Keto Christmas: No Added Sugar Treats and Bakes
The easiest keto Christmas recipes are the festive classics made with ground almonds and an erythritol-based sweetener instead of flour and sugar: mince pies (3.1g net carbs each), shortbread (0.9g a finger) and gingerbread biscuits (1.0g each), all with no added sugar. Short on time? Our Gingerbread Mix makes 14 biscuits with just an egg and butter.
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Christmas is the time of year when keto can feel hardest. Mince pies get passed round the office, the biscuit tin comes out after dinner and almost every festive recipe starts with flour and sugar. The good news is that most Christmas bakes work well with low-carb ingredients once you know which swaps to make. This page brings together all our keto Christmas recipes, from biscuits and mince pies to quick gingerbread mug cakes, plus the baking cupboard swaps that make them work. Our keto Christmas pudding is now live, and we'll add our Christmas cake and mincemeat recipes here as they go live in November.
If you've been searching for sugar free Christmas treats, everything below has no added sugar. Ingredients like almonds, butter and fruit still bring small amounts of natural sugars, but each bake comes in at just a few grams of net carbs.
Keto Christmas at a glance
Net carbs per bake
- 3.1gper keto mince pie
- 0.9gper shortbread finger
- 1.0gper iced gingerbread biscuit
- 18 Declast order date for Christmas delivery
Here's how our three Christmas recipes compare with the traditional versions. Our figures come from the nutrition panel on each recipe card. The traditional figures are approximate, worked out from McCance and Widdowson's Composition of Foods dataset (CoFID), and vary by brand and size.
| Bake | Makes | Ready in | Keto version | Traditional version |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Keto mince pies | 12 pies | About 1 hr 25 min | 3.1g net carbs per pie | About 33g carbs (55g shop-bought pie) |
| Keto shortbread | 16 fingers | About 1 hr 5 min | 0.9g net carbs per finger | About 12g carbs (20g finger) |
| Keto gingerbread biscuits | 14 biscuits | 57 min | 1.0g net carbs per biscuit | About 7.5g carbs (10g ginger nut) |
Net carbs on our recipe cards are carbohydrate minus the polyols from the sweetener. UK labels and CoFID already list fibre separately from carbohydrate, so there's nothing else to take off. Ready-in times include chilling but not cooling or setting.
Keto Christmas biscuits: shortbread and gingerbread
Biscuits are the easiest place to start with keto Christmas baking. They need only a handful of ingredients, they keep well in a tin and they make lovely edible gifts.
Keto shortbread
Our keto shortbread is a buttery, Scottish-style finger made with ground almonds, a little oat fibre, a powdered sweetener and butter, with a pinch of xanthan gum to hold it together. The dough is chilled for 20 minutes before baking, then cut into 16 fingers, each with 0.9g net carbs. Dust the tops with a little extra powdered sweetener for that classic sugared finish.
Keto gingerbread biscuits
Our keto gingerbread biscuits are gingerbread men made with a 255g pack of Groovy Keto Gingerbread Mix, one large egg and 80g of melted butter. Once baked, they're piped with a simple icing made from a powdered sweetener and a little lemon juice. A batch of 14 takes 57 minutes, including chilling, and each iced biscuit has 1.0g net carbs. They're a good one to make with children, because rolling, cutting and decorating are the fun parts.
Mince pies and festive pastries
A shop-bought mince pie has around 33g of carbs, mostly from the wheat pastry, sugar and dried fruit. Our keto mince pies keep the flavours but swap every high-carb part:
- The pastry is made with ground almonds and pressed into the tin rather than rolled, so it's quick and forgiving. A little psyllium husk and xanthan gum hold the dough together in place of the gluten in wheat flour.
- The filling is a spiced mix of Bramley apple, cranberries, toasted flaked almonds, orange zest and brown butter, sweetened with an erythritol-based sweetener instead of sugar and dried fruit.
- The result is 12 mince pies with 3.1g net carbs each, ready in about 1 hour 25 minutes, including 20 minutes chilling the pastry.
Finish them with a light dusting of powdered sweetener just before serving, and warm them through in the oven for a few minutes if you like them with cream.
All three recipes contain nuts (almonds) and milk (butter), and the mince pies and gingerbread biscuits also contain eggs. Several of the packs we use say they're made or packed where there may be traces of gluten, other nuts, cereals, milk and eggs. Always check the current pack labels before baking for anyone with an allergy.
Christmas desserts: pudding, cake and trifle ideas
Traditional Christmas desserts are some of the highest-carb foods of the year. A 100g portion of shop-bought Christmas pudding has around 56g of carbs, thanks to the dried fruit, sugar and breadcrumbs. Keto Christmas desserts swap those for nuts, butter, cream and low-carb sweeteners.
Our keto Christmas cake and keto mincemeat recipes are on the way in early November. We'll link them here as soon as they're live.
A quick gingerbread trifle
For a festive dessert in minutes, make a Keto Gingerbread Mug Cake, let it cool, then cut it into cubes. Layer the cubes in a glass with whipped double cream and a few raspberries. A 30g handful of raspberries adds only around 1.5g of carbs, and double cream has around 1.7g per 100g, according to CoFID.
Short-cut Christmas baking with mixes
If December gets busy, a mix takes care of the weighing and the spices for you. Both of our gingerbread mixes are sweetened with erythritol and stevia, with no added sugar.
Keto Gingerbread Mix
The Keto Gingerbread Mix is a spiced blend of almond flour, coconut flour, golden linseed, ginger, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. Add one egg and butter, shape the dough into 14 small biscuits or slices, then bake at 175°C for 10 to 12 minutes. The pack gives 1.2g net carbs per piece. Use it for gingerbread men, stars or a simple tray of gingerbread slices.
