These 3-Ingredient Shortbread Biscuits are simple cookies made with no gluten, no eggs, no refined sugar, and rich in fiber.
While the whole recipe is just below, don’t miss all my tips further down, including ingredient swaps, my cooking tips, and step-by-step shots!
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3-Ingredient Shortbread Biscuits
These 3-Ingredient Shortbread Biscuits are simple cookies made with no gluten, no eggs, no refined sugar, and rich in fiber.
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Servings: 18 cookies
Calories: 63.7 kcal
Ingredients
- 1 cup Almond Flour - (note 1)
- 3 tablespoons Maple Syrup - (note 2)
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract - (note 3)
Optional – to create a chocolate shell
- ⅓ cup Dark Chocolate Chips
- ½ teaspoon Coconut Oil - (note 4)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 300°F (160°C). Prepare a large baking sheet. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine almond flour, maple syrup, and vanilla extract, until the dough is wet and sticky.
- Cut two pieces of parchment paper to a size of about 10 inches x 7 inches (25cm x 17cm). Lightly spray some oil on only one of the sides.
- Place the first piece of parchment paper on your work surface – oiled side up, not touching the work surface. Place the cookie dough ball on the oiled side of this piece of parchment paper. Press the second piece of parchment paper on the cookie dough – oiled side on the dough.
- Use a rolling pin to roll the dough into a 7-inch x 5-inch rectangle (17 cm x 14 cm). It will make a thin 1/4-inch cookie dough.
- Oil the blade of a knife or pastry cutter to press and cut this rectangle into 14 smaller rectangles. You may need to reoil your cutting tool as it could be sticking to the cookie dough.
- Gently spread each rectangle of dough so they don't touch each other on the parchment paper. The cookies won't change shape or grow in the oven, but if they touch each other, they won't have crispy edges.
- Lightly prick each biscuit with the tip of a lightly oiled fork. Be gentle when pricking the cookies with a fork; don't press all the way through, as they are fragile and may break. You can also skip this step, as it's mostly decorative.
- Slide the piece of parchment paper with the cut cookies onto the baking sheet set aside earlier.
- Bake the biscuits on the center rack of the oven for 12-14 minutes at 300°F (160°C) until the edges are just turning golden brown.
- Let them cool down on the baking sheet at room temperature for 15 minutes, then on a cooling rack for 30 minutes. They firm up as they cool down.
Optional decoration
- In a microwave-safe bowl, melt the chocolate chips and oil, microwaving in 30-second bursts, stirring between each, and repeating if needed, until fully melted.
- Place the melted chocolate into a small, tall, narrow glass. Dip half of the cookie in the melted chocolate, wait for a few seconds above the glass to let the excess melted chocolate run down the glass.
- Place each dipped cookie on a plate covered with lightly oiled parchment paper.
- Freeze for 10 minutes to set the chocolate shell.
Notes
Note 1: Almond meal works, but the cookies will be darker in color and a bit grainy. If you don’t eat almonds, cashew flour or sesame seed flour provides the same result. Wheat flour or oat flour won’t work with the same ratio!
Note 2: Or any liquid sweetener you love, like agave syrup.
Note 3: For flavor, you can swap it for 1/4 teaspoon of almond extract for a different shortbread flavor.
Note 4: Or any low flavor oil like olive oil.
Oven Mode: I use the fan-forced (convection) mode. If you have to use conventional mode, I recommend increasing the temperature by 25°F (15 °C). The baking time should be the same, but it might take a few more minutes.
Storage: Store them in a cookie jar at room temperature for up to 4 days. The cookies will get softer and chewier with time.
Nutrition
Serving: 1cookie | Calories: 63.7kcal | Carbohydrates: 5.5g | Protein: 1.6g | Fat: 4.2g | Saturated Fat: 1.3g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.01g | Monounsaturated Fat: 0.02g | Sodium: 3.9mg | Potassium: 28.9mg | Fiber: 0.8g | Sugar: 3.4g | Vitamin A: 0.3IU | Vitamin B12: 0.01µg | Vitamin C: 0.02mg | Calcium: 26.8mg | Iron: 0.3mg | Magnesium: 1.9mg | Phosphorus: 4.2mg | Zinc: 0.1mg
Ingredients and Substitutions
This paragraph gives you all my tips about picking the right ingredients. For the full recipe with measurements, scroll to the recipe card at the bottom of the post!Go to Full Recipe
You only need 3 simple ingredients to make this recipe. Here’s how to pick and swap them.
