Keto Almond Flour Pumpkin Spice Cut-Out Cookies for Halloween

There’s a point every October where the house starts to smell like cinnamon and nutmeg even when the oven’s off.

That’s my sign it’s cookie season. Not the mushy kind, not the ones that spread like pancakes and look sad on the tray.

 I mean crisp-edged, hold-their-shape cut-out cookies you can decorate with a kid on your hip and a cat judging you from the counter.

And yes, these are low carb, gluten free, and made with almond flour, so you can snag two without that sugar crash sneaking up later.

I’ve baked a small mountain of keto cookies over the years. Some were great. Some tasted like a math problem.

This recipe is the one I keep coming back to because the dough rolls clean, the shapes stay sharp, and the spice hits that warm pumpkin pie vibe without going heavy.

You can bake bats, cats, pumpkins, ghosts, whatever cookie cutters you have. The dough behaves. Even better, the cookies bake up lightly crisp at the edges with a soft snap in the center. No gritty weirdness either.

We’ll run through ingredients, tools, step-by-steps, common mistakes, icing options, how to store, how to freeze, how to scale for a party, plus a printable style recipe card and nutrition notes. Plain English the whole way.

Why these cookies work (and don’t spread all over the place)

• Almond flour brings fat and protein, which keeps the dough tender and stops that dry sawdust texture.
• Coconut flour (just a spoon) soaks up extra moisture. This helps the cookies hold shape during baking.
• Egg + butter bind and add richness without adding carbs.
• Pumpkin spice plus vanilla gives that fall flavor without needing actual pumpkin puree (which can make cut-outs too soft).
• Chilling the dough firms the butter so the edges bake clean.
• A little xanthan gum (optional) mimics gluten’s structure, so roll-outs don’t crack as much.

Taste & texture

Thin edges with a gentle crisp. Center has a shortbread bite, not cakey. Spice is warm but not spicy-hot. Sweetness is balanced, not blow-your-head-off sweet. If you like classic sugar cookie cut-outs but live low carb now, this scratches the itch.

Ingredients

Dry:

• 2 ½ cups fine-blanched almond flour (250 g), spooned and leveled
• 1 tbsp coconut flour (8 g)
• ½ cup powdered erythritol or powdered allulose (80–90 g)*
• 1 ¼ tsp baking powder (gluten free)
• ¾ tsp xanthan gum (optional but helpful)
• ½ tsp fine salt
• 1 tbsp pumpkin pie spice (or mix below)
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon (boosts flavor)

Wet:

• 6 tbsp unsalted butter, softened but cool (85 g)
• 1 large egg, room temp
• 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
• ½ tsp almond extract (optional, good with almond flour)

* If using allulose, cookies brown faster and feel softer warm; they crisp as they cool. If using erythritol, sweetness feels cooler and they set firmer.

DIY pumpkin pie spice if you don’t have a jar:
2 tsp cinnamon + ½ tsp ginger + ½ tsp nutmeg + ¼ tsp allspice + ⅛ tsp clove.

Simple keto “royal” icing (optional, for decorating):

• 1 ½ cups powdered erythritol/allulose (240–270 g)
• 1 ½–2 tbsp pasteurized egg white or aquafaba, or use 2–3 tsp meringue powder + 2 tbsp water
• ½–1 tsp vanilla
• Water, ½ tsp at a time, to thin
• Pinch salt
• Gel or natural powder colors, optional

Tools you’ll want

• Mixing bowls
• Hand mixer or stand mixer with paddle
• Measuring cups/spoons (plus a kitchen scale if you have one)
• Rolling pin
• 2 sheets of parchment
• Rimmed baking sheets
• Cookie cutters (pumpkins, bats, ghosts, cats… anything spooky)
• Offset spatula for moving shapes
• Wire rack for cooling
• Piping bags or zip bags + small round tips for icing

Making the Best keto Almond flour pumpkin spice cut-out cookies

1) Whisk the dry

In a large bowl whisk almond flour, coconut flour, powdered sweetener, baking powder, xanthan gum, salt, pumpkin spice, and the extra cinnamon. Break up clumps. Almond flour loves clumping.

2) Cream the butter

In another bowl, beat butter with a mixer for ~1 minute until smooth and slightly fluffy. Add vanilla and almond extract. Mix again. Scrape the bowl.

3) Add the egg

Beat in the egg just until combined. Don’t overmix here, it can trap too much air and cause puffing.

4) Bring it together

Add dry mix to wet in two parts. Mix on low until a soft dough forms. It should look a bit like play-dough and clean the bowl sides. If it’s sticky, let it sit 5 minutes—the coconut flour will drink extra moisture. Still sticky? Sprinkle 1–2 tsp almond flour, mix briefly.

