Keto Holiday Desserts
December asks keto bakers to sit out the best part of the table, and they don't have to. Cheesecake, fudge, mousse and a good yule log were never really about the flour anyway. Thirty keto holiday desserts, all low-carb, from peppermint cheesecake to a mug of eggnog.
Start With These Six
One from each section below, from a peppermint cheesecake to a glass of eggnog. Start here if the table only has room for six.
Low-Carb Peppermint Cheesecake
A pink peppermint filling under dark chocolate ganache, with crushed sugar-free mints across the top. Swap half the cocoa in the almond crust for Black Cocoa and the base turns near-black.
Keto Christmas Yule Log
A flourless chocolate sponge of eggs and melted chocolate, rolled around whipped cream and dressed with rosemary and sugared cranberries. A spoonful of espresso powder makes the chocolate taste deeper.
Sugar-Free Keto Mince Pies
Star-topped mince pies on almond and coconut pastry, filled with rhubarb, cranberries, citrus zest and warm spice in place of the dried fruit. About 3g net carbs a pie.
Keto Peppermint Bark
Sugar-free white chocolate poured over a dark layer, then scattered with crushed sugar-free candy canes. Snap it into shards and pack it into gift tins.
Low-Carb Christmas Pudding with Cranberry and Walnut
Walnuts and fresh cranberries bake into a flourless pudding in single ramekins, served warm with a mascarpone cream spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg.
Keto Eggnog
Cream and almond milk thin a cooked yolk base, at about 1g carb a glass. The recipe spikes it with rum, so leave that out for the kids' glasses.
Keto Christmas Cheesecakes
Cream cheese was keto before keto had a name, which makes cheesecake the safest bet on the holiday table. Peppermint, eggnog and cranberry, baked and no-bake.
Low-Carb Peppermint Cheesecake
A pink peppermint filling under dark chocolate ganache, with crushed sugar-free mints across the top. Swap half the cocoa in the almond crust for Black Cocoa and the base turns near-black.
Keto Eggnog Mini Cheesecakes
Mini cheesecakes with rum extract, nutmeg and cinnamon, piped with cream and finished with candied pecans. They bake in a muffin tin, so nobody has to cut anything.
No-Bake Peppermint Chocolate Keto Cheesecake Bites
White peppermint cheesecake on a toasted almond-cocoa crust, striped with dark chocolate and cut into bites. No oven, and about 3g net carbs a square.
Keto Peppermint Cheesecake Chocolate Cups
Chocolate shells hold a tangy cream cheese and sour cream filling, topped with crushed sugar-free peppermints. Flourless and no-bake, so a batch sets in the fridge while you wrap gifts.
Keto Eggnog Cheesecake
Single-serve eggnog cheesecakes on an almond and golden flax base, with rum essence in the filling and a grate of nutmeg on the cream. Around 2g net carbs each.
No-Bake Keto Cranberry Holiday Cheesecake
Sugared cranberries and piped cream crown a gelatin-set cheesecake sweetened with a monk fruit and allulose blend. The crust is coconut and coconut flour, so it skips almond entirely.
Go darker on the chocolate
Unsweetened cocoa is one of the few holiday flavors that is low-carb before you change a thing. Black Cocoa takes it near-black, with little to no food coloring and a smooth, cookies-and-cream flavor. Swap it in for part of the cocoa in a yule log, a pan of fudge or a batch of truffles.
Keto Holiday Cakes and Yule Logs
Cake is where almond flour works hardest. Three yule logs, a red velvet, a frosted gingerbread and a fruitcake for the person who still asks for one.
Keto Christmas Yule Log
A flourless chocolate sponge of eggs and melted chocolate, rolled around whipped cream and dressed with rosemary and sugared cranberries. A spoonful of espresso powder makes the chocolate taste deeper.
Keto Yule Log
The classic bark-textured log: almond-flour cocoa sponge, a whipped cream spiral and dark chocolate ganache dragged with a fork. Use Black Cocoa for part of the sponge and the cut face goes near-black.
