Cranberry Lemon Ricotta Cookies (Sugar Free)

These light puffy sugar free ricotta almond cookies are laced with lemon, with little bits of festive red cranberries and a creamy lemon cream cheese frosting. They remind me of little clouds, so soft and delicate! The cookies are less sweet than your typical holiday fare, which I found kind of oddly pleasant. After a couple cookies, I found myself really growing to like the less-sweet flavor. Absolutely, I love that they don’t weigh you down or make you feel out of sorts like so many of the sugar-laden Christmas cookies.

These cookies are diabetic friendly because they use monk fruit for sweetener in place of sugar, but they are also gluten free (if you stick to just almond flour) and KETO.

Normally I’m not a sugar-free cookie kinda gal, but I was looking for something diabetic friendly for my friend whose husband is diabetic. I didn’t want to deliver holiday treats that would mess up his insulin levels, so I went seeking a sugar-free cookie that sounded good and, since I have ricotta on hand, these almond ricotta cheese cookies from Low Carb Yum sounded worth a try. I went and bought some monk fruit sweetener because my friend swears that monk fruit tastes just like sugar. (Personally, I don’t think that it does, but it worked for this purpose, although the cookies at first bite seem a little lacking in the sweetness department, but perhaps people who eat sugar free have become accustomed to that?) If you have a different sweetener you prefer, then by all means, go with that.

The cookies are tender and delicate and a little fussy because they are almond-flour based. Almond flour is delicious and healthy and full of protein, but it can be a little crumbly when used in cookies. After my test cookie practically fell apart when I touched it, I added a little white whole wheat flour to counteract that and then the cookies seemed to stay together better. If you really want a gluten free cookie, you could skip that part, but just know your cookies are going to be more delicate and might fall apart at a glance (like when you try to frost them). I think perhaps some psyllium husks would help hold things together, but I didn’t want to stray too far from the recipe on my first go round. Even though I kind of DID stray by adding lemon and cranberries, but they are just flavor boosters in my book. Right? In any case, they make the cookies more festive and holiday-like, so that’s a good thing.

Make sure the frosting is at room temperature and the cookies are completely cooled before you try to frost them.

Oh and by the way, I delivered the cookies to my friend yesterday. She seemed so excited that I made sugar free cookies … and she texted me later that day to tell me her hubby LOVES the cookies. That’s what it was all about. Simply making someone smile.

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I took a couple shots as I was making the cookies. Here’s a closeup after the cookies were baked and frosted:

My youngest wanted straight up lemon cookies, so I saved a bit of the dough, added a bit more flour and some real powdered sugar, then stirred together a little cream cheese with lemon juice and powdered sugar for the frosting. This was the result … she was very pleased!