Gluten-free cheese cookies (4 ingredients)
Homemade cheese cookies are a great low-carb snack. Made with Gouda cheese and almond meal, they’re bursting with protein and fiber, and are very satiating. They’re also easy and fun to make with kids and require just 4 simple ingredients to blend in a food processor.
Protein power
These gluten-free cheese cookies contain a great deal of protein from the cheese, almonds, and egg. Perfect for growing children and active adults because proteins are the building blocks of our bodies.
They’re also quite satiating and children will naturally stop after just one or two cookies, preventing them to overeat. And that’s exactly the beauty of low carb foods because nature has given us a very clear “enough”-alarm for protein and fats, which is not the case for carbohydrates. This means many people can easily finish a pack of commercial sugar-loaded cookies in one go, which won’t be the case with these homemade cheese cookies.
Fat bombs
Indeed, these cookies are high in fat, including (good) monounsaturated fat from the almonds, and the much-feared saturated fat provided by butter and cheese.
So why do I still think it’s perfectly fine to eat and feed these cookies to your kids?
The thing to remember is that saturated fat in your diet has very little influence on the saturated fat in your blood. We do indeed want to keep the amount of saturated fats in our blood low because high levels are linked to heart disease. But what many get wrong is that the levels in your body don’t increase by eating decent amounts of red meat, butter or cheese, but rather by eating sugar and refined carbs such as white bread, white pasta, cookies and cake (Source: Mark Hyman, Eat Fat, Get Thin).
Just remember that the cheese and butter you buy should always be organic, and ideally raw and made from the milk of grass-fed animals.
Of course not everyone does well with dairy. If you want to read more about why and under which circumstances dairy is fine, I highly recommend reading this article written by Chris Kresser.
Taste and texture
The combination of the almonds with the savoury cheese is quite unusual at the first bite, but blends surprisingly well once you work your way through the cookie.
The texture could be compared with the texture of a shortbread cookie but then softer.
Ingredients
*Unless stated differently, my recipes are measured with US measuring cups like these ones.
Directions
Blend all ingredients in a food processor until it starts forming a dough.
Form a ball with your hands, flatten, wrap in parchment paper, and freeze for at least 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 180° C (350° F).
Take the dough out of the freezer and roll out to 1 cm thickness (0.4 inch).
Using a cookie cutter, cut out as many cookies as you can.
Place the cookies on a baking tray lined with baking paper.
Bake for about 10 minutes, until the cookies start to brown.
Take out of the oven and let cool for about 10 minutes, before transferring to a cooling rack to fully cool down.
Store in an airtight container for up to a week, or freeze for up to 6 months.
Ingredients
Directions
Blend all ingredients in a food processor until it starts forming a dough.
Form a ball with your hands, flatten, wrap in parchment paper, and freeze for at least 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 180° C (350° F).
Take the dough out of the freezer and roll out to 1 cm thickness (0.4 inch).
Using a cookie cutter, cut out as many cookies as you can.
Place the cookies on a baking tray lined with baking paper.
Bake for about 10 minutes, until the cookies start to brown.
Take out of the oven and let cool for about 10 minutes, before transferring to a cooling rack to fully cool down.
Store in an airtight container for up to a week, or freeze for up to 6 months.
