What if I told you that you could bake delicious dark chocolate cookies with only 22 calories each?
If you’re trying to lose weight for any reason, you know that calories are a precious thing. With these cookies having just over 20 calories each and only 1.5g net carbs, you can have your dessert and eat it too!
These are , free, , but far from flavor-free.
Whether or not you’re counting calories, you can enjoy these low calorie cookies on absolutely any diet.
And even if you’re not trying to lose weight, these cookies absolutely deliver on flavor.
If you like dark chocolate, you’re going to love these.
Do low calorie cookies actually taste like regular cookies?
It’s a very fair question, so let’s address this.
If somebody placed a plate of fresh-baked cookies in front of you and asked you to do a blind taste test between those and my low-calorie cookies, you’d be able to tell the difference every single time.
I’m not going to try to fool you into thinking these are as tasty as Grandma’s chocolate chip cookies.
But for 20 calories each, they are damn good.
These cookies are soft with a nice chew to them, and the flavor reminds me very much of dark chocolate. If you like dark chocolate brownies, there’s no reason you wouldn’t love these cookies.
Considering we’re using low-calorie ingredients that you typically don’t find in regular cookies, the texture is slightly different. These cookies almost dissolve in your mouth, but I find that to be a good thing.
Long story short: no, these won’t fool you into thinking you’re eating a batch of famous homemade cookies. But if you need to eat low calorie or low carb for any reason and you’re craving chocolate, I promise these cookies will not disappoint you.
Ingredients Needed For Low Calorie Cookies
These have only 22 calories each, and the secret lies in the ingredients we are using.
The main ingredients we need for these cookies are:
- Unsweetened
- Canned Pumpkin
- Creamy (or other )
- Substitute
- Egg White
Many recipes you’ll come across will require some kind of (often almond or ), but we are able to make these without any at all (also making them totally ).
Most of my cookie recipes utilize oat flour for an authentic cookie flavor, but the cocoa powder here eliminates the need for that and keeps these incredibly low in calories.
The canned pumpkin is the secret ingredient here, and it’s my go-to ingredient when I want to make baked goods soft without adding a ton of extra calories (like with my Low Calorie or Protein ).
Pumpkin is a magical ingredient that will stay soft when baked, and is very mild in flavor. In this , it replaces the need for that you’d find in most other recipes.
If you do not have access to canned pumpkin, I’ve heard that pureed sweet potato is a good substitute, but I’m unaware of any good substitutes.
Unsweetened applesauce is a popular low-calorie ingredient, but it would not give these cookies the structure we need. You can check out my Nutella Cookies if you do not have canned pumpkin since that one DOES use applesauce!
These are on the slightly bitter side, which makes them similar to a dark flavor. I don’t love , but I really enjoy these cookies! To me, they have the perfect sweetness.
If you wanted them to be sweeter, you can always add additional sweetener.
I use substitute to sweeten these cookies. If you only have regular , you can definitely use that, but these cookies will be much higher calorie in that case.
When I first developed this recipe, I used only brown sugar. Since revisiting this recipe, I testing swapping out some of the brown sugar for powdered sugar. Honestly, I think the results are mostly the same, so feel free to go with either route.
Update: Thanks to reader feedback, I’ve also added one egg white to this recipe which I’ve found helps the structure immensely.
How To Make Low-Calorie Cookies
The process of making low-calorie cookies is extremely simple.
Add all of the cookie ingredients to a large bowl and mix it up with a silicone spatula until chocolate cookie dough forms. No need to separate the wet and dry ingredients in this one!
Since the dough is going to be slightly sticky, we’re going to refrigerate it for one hour.
I used to skip this step, but since slightly tweaking the ingredients and adding egg white, the dough is pretty sticky if you stick the chilling.
Once the cookie dough has chilled for one hour, use a small scoop to create your balls.
A small scoop is roughly equal to 2 teaspoons, so if you do not have a scoop, you can measure it that way. All in all, you should be able to create about 30 balls from your .
Gently roll each cookie dough ball in your hands to smooth them out.
