Great lemon flavor with the perfect cookie texture, these Healthy Lemon Cookies are made with protein powder instead of flour and erythritol instead of sugar!
Erythritol is a natural sweetener with zero calories and low glycemic impact. Like sugar, it is white and comes in crystalized or powdered form. I used some in the cookie dough to sweeten the cookie, and then pressed the cookie into some erythritol for the sugar-like crystal topping.
This is my first time baking with a whey/casein blend, and I have to say I am a fan! (Watch my Recipe Basics video to see how different types of protein bake up very differently.) Too much casein doesn't sit well with my body, as it is very slow digesting. But I like how this Quest powder bakes up (the texture), and I'm excited to bake more with it. I guess I'll just have to share, and not eat the whole batch in one sitting! :)
Recipe
Lemon Protein Sugar Cookies (Whey/Casein)
Ingredients
- ½ cup unflavored whey/casein protein blend 36g
- 2 tablespoons coconut flour 14g
- ½ teaspoon baking powder 2.5ml
- a pinch of sea salt
- 2 tablespoons granulated erythritol separated (24g)
- zest of ½ lemon
- 2 -3 tablespoons lemon juice 30-45ml
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract 2.5ml
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil melted (28g)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325F (163C).
- Mix protein powder, coconut flour, baking powder, salt, and 1 tablespoon of erythritol.
- Add lemon zest, lemon juice, vanilla, and coconut oil. Mix well. Use your hands to press the dough together.
- Separate into 8 pieces, and roll each into a ball. Set on a piece of parchment paper.
- Pour 1 tablespoon of erythritol on the parchment (not on the cookies).
- Press each cookie into the erythritol, flattening it out. Then place the cookie (erythritol side up) onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet.
- Bake for about 13 minutes, or until firm.
- Enjoy!
Andréa says
Hi Davene,
You could use stevia in the cookie dough, yes, but the amount would depend on the type of stevia you are using (granulated, fine powder, etc.) But for the outside of the cookie, I don't think stevia would work well. Erythritol has a nice sugar-like texture. I haven't found stevia to match that.
Hope that helps. Thanks for writing in!
Andréa
Davene Teeter says
Can you use stevia instead of etheryol?
Andréa says
Give them a try! They are yummy! :)
Marsha says
Gotta make these! My son loves lemon
Andréa says
NuZest looks great! Thanks for mentioning it. I must try! :)
GiGi Eats says
I make cookies a lot like this too - except with NuZest!! Great minds! ;)
Andréa says
Hi Debie,
Thanks for writing in! After seeing your comment, I checked my file and nothing is missing from the recipe. I just made the dough again, and it is a dry dough. To finish combining the ingredients, you'll need to use your hands. I've updated the recipe to say 2-3 tablespoons lemon juice, and to be sure readers realize the coconut oil should be melted.
As for the number of cookies, if you break the dough into 8 pieces, you'd get 8 smaller cookies, that's all.
Regarding the macros, I don't use My Fitness Pal. I compute them myself from the specific ingredients I use. For the ingredients I used, the total protein came to 34.482 grams. Divided by 4 (1 serving here = 2 cookies), that rounds to 9 grams per serving.
Hope that helps!
Andréa
Debie says
I just made these exactly as your recipe stated. But the dough was incredibly dry and wouldn't form a ball until I added another tbsp of water. Even then, it only made 5 cookies. I ran it through My Fitness Pal and with 5 servings, they came to 87 calories, 5 gm protein each. Is there something missing from the recipe?