If you’re looking for a low sugar cookie dough recipe, we’ve got it here for you! Whether you’re looking for a healthier version of cookie dough or simply want a good keto option to satisfy your sweet tooth, we’ve compiled a few good recipe variations here to get you off to a good start. So, what’re you waiting for? Let’s get started on the details surrounding how to make the best low sugar cookie dough recipe without sacrificing taste or texture!

Table of Contents
- Sugar Free Edible Cookie Dough for One Recipes
- Is Cookie Dough High in Sugar?
- How Do You Make Cookie Dough Less Sugary?
- What Happens When You Add Less Sugar to Cookies?
- How to Make Cookie Dough Healthy
- Can I Eat Low Sugar Cookie Dough Balls?
- Low Sugar Cookie Dough: You’ve Got Options But Be Careful…
- FAQs
Sugar Free Edible Cookie Dough for One Recipes
Now you know how to make cookies less sugary, let’s go ahead and dig into the recipes. The following recipe is a great variation on cookie dough that is safe to eat. Rather than loading up on sugar, we’re cutting the amount of sugar you’ll typically find in cookie dough dramatically. This allows you to eat a bit more of the cookie dough without feeling quite as guilty.
Enjoy!
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“Healthier” Low Sugar Cookie Dough
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup butter, melted
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 1 tbsp vanilla
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
- 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (can substitute for white chocolate chips)
Instructions
- Melt your butter over the stove and allow it to cool for at least 5-6 minutes.
- Meanwhile, place your old-fashioned rolled oats into a blender and blend until the mixture resembles a fine powder.
- Combine your ground oats (now oat flour) with the cooled butter, vanilla, salt, and cinnamon. Stir until well combined.
- Gently fold in your chocolate chips.
- Eat at room temperature or enjoy cold after chilling in for at least half an hour.
Keywords: Low Sugar Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
Sugar Free Cookie Dough Bites
Ingredients
- 1 cup almond flour
- 1/4 cup coconut flour
- 3 tablespoons granulated sugar-free sweetener
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 4 tablespoons coconut oil, melted then cooled
- 2-3 tablespoons oat milk (can substitute with other milk types)
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- a dash of cinnamon (optional)
- 1/3 cup sugar-free chocolate chips
Directions
- To begin, stir together your almond flour, coconut flour, granulated sweetener, salt, and cinnamon (if using).
- To this, add your cooled coconut oil along with the vanilla extract and a few splashes of milk until your dough pulls together.
- Gently fold in your sugar-free chocolate chips.
- Use a cookie scoop to portion your dough. Roll the dough between the palms of your hands before placing them on a lined baking sheet.
- Refrigerate the sugar free cookie dough bites for at least 40 minutes before eating.
- Enjoy!
Is Cookie Dough High in Sugar?
Yes, cookie dough tends to be very high in sugar.
Cookie dough usually calls for at least a cup or two of sugar, though the exact amount will vary between recipes. No matter if it’s chocolate chip cookie dough, sugary cookie dough balls, or fudge brownie edible dough, you can expect the sugar content to be fairly high.

How Do You Make Cookie Dough Less Sugary?
Now that you know that cookie dough tends to be high in sugar, you may be wondering what ways you can cut the sugar. Truth be told, there are many ways you can cut refined sugar in favor of making a healthy cookie dough in its stead. Try the following methods for making your cookies a little less sweet:
Cut refined sugar by a third
Yep, you read that right. Did you know that you can actually cut the sugar in a baking or dessert recipe by about 1/3 and not experience dire consequences? Of course, the final product will likely taste less sweet, but the decrease in sugar isn’t likely to have a vast impact on the texture of the end result. It will also be lower in calories and probably in carbs, too.
Use sugar free substitutes
If you’ve gone keto or simply like to eat a low carb diet, you’ll love making sugar free cookie dough. You can make virtually any cookie dough this way by swapping normal sweetness for those that are keto or low carb friendly. Just be sure that you are swapping liquid sugars for liquid and granulated sugars for granulated sugar substitutes. Neglecting this important detail may have you wondering what happened to the consistency of your cookie dough.
Another thing to consider when using sugar free substitutes is your mix-ins. It’s one thing to cut the sugar in cookie dough, but you also need to remember to account for your mix-ins when calculating the total sugar amount in your cookie dough recipe. Try adding sugar free cookie dough chocolate chips and other sugarless mix-ins to make easy and delicious keto cookie dough.
Use natural sweeteners
Using a natural sweetener is another great way to sweeten up recipes but without the use of a lot of refined sugar. However, when substituting sugar for those that occur naturally, you need to keep a few things in mind.
One important factor to remember when replacing refined sugar with natural sugar is the taste. Maple syrup and honey both yield their own flavor to a dish and are often considered to be sweeter than table sugar. Therefore, if you plan to use these substitutes as a 1:1 ratio for natural sugar in cookie dough, you’ll need to account for a difference in flavor with the propensity for the cookie dough to turn out a bit sweeter than usual.
The other factor you’ll want to consider when using natural sugars instead of refined sugar is format. Much like using low carb sugar substitutes, natural sugars come in both granulated and liquid forms. Because of this, using substitutes like maple syrup instead of granulated sugar can render a recipe like cookie dough ruined as the liquid consistency of maple would make the cookie dough runny.
Instead, be sure to opt for grabbing natural sweeteners that emulate the texture of the sweeter you’re swapping it for. Otherwise, you risk destroying your cookie dough recipe!
Go rogue (not recommended)
Of course, your last and final option is to simply go rogue and ditch the sugar altogether. This might look like cutting the sugar by 1/2 instead of by 1/3 or putting only 2 tablespoons of sugar instead of one cup.
While this is an option, it isn’t a feasible one for multiple reasons. By ditching so much of the sugar, you risk altering not only the flavor of the cookie dough, but also the texture. Interested in learning more about how sugar affects cookie dough? Stay tuned, because I’ll dish more details about this later on in the post!
What Happens When You Add Less Sugar to Cookies?
Adding significantly less sugar to cookies won’t only change the flavor of your cookie dough, but it will also affect its other components.
When making normal bakeable cookie dough, you should note that removing too much sugar will prevent your cookies from spreading, and your cookies won’t be as moist. Thus, if you remove too much sugar from cookies you can expect your cookies to be dry, crumbly, and resemble the same shape they were when you first placed them on a baking sheet.
So, what about edible cookie dough? If you lessen the amount of sugar in the recipe, will it affect the results? Yes, greatly. In fact, I wouldn’t recommend doing this for edible cookie dough at all! My reasoning behind this has to do not only with flavor but consistency. Edible cookie dough is very dependent on consistency to come together correctly. By altering the sugar content you’re also altering the texture. Not to mention your cookie dough recipe will taste bland which is likely the opposite of the whole reason you’re making the recipe in the first place!

