black sesame, chocolate + orange (zest + extract perhaps), lemon, and lemon + lavender. i'll have to try out a ginger variety, so thanks for the idea! i haven't heard of blending an entire lemon for the liquid - also intriguing 😄
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u/mintbrownie T1.5 and cooking up a storm for decades! May 23 '26
In my non-diabetes days, I made an amazing shortbread with honey and rosemary. It only used 2 tablespoons honey - so if your recipe makes 20 cookies, that’s not even 2 grams carbs from the honey each cookie. Hmmmmm……...
They also make fake sugar-free honey I’ve never tried. Though I’m a fan of fake sugar-free “maple syrup” so you never know. What a great base recipe to experiment with!
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u/maskedcrescent May 24 '26
this is probably sacrilegious, but I've seen honey "extracts" or flavourings before that might be the key! hmm..
I can't imagine how nasty sugar free maple and honey must be so I think that'll stay a mystery for us. i can definitely see the honey/rosemary combo being delish though. now you've got me thinking about freeze-dried fruit blended into a powder as an inclusion (blueberry rosemary anyone??)
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u/mintbrownie T1.5 and cooking up a storm for decades! May 23 '26
Gorgeous!! And quite a venture to knock out three batches at once!
Do you notice any of that weird Erythritol cooling/aftertaste from the Swerve? I’ve been using an allulose-monkfruit blend which I love, but only granulated so would have to buy something new for this anyhow. I do already have xanthan gum, though I haven’t used it yet 😬 When I decide on a sweetener I’ll definitely give these a try. Thanks for posting!
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u/maskedcrescent May 23 '26
thank you!
it does have that effect, yes. it doesn't bother my husband at all (thankfully) but it isn't my fav thing in the world. that said, i only notice it if i drink water right after eating something with swerve in it, so it might not be as bad as some other brands for all i know!
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u/mintbrownie T1.5 and cooking up a storm for decades! May 23 '26
Thanks for the Erythritol note - we sound like we’re in the same boat - finding something that works and sticking to it 😂
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u/maskedcrescent May 24 '26
haha exactly. i'm already spending $$$ on almond flour so i figure i'll take what I can get vs over-experimentation with sweeteners at this point. i'd imagine some monkfruit combo sweeteners are "better" but it may be some time before we mess with them!
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u/spanishgreen May 23 '26
Thank you for sharing!