Keto Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Red velvet on almond and coconut flour, sweetened with monk fruit and spread thick with cream cheese frosting. Cut it into squares and it stretches across a buffet.
Keto Gingerbread Cake
Browned butter and coconut flour give this gingerbread a soft, tight crumb under cream cheese frosting. Royal Cinnamon, a high-oil Saigon, makes the spice come through in every square.
Low-Carb Christmas Cake (Keto Fruitcake)
Almond meal, walnuts, mixed spice and just a little dried fruit, at about 2.6g net carbs a slice. Slivered almonds on top make it look the part.
Keto Buche de Noel
A snow-dusted log rolled from an almond-flour cocoa sponge and wrapped in bittersweet ganache. Score the ganache with a fork for bark, then sift powdered sweetener over it for snow.
Keto Holiday Pies and Tarts
Pumpkin and pecan had November. December gets mince, eggnog, peppermint, cranberry and chocolate silk.
Sugar-Free Keto Mince Pies
Star-topped mince pies on almond and coconut pastry, filled with rhubarb, cranberries, citrus zest and warm spice in place of the dried fruit. About 3g net carbs a pie.
Keto Eggnog Pie
A flaky almond and coconut crust holds an eggnog cream filling with a splash of bourbon or rum. Piped whipped cream and a dusting of nutmeg finish it.
Keto Candy Cane Pie
Pink peppermint cream cheese filling on an almond-cocoa crust, with low-carb chocolate chips folded in and crushed sugar-free mints on top. Black Cocoa in the crust gives the pink a dark border.
Keto Peppermint Cream Pie
A cooked peppermint custard under peppermint whipped cream, zigzagged with chocolate and dotted with candies. The crust is chocolate almond flour, and a slice runs around 2g net carbs.
Crustless Keto Cranberry Custard Pie
Three cups of fresh cranberries bake into a cream cheese custard, with no crust to roll. Tart, bright and the easiest pie in this section.
Keto Chocolate Silk Pie
French-silk style, with a smooth sugar-free dark chocolate filling on an almond-flour crust under whipped cream and shavings. Stir a pinch of Espresso Powder into the filling and the chocolate gets bolder.
Keto Fudge, Bark and Candy
The cookie tin needs company. Bark, fudge, toffee and patties, most of them made on the stovetop or in the fridge.
Keto Peppermint Bark
Sugar-free white chocolate poured over a dark layer, then scattered with crushed sugar-free candy canes. Snap it into shards and pack it into gift tins.
Easy Keto Peppermint Fudge
Cream cheese, powdered sweetener, peppermint extract and crushed sugar-free mints, and that is the whole list. Stir, press, chill and cut, with no candy thermometer anywhere.
Keto Christmas Crack
Almond-flour crackers under a buttery toffee, then sugar-free dark chocolate and pecans. It is the salty-sweet tray everyone hovers over, at about 2g net carbs a square.
Keto Peppermint Patties
A cool mint center of coconut oil and powdered monk fruit, dipped in a homemade cocoa shell. Make the shell with some Black Cocoa and the white center stands out against it.
Low-Carb Chocolate Caramel Pecan Clusters
Toasted pecans under a brown-butter caramel sweetened with monk fruit, capped with sugar-free chocolate. They look like the candy-shop box and set up in the fridge.
Low-Carb Highland Toffee
Butter and allulose cook down into an amber toffee, then get a layer of sugar-free chocolate and chopped nuts. Four ingredients and one saucepan.
Keto Mousse, Trifles and Puddings
For the end of a long dinner, when nobody wants a slice of anything. Each one sets ahead in a glass or a ramekin.
Low-Carb Christmas Pudding with Cranberry and Walnut
Walnuts and fresh cranberries bake into a flourless pudding in single ramekins, served warm with a mascarpone cream spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg.
Easy Keto Eggnog Pudding
Eggnog you eat with a spoon: a stovetop custard of yolks, cream, allulose and nutmeg, chilled in glasses and topped with whipped cream. About 5g net carbs, per the creator.