5) Chill

Divide dough in half. Shape each into a flat disk, about ¾ inch thick. Wrap in parchment or plastic. Chill 45–60 minutes. Colder dough = sharper edges.

Shortcut: If your kitchen runs cool, 20 minutes in the freezer works, but don’t forget it. Rock hard dough cracks.

6) Roll between parchment

Place a disk between two sheets of parchment. Roll to ¼ inch thick (6 mm) for sturdy cookies; 3/16 inch if you like them snappier. Peel top parchment, dust the surface with a pinch of almond flour if needed, lay it back, flip, peel the other side so both faces release easily.

7) Cut shapes

Dip cutters in almond flour, tap off extra, then press straight down—no twisting. Use an offset spatula to lift shapes to a parchment-lined sheet. Gather scraps, press back together, roll again. If the dough warms up and drags, slide the parchment onto a board and chill 10 minutes, then keep going.

8) Chill again (quick)

Once the tray is full, chill 10–15 minutes. This extra step stops spread and gives a neater rise.

9) Bake

Bake at 325°F (163°C) for 10–13 minutes. Small shapes like mini bats take 8–10, big pumpkins 12–14. You want light golden edges, tops still pale. They firm up as they cool.

10) Cool

Let cookies cool on the tray 5 minutes, then move to a wire rack. Wait until fully cool before icing, or the icing melts and runs off and you’ll say some words.

Make-ahead plan (party friendly)

• 2–3 days before: Make dough, keep wrapped in the fridge.
• 1 day before: Roll, cut, bake. Cool completely. Store in an airtight tin with parchment between layers.
• Day of: Mix icing, decorate, let dry, then arrange on a tray.

Freezer options

• Dough disks: freeze up to 2 months. Thaw in the fridge overnight before rolling.
• Cut shapes (unbaked): freeze on a tray until solid, then bag. Bake from frozen; add 1–2 minutes.
• Baked cookies, undecorated: freeze up to 2 months. Thaw at room temp in a tin.
• Iced cookies: best not frozen; colors can spot. If you must, freeze in a single layer, well wrapped, and don’t stack until fully thawed.

Decorating ideas that don’t require art school

• Pumpkin faces: Flood a pumpkin shape with orange icing, let it set 10–15 min, then pipe black eyes and a goofy grin. If you don’t have black, cocoa powder in icing makes a deep brown that reads spooky.
• Ghosts: White flood, then two dots for eyes using a toothpick dipped in darker icing. Cute fast.
• Spiderwebs: Flood with white, pipe 3 concentric rings of dark icing, drag a toothpick from center outward 6–8 times. Looks fancy, takes 30 seconds.
• Black cat: Outline and fill with dark icing, use a tiny dot of yellow for eyes.
• “Mummy” wraps: Flood base, then pipe thin zig-zags, leave a gap for eyes.

Tip: Keep two icing thicknesses—outline (thick, toothpaste feel) and flood (thin, lava slow). Start thick to outline, thin to fill. If icing shows tiny bubbles, let it sit 5 minutes, then stir gently.

Troubleshooting: save a batch in seconds

• Cookies spreading: Dough was warm; chill cut shapes 15 minutes before baking. Or oven was too hot; use an oven thermometer. Also check sweetener—pure allulose browns faster; watch time.
• Crumbly dough: Too cold or too dry. Warm 3–5 minutes on the counter and knead once or twice. If still crumbly, mist hands with water and knead again just until smooth.
• Gritty texture: Use fine blanched almond flour. Some brands grind coarse; sift if needed.
• Puffy tops: Overmixed egg or too much baking powder. Stick to 1 ¼ tsp max.
• Icing won’t dry: Room too humid. Use a fan on low for 20–30 minutes, or move to a drier room. Allulose icing can stay a touch softer than erythritol, that’s normal.

Flavor swaps & add-ins (still keto friendly)

• Brown butter: Cook the butter until golden specks form, cool to solid, then use. Adds nutty depth.
• Maple vibe: ¼–½ tsp maple extract in the dough or icing (sugar-free extract).
• Mocha bats: Add 1 tbsp cocoa powder to the dry mix and a pinch of espresso powder.
• Orange pumpkin: 1 tsp orange zest into the dough—pairs wild good with spice.
• Nut crunch: Very fine chopped pecans, 2–3 tbsp, folded into ¼ of the dough for variety.
• Actual pumpkin: If you really want puree, swap in 1 tbsp pumpkin puree and reduce butter by 1 tbsp. Cookies will be slightly softer and may need an extra minute.