How to Make Cookie Dough Healthy
Ultimately, to make cookie dough healthy (like making protein cookie dough or a healthy cookie dough dip), you’ll want to follow a recipe specifically touted as being healthy. If you try to alter a normal cookie dough recipe to make it healthier by subtracting sugar, you’ll likely just end up with something less flavorful and unappetizing.
Start by using one of the recipes I’ve already mentioned here in this post. As you can see from the ingredients, a lot of the sweetness either comes in the form of pure maple syrup or granulated low carb sweeter. The other ingredients in the recipe have also been added at just the right ratio to help you achieve the sweetness you need and the consistency desired. Unless you are simply cutting sugars by a third, we recommend just leaving your recipes alone in terms of sugar content.
Can I Eat Low Sugar Cookie Dough Balls?
If you plan on eating average cookie dough bites, know that it could be bad for your health, even if they are low sugar.
Of course, I’m not talking about edible cookie dough bites here. I’m talking cookie dough bites containing raw eggs and raw flour. This, friend, is a big no-no.
When eating raw cookie dough, you are consuming uncooked flour and eggs, both of which have been shown to cause sickness in individuals. In fact, you may be surprised to see fine print on many bags of flour warning you not to eat the flour uncooked. No, manufacturer’s aren’t expecting you to be downing spoonfuls of flour directly out of the bag. Rather, they simply warn you of the risks of eating flour raw.
If you are looking to eat low sugar cookie dough, just be sure that the recipe is edible. The recipes I’ve listed here are in fact, edible. They don’t contain any egg so you don’t have to worry about these being consumed raw.
Low Sugar Cookie Dough: You’ve Got Options But Be Careful…
All in all, you’ve got options when it comes to making cookie dough lower sugar, but be careful. Removing too much sugar from both edible and bakeable cookie dough can have dire effects. From altering the consistency of the dough to dampening the flavor, cutting too much sugar from your dough could leave your cookie dough results lacking.
Still, by cutting your sugar by a third, replacing it with natural sugars, or swapping normal sugar for a lower carb variety, you can achieve similar final results.
I hope you’ve found this post helpful. See you next time!
FAQs
Does Pillsbury have sugar free cookies?
It does not appear that Pillsbury currently has a sugar free cookie dough. However, keep your eyes peeled… you never know what the company might have up its sleeve!
Do cookies need sugar?
Yes. Cookies need sugar in order to spread, become moist and tender, and of course, in order to taste sweet. To neglect putting sugar in your cookies means to render them tasteless, dry, and crumbly. You don’t want that do you? Didn’t think so!
Can you just reduce sugar in baking?
Yes, you can. Just be careful only to reduce the sugar by 1/3. Any more than this will render your cookies bland and crumbly. They also won’t spread into round shapes, but instead, will remain as balls when you attempt to bake them.
Can you freeze cookie dough?
Yes, you can freeze both edible and non-edible cookie dough bites. Just place them on a baking sheet to freeze solid before you place them in a freezer bag or airtight container.
Is cookie dough healthy?
Cookie dough isn’t naturally healthy, but it can be made healthier by swapping out ingredients according to your dietary needs.