Keto Gingerbread Mug Cake Mix
The Keto Gingerbread Mug Cake Mix is the quickest Christmas pudding alternative we know. Stir in one egg and a tablespoon of melted butter, then microwave for one minute for a warm, spiced cake in a mug. It comes in single sachets or a 5-pack, so it's handy for evenings when you want something festive without baking a whole batch.
Both gingerbread mixes contain almonds and are made in a facility where there may be traces of gluten, other nuts, cereals and milk (the Gingerbread Mix pack also mentions eggs). We don't describe either mix as gluten-free.
Your Christmas baking cupboard: sweeteners, icing sugar swap and chocolate
With a few low-carb staples in the cupboard, you can make most festive bakes from scratch. Here's what each one does.
| Instead of | Use | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Icing sugar | A powdered erythritol and stevia blend, swapped 1:1 | Piped icing, buttercream, dusting mince pies and shortbread |
| Caster or granulated sugar | A granulated erythritol-based sweetener (check the pack ratio) | Pastry, biscuit doughs, fillings |
| Plain flour | Ground almonds, with a little oat fibre or coconut flour | Shortbread, pastry, gingerbread |
| The gluten in wheat flour | A small amount of xanthan gum or psyllium husk | Holding almond pastry and biscuit dough together |
| Milk chocolate | Dark chocolate with no added sugar | Dipping biscuits, melting, decorating |
The icing sugar swap
Icing needs a powdered sweetener, because granules won't dissolve in a small amount of liquid and leave the icing gritty. Our Powdered Erythritol & Stevia Blend swaps 1:1 for icing sugar. Sieve it, then add lemon juice a few drops at a time until it's thick enough to pipe. For buttercream, beat it into softened butter, or butter and cream cheese, for an icing to spread on a festive bake. Our guide to low-carb alternatives to icing sugar covers caster and brown sugar swaps too, with how much to use for each.
Chocolate for Christmas baking
Chocolate-dipped shortbread and chocolate-drizzled gingerbread are easy upgrades. Our Keto Dark Chocolate Buttons and Keto Sugar Free Chocolate Chips are both made with a minimum of 64% cocoa and sweetened with erythritol and stevia, with 0.6g net carbs per serving. The buttons are large, so they're good for melting and dipping, while the smaller chips fold neatly into doughs. You'll find both in our keto chocolate collection, and our other mixes are in the keto baking mixes range.
Planning your keto Christmas dinner
Much of the traditional Christmas dinner is already low in carbs: turkey, pigs in blankets (check the sausage label), sprouts, buttery greens and gravy thickened without flour. The higher-carb parts are the roast potatoes, parsnips, stuffing, bread sauce and Christmas pudding, so swap or shrink those, and look out for our full keto Christmas dinner guide, coming soon.
Tips for keto Christmas baking
- Chill the dough. Almond doughs are softer than wheat doughs. Chilling them before rolling or baking helps biscuits keep their shape.
- Keep an eye on the oven. Ground almonds brown faster than wheat flour, so check bakes a few minutes early and cover pies loosely with foil if the edges darken.
- Let biscuits cool on the tray. Low-carb biscuits are fragile when hot and firm up as they cool.
- Weigh, don't guess. Sweeteners and fibres vary in density, so use scales rather than cups or spoons wherever a recipe gives grams.
- Count the treats. A few grams of net carbs per bake soon adds up over a festive week, so plan them into your daily carbs like any other food.
- Order early. Our last order date for Christmas delivery is 18 December 2026. Free delivery is on orders over £30.
Frequently asked questions
Can you have mince pies on keto?
Yes, if you make them with a low-carb pastry and a filling with no added sugar. Traditional mince pies use wheat flour, sugar and dried fruit. Our keto mince pies use a press-in almond pastry and a spiced Bramley apple, cranberry and brown butter filling, and each pie has 3.1g net carbs.
What sweetener is best for Christmas baking?
An erythritol-based sweetener is the easiest choice for Christmas baking, because it adds bulk much like sugar does. Use a granulated blend in pastry, biscuit doughs and fillings, and a powdered blend for icing, buttercream and dusting. Check the swap ratio on each pack before you start, as blends vary.
How do you make icing without sugar?
Use a powdered sweetener in place of icing sugar. Our Powdered Erythritol & Stevia Blend swaps 1:1 for icing sugar, so mix it with a little lemon juice for a piping icing, or beat it into butter and cream cheese for an icing. Sieve it first for the smoothest finish.
Is the Groovy Keto Gingerbread Mix gluten-free?
No. The Groovy Keto Gingerbread Mix contains almonds and is made in a facility where there may be traces of gluten, other nuts, cereals, milk and eggs, so we don't describe it as gluten-free. If you're baking for someone with an allergy or coeliac disease, check the current pack label first.
When should I order for Christmas?
Order by 18 December 2026 for Christmas delivery. That's our last order date for delivery before Christmas, so order earlier if you want time to bake with our mixes before the big day. Free delivery is on orders over £30, so you can order mixes, sweeteners and chocolate together.
Sources
- GOV.UK. McCance and Widdowson's Composition of Foods Integrated Dataset (CoFID). Approximate per-portion figures for retail mince pies, shortbread, ginger nut biscuits, retail Christmas pudding, raspberries and double cream are calculated from its values per 100g.
- Groovy Keto recipe cards: keto mince pies, keto shortbread and keto gingerbread biscuits: nutrition per serving.
- Groovy Keto product pages: Keto Gingerbread Mix, Keto Gingerbread Mug Cake Mix and Powdered Erythritol & Stevia Blend: ingredients, allergens, method and nutrition information.