How to get super clean edges

Roll cold dough, cut, then freeze the shapes 10 minutes before baking. Use sharp metal cutters, not plastic. Don’t twist the cutter—straight down, straight up. Wipe or dust the cutter if it starts to stick. Bake on parchment, not a greased pan.

Storage

• Room temp, un-iced: airtight tin up to 5 days.
• Room temp, iced: once icing is fully dry, up to 4 days.
• Fridge: sealed container up to 10 days (good if your kitchen is humid).
• Freezer: see make-ahead section.

To keep crispness, tuck a little packet of food-safe desiccant in the tin, or a piece of parchment under the lid so condensation doesn’t drip.

Nutrition (estimate, depends on cutter size)

Based on 28 medium cookies (about 2 ½–3 inches), with erythritol and no icing:

• Calories: ~85 per cookie
• Fat: ~7 g
• Carbs: ~4.5 g
• Fiber: ~1.5 g
• Sugar alcohol: ~3 g (erythritol)
• Net carbs: about 1 g per cookie

Icing adds roughly 0.2–0.4 g net per cookie if thinly piped, since most sweetener is sugar alcohol.

Step-by-step timeline

• 10 min: mix dough
• 45–60 min: chill
• 15 min: roll and cut first tray
• 10–13 min: bake first tray
• 5 min: cool on tray
• Repeat with remaining dough while the first tray bakes
• 20–30 min: mix icing and color
• 30–60 min: decorate (depends how fancy you get)

From “I want cookies” to “cookies are cooling”—about 90 minutes with a coffee break in there.

Kid helper jobs

• Shake the pumpkin spice like a tiny barista.
• Press the cutters. Kids love the ghost one, trust me.
• Stir icing colors with a toothpick.
• Place sugar-free sprinkles while icing is still wet.

Set a “no licking the piping tip” rule unless you want to refill bags three times.

Scaling for a crowd

Need 60–70 cookies? Double the recipe. Use a stand mixer. Split into 3 disks so rolling stays easy. Keep two disks chilling while you roll one. Bake two trays at once if your oven fits, swapping top and bottom racks halfway. Prepare a simple icing station: one big batch of white, small bowls of colored icing, toothpicks, and a drying rack.

Gluten-free notes

This dough is naturally gluten free. Check that your baking powder and colorings are certified GF if you’re baking for someone with celiac. Almond flour must be blanched, not almond meal. Almond meal (with skins) gives sandy texture and darker specks; still tasty, less neat edges.

Sweetener talk (quick and honest)

• Allulose: fantastic flavor, no cooling aftertaste, browns faster, cookies stay a touch softer day one then crisp some as they sit.
• Erythritol: crisper set, slight cooling effect on tongue, can recrystallize in icing if very concentrated.
• Blend: Half allulose, half erythritol is a happy middle—good crunch, less aftertaste.

Whatever you pick, make sure it’s powdered. Granular crystals lead to sandy cookies and lumpy icing.

What to serve with

• Mug of black coffee or spiced tea.
• A cheese board at a party (yes, sweet-ish cookies and sharp cheddar is weirdly good).
• After school with a glass of unsweetened almond milk.
• Post-pumpkin-carving snack when everyone’s covered in stringy pumpkin guts.

Clean-up hacks

Roll and cut on the same parchment you’ll bake on. When you move the shapes to the tray, slide the parchment over—zero flour mess. Keep a small bench scraper near by; it lifts scraps and tidies the edges without adding flour.

My test notes (so you don’t have to test)

• Baked at 350°F: edges browned too fast, centers under. Stay at 325°F.
• No xanthan: still fine, but edges micro-cracked on roll number three.
• With 2 tbsp pumpkin puree: dough softened and puffed; cookies tasted nice but lost sharp detail on tiny cutters.
• Butter fully melted instead of softened: dough toughened and spread a bit. Stick to softened butter.

Recipe variations for other holidays

• Same dough, winter theme: Swap pumpkin spice for 1 ½ tsp cinnamon + ¼ tsp nutmeg. Tree and snowflake cutters, white and blue icing.
• Spring: Lemon zest + lemon extract, skip the extra cinnamon.
• Birthday: No spice, add 1 tsp vanilla and ¼ tsp almond, color icing bright.

Conclusion

• Keep the dough cool and the cutters sharp.
• Bake until barely golden at the edges; they finish setting on the rack.
• Simple decorations win at Halloween because you can make lots fast.
• Make a double batch. You’ll “taste test” four and then remember there are neighbors.

If you try these, stash one undecorated cookie for breakfast the next day. They pair unfairly well with black coffee, and the spice has this cozy morning thing going on. Kinda perfect.

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