Since the dough will be a little bit sticky, there are two things you can do to prevent the dough from sticking to your hands too much:
- Wet your hands with a little bit of cold water
- Dust your hands with some additional cocoa powder
Both methods work well and won’t affect the final cookies. You can expect the dough to stick to your hands a little bit because that’s the nature of this low-calorie cookie dough, but using either of these methods will help a ton.
Gently press each cookie dough ball down into a disc, then sprinkle a little coarse salt on top (this is optional, but salt and chocolate go together very well).
You do not need to completely flatten the cookies, but they will not spread a ton once baked, so if we left them as dough balls we would not have cookies at the end.
Bake the cookies at 350 degrees for 15 minutes, then remove from the oven and let them cool completely, about 30 minutes.
If you were to try to eat one of these directly out of the oven, it will likely fall apart on you because they will be quite soft. By letting the cookies cool completely, you are also allowing them time to set and firm up inside.
Don’t worry if they feel underbaked out of the oven, trust the process and watch how they firm up!
If you have leftover cookies, these can be stored in an airtight container and enjoyed throughout the week.
I kept mine in the fridge, although that isn’t necessary, and these cookies remained fresh for 5 full days.
More Healthy Cookie Recipes To Enjoy
Whether you’re in search of more , high protein cookies, or no-bake cookies, there’s a here on my blog for you. Here are some of my favorites:
Ingredients
- 200g Canned Pumpkin
- 90g Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
- 200g (1 Packed Cup) Brown Sugar Substitute
- 1 Egg White (about 2 Tbsp) – Can be omitted for vegan cookies
- 64g (1/4 Cup) Creamy Peanut Butter
- 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
- Pinch of Salt
- Optional: Sea Salt for Topping
Instructions
- In a large bowl, add all of your ingredients together. Use a silicone spatula to mix everything up until cookie dough forms.
- The dough will be sticky at this stage. Refrigerate the cookie dough for one hour to make it significantly easier to work with.
- Once the dough has chilled, preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
- Using a small cookie scoop (about 2 teaspoons if you do not have a cookie scoop) scoop out cookies onto a baking sheet. Using a small cookie scoop, I was able to create exactly 30 cookies, but it may vary slightly for you.
- Roll each cookie dough ball in your palms to smooth them out, then lightly press them down into discs. The dough will be slightly sticky but not so much that you cannot work with it. To prevent the dough from sticking to your hands too much, you can either wet your hands with a little bit of cold water or dust your hands with additional cocoa powder (both work well).
- Optional: top with some coarse sea salt before baking if you enjoy the salty + sweet combo as I do.
- Bake for 15 minutes at 350 degrees F.
- Remove from the oven and let cool for about 30 minutes. These cookies will be delicate right out of the oven, but they will firm up as they cool. You can let them cool even longer if you feel the cookies are still too soft, but 30 minutes should be perfect.
- If you need some added sweetness, sprinkle powdered sugar on top of these cookies once cooled.
- Store any leftover cookies in an airtight container to keep them soft & fresh for up to one week.
Notes
- ***This recipe has been updated since the original recipe was posted thanks to reader feedback. What changed: I added egg white and bumped the baking time up from 10 minutes to 15 minutes. I also tested a batch replacing 75g of brown sugar with powdered sugar, and it worked great, but there isn’t much difference in the results.
- If you leave these cookies out, they tend to dry out, so make sure you leave leftover cookies in an airtight container to keep the moisture sealed in.
- The egg white can be left out if you need to make these vegan, but it helps a lot with the structure of these cookies.
- If you do not have access to canned pumpkin, a reader told me that pureed sweet potato also worked. The canned pumpkin is the secret ingredient that keeps these cookies soft and is very low calorie, so you’ll want to find something similar as a substitute. I’d recommend making my Peanut Butter Nutella Cookies as a simple cookie recipe if you do not have pumpkin.
- Note that I typically do not count sugar substitute in my carb totals because it contains 0 calories, but I included them for this recipe. The net carbs for each cookie are only 1.5g taking the sugar substitute into account.
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Nutrition Information
Yield 30
Serving Size 1 Small Cookie
Amount Per Serving
Calories 22Total Fat 1.5gCarbohydrates 8gNet Carbohydrates 1.5gFiber 1.5gSugar 0.5gProtein 1g
