These easy Lemon Drizzle Cranberry Cookies should be your new holiday tradition. They are a classic shortbread cookie studded with dried cranberries and topped with a lemon drizzle. This easy cranberry cookie recipe is low carb, keto, gluten-free, grain-free, sugar-free, and Trim Healthy Mama friendly.
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If you've spent any time around Joy Filled Eats in the fall you know I love cranberries! I grew up near cranberry bogs in central New Jersey and have loved these tart little berries as long as I can remember.
Growing up, for a long time, I did think cranberries only came in the form of jellied sauce shaped just like the can it slid out of. That variety I'm not so keen on. Once I had real cranberries and real cranberry sauce I was hooked.
Most dried cranberries are loaded with sugar. It can be hard to find unsweetened, or even juice sweetened dried cranberries.
A month or so ago I forgot about the cranberry sauce I was making and when I remembered the cranberries were dried enough they were just like those sweetened dried cranberries sold in stores.
It was a happy mistake because the homemade dried cranberries recipes I have seen either require a dehydrator or hours and hours in the oven. My forgotten cranberry sauce turned into craisins in about an hour. You can now make your own dried cranberries with my easy stovetop recipe.
How to Make Cranberry Cookies with Lemon Drizzle
In order to have the cranberry flavor throughout the cookies, I added some of the sugar free dried cranberries to the food processor with the dough ingredients in the very beginning. As the dough mixed they were chopped into tiny pieces. Then I added some more dried cranberries and barely mixed those in so they were bigger pieces for more texture.
Remove the dough from the food processor, shape into two circles on the parchment paper, and cut into wedges.
I baked these the way you bake biscotti. They are twice baked. Once to begin to set the dough and the second time to crisp them up and turn the edges golden.
How to Make Lemon Drizzle
Lemon drizzle is SO easy to make. All you need is a powdered sweetener, water, and lemon extract.
After baking let them cool, stir together the ingredients for the lemon glaze and drizzle it on top. Sprinkle on some additional chopped cranberries and enjoy! Aren't they pretty? I love the pop of red that having cranberries on top brings.
These look festive around Christmas. You could even make them into little trees by adding an almond trunk and a star cut from the from lemon zest.
Love lemon? Also, try these Low Carb Lemon Bars and my Lemon Drizzle Cake!
Love cranberries? Try my Keto Scones and White Chocolate Cranberry Bread!
I hope you enjoy these Lemon Drizzle Cranberry Cookies! Let me know what you think in the comments!
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Ingredients
Dough Ingredients:
- 4 oz cold salted butter, cut into pieces
- 1 cup almond flour
- ⅓ cup coconut flour
- ⅓ cup Joy Filled Eats Sweetener (or see alternatives in recipe notes)
- 2 teaspoon gelatin
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ½ cup sugar-free dried cranberries divided
Lemon Glaze:
- 3 tablespoon powdered sweetener such as Swerve
- 1 teaspoon lemon extract
- 1 teaspoon water
- 1 tablespoon sugar-free dried cranberries chopped
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Add the butter, flours, sweetener, gelatin, vanilla, and 2 tablespoons of the dried cranberries to the food processor. Pulse until the cranberries are chopped and the dough comes together in a ball. Add the remaining cranberries. Pulse just until they are mixed in.
- Divide the dough into 2 balls. Press into 2 circles on the parchment lined baking sheet. Cut each into 8 wedges. A pizza slicer works well for this.
- Bake for 15 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes. Separate so there is an inch or so between each wedge. Bake an additional 10 minutes until golden. Cool completely.
- Stir together the powdered sweetener, lemon extract, and water until smooth. Drizzle the glaze over the cooled cookies. Top with chopped cranberries, if desired.
Notes
Nutrition
barb says
hi there, couple question if I may - why use essence over real lemon? if using real, would you need more or less juice and i guess it can't hurt to throw in some zest to really bring out the lemon flavour? and secondly, tis interesting the circle/cut into wedges, then separate and second bake, but could you just do normal sized balls of dough, flattened (or cookie cutter cut out) and bake the once? getting same consistency of cookie crumb and hold? would it just be the initial time given the smaller size? thx 🙂
Taryn says
Lemon extract is more potent than lemon juice and easy to keep in the pantry. You can use lemon zest 1:1 instead of extract. Lemon juice will not work.
Yes, you can just bake circular cookies instead.
Erica Kennedy says
Please share the details of making your own overcooked cranberry sauce/dried unsweetened cranberries. I am so excited to make my own. I can't even find an economical choice on line. These cookies sound awesome!
Kelly says
I don't have gelatin on hand... How disastrous will it be to leave it out? Thanks!
Taryn says
Gelatin is the binding agent. You could add an egg instead but will get a cakier cookie. Not using either will make the cookies more delicate and prone to breaking.
Linda says
I love shortbread cookies and these cookies had an amazing cranberry flavor that stood out. It was a great idea to put some cranberries into the dough prior to running the food processor. And, what can I say, I loved the lemon drizzle which was a perfect foil to the buttery cookies.
Noelle says
These look amazing, I love the lemon drizzle on it!!
catherine says
Can I make these in a tart pam like your giant chocolate chip tart (which was amazing)?
Lynnita says
My butter is all unsalted. Why salted?
Taryn says
All my butter is salted 😉 just add a pinch of salt if you use unsalted butter. My family prefers salted butter in everything.
Cheryl says
May we have more info on the cranberry sauce 'mistake'? I don't want to run a dehydrator for hours on end nor have my oven on for hours. Thank you.
Taryn says
Ok, so I put half a bag of cranberries and some of my sweetener (maybe 1/3 cup) in a saucepan and forgot about it on low. An hour later it smelled kind of like popcorn and we couldn't figure out what it was. It was my cranberries. They had popped, and kind of dried out, and were sticky glazed from the sweetener. If you give it a try let me know but I haven't replicated it (or even tried to replicate it) yet.
patricia says
I want to make these so bad. One question.....I have to be dairy free, so will spectrum shortening work in these? Thanks
Taryn says
I'm not too familiar with spectrum shortening. I'd use butter flavored coconut oil personally.