Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

Keto Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars made low-carb with almond flour and sugar-free sweetener. These tasty cookie bars (or keto blondies)  are ideal for those following a low-carb or keto diet, and/or folks who need to watch their sugar intake.

Grain-free and sugar-free, these lumps of gooey delight really quench a cookie craving when you have a hankering for something sultry but you don’t want your blood sugar to shoot through the roof.

Bars or cookies…do you have a preference? The majority of the time, I’d be equally happy with either cookies or bars, but sometimes you just want something thick and buttery to sink your teeth into.

Keto chocolate chip cookie bars are grain-free, sugar-free, and are lower in carbohydrate than your standard chocolate chip cookie bar.

Butter: Butter gives these low-carb blondies that iconic cookie flavor we all love so deeply. Fat in baked goods adds flavor and helps bind everything together. If you do ghee instead of butter, feel free to make the swap for lactose-free cookie bars.

Sugar-Free Sweetener: In order to keep these cookie bars sugar-free, we use a sugar-free granulated sweetener. You have many options when it comes to sweeteners! Use your favorite granulated sugar-free sweetener, such as Truvia, monk fruit sweetener, xylitol, erythritol, Swerve, etc. My favorite zero-calorie sweetener for baking is Swerve.

Egg: Used to bind and puff these cookie bars, we just need one egg to do some heavy lifting. 

Pure Vanilla Extract: Cookie bars are always made better with vanilla extract! It adds that warm and inviting flavor that you just can’t get in any other way!

Almond Flour: The base of these grain-free low-carb cookie bars is almond flour. Almond flour makes a light and fluffy treat with the perfect crisp when combined with the right ingredients! It is also full of healthy fat, fiber, and some plant-based protein. I use Super Fine Almond Flour, which ensures the texture is similar to a treat using regular all-purpose flour.

Varying brands of almond flour contain different absorbencies. If you’re finding the cookie dough to be overly dry or crumbly, add melted butter or coconut oil one tablespoon at a time until it comes together in a thick dough.

Baking Soda & Sea Salt: Used for leavening the cookie bars and holding them steadfast, we use baking soda. Sea salt makes all the flavors POP!

Chocolate Chips: Stevia-sweetened chocolate chips are the chocolate portion of these cookie bars! If you have a favorite sugar-free chocolate bar, you can chop it up and use it for chocolate chunks.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and line an 8” x 8” baking pan with parchment paper.

Beat the butter in a stand mixer (or in a mixing bowl with an electric hand mixer) until fluffy.  Add the sweetener and vanilla extract and beat until creamy until fluffy.  Scrape the sides of the mixer with a rubber spatula. Add egg and beat until well combined.

Add the almond flour, baking soda, sea salt and cinnamon and beat until well-combined. Beat in the chocolate chips until evenly distributed throughout the dough.

Transfer the cookie dough to the baking pan and press into an even layer. If desired, add more chocolate chips on top!

Bake on the center rack of the preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, until edges are golden brown and the bars seem firm. I let mine go for 20 minutes, then turn off the oven and let them sit for another 5 minutes in the oven.

Note: for gooier, under-baked bars, bake for 18 to 20 minutes and for firmer bars, bake for 25 to 30 minutes.

Remove bars from the oven and allow them to cool for at least 40 minutes before slicing and serving.

I don’t recommend using coconut flour as a 1:1 replacement for almond flour in this recipe because it absorbs 4 times more liquid than any other flour. In order to bake cookie bars using coconut flour, you will need to follow an entirely different recipe.

If you have an allergy to almonds, you can use hazelnut flour in a 1:1 replacement in this recipe.