Sugar-Free Keto Gingerbread Mousse
Mascarpone and cream whip into a gingerbread-spiced mousse in minutes, sized for two. A shard of dark chocolate on top makes it feel like a proper dessert course.
Keto Eggnog and Hot Cocoa
Two eggnogs and a peppermint mocha, for the hour after the dishes.
Keto Eggnog
Cream and almond milk thin a cooked yolk base, at about 1g carb a glass. The recipe spikes it with rum, so leave that out for the kids' glasses.
Coffeehouse-Style Keto Peppermint Mocha
Brewed coffee, cream, Dutch-process cocoa and peppermint, sweetened with powdered erythritol. Make it with our Dutch-Process Cocoa for a rounder chocolate note in the mug.
Keto Homemade Eggnog
Monk fruit sweetens a cooked yolk and cream base simmered with whole cinnamon sticks and nutmeg. Pour it over ice with a cinnamon stick and add rum at the table if you like.
Stock the Pantry
Free shipping on orders over $30
The Scoop on our Black Cocoa Powder
Ultra-Dutched to a near-black darkness for that jet-black crumb and smooth, cookies-and-cream flavor. Non-GMO sourced and batch-tested so your color and taste land the same, every time.
Dramatically Dark- Bold, Rich Flavor
- Skip the Dye Aisle
- Free shipping on orders over $30
We've Got Answers
Which holiday desserts are easiest to make keto?
Cheesecake, mousse, panna cotta and fudge. They lean on cream cheese, cream, eggs and chocolate, which are low-carb already, so the only real swap is the sweetener. Cakes, pies and yule logs take more work, because almond flour has no gluten to hold a crumb or a roll together. If you are new to keto baking, start with a cheesecake.
What is the best sweetener for keto holiday desserts?
It depends on the dessert. Erythritol blends set firm and suit cheesecake and cake, but they can recrystallize in fudge and candy and leave a cooling note. Allulose stays soft and smooth, which makes it the better pick for fudge, caramel and toffee, though it browns faster in the oven, so lower the temperature by 25°F. Plenty of bakers blend the two.
How do you keep a keto yule log from cracking?
Roll the sponge while it is still warm. Turn it out onto parchment dusted with cocoa, roll it up with the paper inside and let it cool in that shape, then unroll, fill and roll again. An egg-heavy sponge bends better than a dense almond-flour batter, and pulling it a minute early keeps it flexible. Small cracks disappear under the ganache bark.
Can you make keto holiday desserts ahead?
Most of them. Cheesecakes, fudge, bark and toffee keep four to five days in the fridge and freeze for up to two months; thaw cheesecake overnight in the fridge. Wrap cake layers and yule log sponges tightly and freeze them, then fill and frost the day you serve. Mousse and whipped toppings are best made the same day.
How do you make sugar-free whipped cream that holds?
Whip cold heavy cream with powdered sweetener and vanilla to soft peaks, then add a spoonful of softened cream cheese or mascarpone and whip to firm peaks. It holds its shape for a day or two in the fridge, long enough to pipe onto a pie or fill a roll cake ahead of time.
Are candy canes and peppermint bark keto?
Regular candy canes are almost pure sugar, so no. For keto peppermint bark, layer sugar-free dark and white chocolate with a few drops of peppermint extract, then top with crushed sugar-free peppermint candies. The extract is strong, so add it a drop at a time.
More Baking Adventures
Keto Christmas Cookies
Thirty low-carb cookies for the tray, from almond-flour cut-outs to snowballs.
Keto Thanksgiving Desserts
Pecan pie, cheesecake and the rest of the November table, low-carb.
Sugar-Free Thanksgiving Desserts
Pies, crisps and custards for the guest skipping sugar this year.
Keto Pumpkin Desserts
Thirty low-carb pumpkin bakes, from crustless pie to no-churn ice cream.
Almond Flour Dessert Recipes
Brownies, frangipane and almond cakes from bakers who use it on purpose.
Keto
Oat Fiber Recipes
The zero-net-carb fiber that keeps low-carb bakes soft instead of crumbly.