- Almond Flour – This is the main ingredient that forms the structure of these shortbread biscuits. It provides a rich, nutty flavor and a tender, melt-in-your-mouth texture without using wheat flour.
- Maple Syrup – This acts as both the sweetener and the liquid binder for the dough. Any liquid sweetener like agave syrup or date syrup also works.
- Vanilla Extract – This adds a classic, warm flavor that complements the almond base perfectly. You can also use almond extract for a more intense flavor.
How to Make 3-Ingredient Shortbread Biscuits
Carine’s Baking Tips
Let me share a few more tips for a perfect shortbread cookies.
- Roll Dough Thin – For a truly crunchy shortbread biscuit, make sure you roll the dough to about 1/4 inch (6mm) thin.
- Roll a Perfect Rectangle – To get a perfectly even rectangle, you can fold the sides of the bottom piece of parchment paper to create a guide. This helps you roll the dough into a nice shape without the edges splaying out.
- Enjoy the Texture – These shortbread biscuits are crunchy on the edges and chewy in the center. They will lose their crunch over time, so I recommend enjoying them within a few days of baking.
- Add a Chocolate Shell – You can serve the biscuits plain or dip half of each one in melted dark chocolate. Place the dipped biscuits on a plate lined with lightly oiled parchment paper and freeze for 10 minutes to set the shell.
- Change the Flavor – To make a delicious almond shortbread, simply swap the vanilla extract for 1/4 teaspoon of almond extract in the dough.
- Try a Faster Method – To save time, you can skip the rolling step. Just divide the dough into 14 even balls, place them on the baking sheet, and flatten each one with the palm of your hand before pricking and baking.
Hi
I’ve made these several times! Always great! However wanted to check if you could freeze the dough and cook after? Thanks
Thank you for this lovely feedback! I usually freeze my cookies after baking them, the texture doesn’t change much. However, freezing almond flour cookie dough is tricky, it gets moist and sticky, and you won’t get the same crunchy cookies when baked.
These were so moreish. I reduced the maple by 10ml and skipped the chocolate and both my children gobbled them up. thanks so much for this lovely recipe.
I am so happy everyone love them!
Hello, I made these and they are delicious thank you!
I’m just abit confused with the nutritional information. it says 10g of sugar per one, it says recipe is for 18? but looks like you made 14 in pictures? if it’s 18 or 14 it doesn’t seem right at 10g of sugar per biscuit. nearly All almond flour contains 4g of sugar per 100g, and nearly all maple syrup is 10g of sugar per 15ml. This gives a total of around 34g sugar for your recipe, even If you factor in the additional chocolate it’s no where near 10g of sugar per biscuit, it’s around 3-5g. Not sure if I’ve missed something???
Serving size is 18, but you are right, there’s a miscalculation, the sugar is 3.4 g per cookie. The nutrition panel is automatically calculated from a nutriton approved center, and they had a server connection issue that didn’t update my panel. It’s fixed now.
how do you prepare the baking sheet? do you grease it, line it with parchment???
Not exactly. If you read the recipe, you roll the dough onto a piece of parchment paper, then cut the biscuits on it, and pull the parchment paper sheet on the baking sheet – step 9.
I’m assuming that you add the vanilla in the same step as the maple syrup?
Thanks, gonna try these soon for my family!
Yes, absolutely!
Easy and delicious !
Thank you so much for this lovely feedback!
Hi I am about to try this and checking if Golden syrup or honey will work as Maple syrup is not a standard for me.
Yes, honey work. I never baked with golden syrup but it’s a liquid sweetener so I suppose it will work as well.
What kind of oil do you recommend for spraying the dough and board?
I always using olive oil spray
Would adding mini chocolate chips to the dough work? Or would it crumble apart?
I am afraid it will.
Please tell me, how many grams are in 1 cup?
Click the metric button to convert the recipe in grams and ml. One cup is 250ML, it’s a volume, which means you will get a different weight (grams) for 1 cup of almond flour compared to 1 cup of sugar.