Temperatures in the 20s, snow on the way, and it seems like the perfect day to publish the recipe for Paleo Coffee Sugar Cookies!
Crisp, buttery sugar cookies flecked with ground coffee — does it get any better than that? Plus, I've thrown in a simple coffee coconut butter frosting recipe so you can get the full Christmas sugar cookie experience!
Christmas cookie season
As we inch closer to Christmas, I've got cookies on the brain. This is really the only time I get the itch to bake cookies, so I'm leaning in and dreaming up some fun cookie recipes.
But of course, I'm only one woman and I only post so many recipes each week. So if you're looking for a huge variety of paleo christmas cookies, I made a Pinterest board for that!
Let's get back to these cookies. Obviously, with ground coffee in the batter, these cookies aren't exactly made for kids.
You could use decaf if you're so inclined, but y'all know me — I live a fully caffeinated life.
What to expect from these cookies
These cookies are buttery and crisp, not soft and cakey.
These cookies are made with almond flour and are not nut free.
These cookies do use coconut sugar, not honey or maple syrup.
I tried using honey in the first couple iterations of this coffee sugar cookie recipe, but I just didn't like how the flavor of honey more or less overtakes everything in the cookie and makes the final result somewhat sticky and far too chewy.
Using coconut sugar instead solved both of those problems, and the final cookies are exactly what I wanted!
I see lots of other paleo sugar cookie recipes that use honey, so those results surprised me. But I can't argue with the final cookies. They're simply amazing!
Now, if you're just on the hunt for a sugar cookie recipe and want to skip the coffee, you're more than welcome to try that. I'm sure it will turn out great, and it may just be the best paleo sugar cookie recipe on the internet.
Simple paleo frosting
A sugar cookie recipe just wouldn't be the same if there wasn't a frosting to go with it!
Obviously, your typical cookie frosting won't do for paleo cookies.
Enter coconut butter. All you've got to do is warm up some coconut butter and stir in almond milk, maple syrup, and cold brew coffee for a perfectly spreadable, slightly sweetened frosting that works excellently for cookies!
Granted, this is totally optional. You don't need to frost your cookies — and frankly. I prefer these coffee sugar cookies without frosting!
More paleo cookie recipes
- 3 Ingredient "Peanut Butter" Cookies
- Paleo No Bake Cookies
- Maple Pecan Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Tahini Chocolate Chip Cookies
📖 Recipe
Paleo Coffee Sugar Cookies
- Prep Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 25 minutes
- Yield: 2 dozen cookies 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: American
Description
These little coffee sugar cookies are buttery and crisp! Whip up the coffee coconut butter frosting for frosted cookies or leave 'em naked — your choice. The coconut butter frosting does tend to make these a little less crispy due to the fat content in the coconut butter, but they're wonderful regardless!
Ingredients
For the Cookies:
- 1 cup almond flour
- ¼ cup coconut flour
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
- ⅛ teaspoon sea salt
- 1 tablespoon fresh finely ground coffee
- ½ cup ghee or coconut oil, solid
- ½ cup coconut sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 large egg
For the Frosting:
- ¾ cup coconut butter
- ¼ cup pure maple syrup
- 3 tablespoons cold brew coffee
- 2 tablespoons almond milk, plus more as necessary
Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine the almond flour, coconut flour, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, and coffee.
- Add the ghee and coconut sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer. Cream together on medium speed until the mixture is light in color and relatively smooth. Reduce speed to low and add the egg and vanilla, beating until just combined. Finally, add the dry ingredients, beating until a thick cookie dough forms. Scrape the dough into single lump and chill for at least 1 hour to overnight.
- Once the dough has chilled, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a large cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- Place a separate large piece of parchment paper on a clean flat surface. Set the chilled dough on the parchment paper and cover with another piece of parchment paper. Gradually roll out the dough between the two sheets of parchment paper to ¼ inch thickness.
- Use cookie cutters or a mason jar lid ring to cut out shapes from the cookie dough. Place cookie cutouts on the parchment-lined baking sheet, repeating until all the dough is used. Refrigerate the dough between batches as necessary — it’s much easier to work with when it’s cold!
- Bake cookies for 8-10 minutes or until they just start to turn light brown. Let the cookies rest for at least 5 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.
- To make the frosting, combine all ingredients in a medium bowl until completely mixed. Add more almond milk as necessary until the frosting reaches a spreadable consistency.
- Once the cookies are completely cooled, decorate them or gobble them up!
Keywords: Coffee Sugar Cookies
Paige says
Can I use butter instead of ghee or coconut butter?
Chelsea says
Hey, Paige! Yes, you can use butter instead of ghee in the cookies!
I wouldn't sub anything for the coconut butter in the frosting, though. If you don't want to use coconut butter, you're better off finding a different frosting recipe. Coconut butter is the base of the frosting, so swapping it out for butter would be way too buttery. 🙂 But I do think these cookies are awesome without frosting too!
Karen says
Could you use tigernut flour instead of almond flour? As I can't have nuts.
Chelsea says
Hi, Karen! I've never used tigernut flour, so I don't have an answer for you. You could definitely try it and see what happens!