Prep time: 15 mins Cook time: 15 mins Rest time: 5 mins Total time: 35 mins
Macronutrients per batch: 138g fat | 105g protein | 136g carbohydrates
Macronutrients per cookie: 11g fat | 9g protein | 11g carbohydrates
Makes: 12 cookies
Make it Carnivore, Sugar-Free, Keto, Zero Carb: Do not include the honey or the vanilla extract (the result will not be sweet)
Baked using pork, eggs, ghee, and collagen and sweetened using only honey, these animal-based cookies are soft, chewy, and packed with protein.
What you need to make Animal-Based Soft & Chewy Protein Cookies
Ingredients:
- Pork rinds
- Grass-fed ghee (or butter)
- Eggs (ASHLEY20 for 20% off)
- Raw honey (ASHLEYR for 10% off); Note: I recommend local or Manuka
- Collagen
- Vanilla extract (optional, but highly recommended for flavor)
- Sea salt (ASHLEYR for 15% off)
Equipment:
Substitutions
You can leave the collagen out, although I highly recommend it for texture.
How to make Animal-Based Soft & Chewy Protein Cookies
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
Make the cookie dough.
In a blender, grind the pork rinds into a powder and set aside.
Scoop the ghee (or butter) into a glass container (or whatever you’re using to melt it) on the stovetop. Melt the ghee (or butter) until it is liquid.
Place the melted ghee (or butter), raw honey (ASHLEYR for 10% off), eggs, and vanilla extract (if using) into a mixing bowl and mix with a hand mixer until smooth.
Fold in the pork rind powder, sea salt (ASHLEYR for 15% off), and collagen. The dough should be thick like normal cookie dough.
Note: This step is optional, but if you want perfectly round circles for your cookies, this is what I did.
Place a piece of parchment paper on your baking sheet.
Take a ramekin, mason jar, or anything with a circular opening that’s about the size you want your cookies. Flatten one serving’s worth of cookie dough onto the parchment paper, and use the circular opening of your object as a cookie cutter. I included a photo of this in the “Tips to make the best…” section below. Smooth the tops with your finger or a tool.
Repeat for all of the cookies.
Bake the cookies.
Note: these cookies do not rise or spread, so you will need to form the dough pre-baking into whatever shape you prefer them to end up in.
Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes. Be sure to pay attention to the cookies near the end of the bake time as they brown/burn fast due to the collagen. The sides will start to brown first and will blacken if left in too long.
Once the cookies are done, remove them from the oven and allow them to cool for about 5 minutes.
My husband and I both preferred these cookies fresh as they were softer and chewier that way. They still have a palatable texture if consumed after storing in the fridge, they’re just a bit firmer with a more mild flavor.
Note: these cookies are not overly sweet, so if you’re looking to add some sweetness, pour some honey on top right before eating. Enjoy!
Tips to make the best Animal-Based Soft & Chewy Protein Cookies
- If you’d like perfectly round circles for your cookies, take a ramekin, mason jar, or anything with a circular opening that’s about the size you want your cookies. Flatten one serving’s worth of cookie dough onto the parchment paper, and use the circular opening of your object as a cookie cutter. Pictured below. Smooth the tops with your finger or a tool.
- These cookies do not rise or spread, so you will need to form the dough pre-baking into whatever shape you prefer them to end up in.
- These cookies are not overly sweet, so if you’re looking to add some sweetness, pour some honey on top right before eating.
A few of my other favorite sweet eats:
Jumbo Chocolate Cups with Salted Chunky Date Filling
Flourless Lemon Blueberry Muffins
Animal-Based Soft & Chewy Protein Cookies
Animal-Based Soft & Chewy Protein Cookies
Equipment
- Baking sheet
Ingredients
- 5 oz pork rinds (pre-ground)
- 1/3 cup ghee (or butter)
- 1/2 cup raw honey (local or Manuka - ASHLEYR for 10% off)
- 3 tbsp collagen, certified glyphosate-free (ASHLEYR for 10% off)
- 2 eggs
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp sea salt (ASHLEYR for 15% off)
Instructions
- If you’re interested solely in the recipe, skip this bullet point and keep on reading. For those interested in sourcing nutrient-dense food, low-toxic household products, and discounts on brands that may support your AB journey, you may find value in my product guides. Head over to this page if you’d like to check them out. All are free (and always will be).
- Note: If you liked this cookie recipe, click here for more animal-based cookie recipes.
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
Make the cookie dough.
- In a blender, grind the pork rinds into a powder and set aside.
- Scoop the ghee (or butter) into a glass container (or whatever you're using to melt it) on the stovetop. Melt the ghee (or butter) until it is liquid.
- Place the melted ghee (or butter), raw honey (ASHLEYR for 10% off), eggs, and vanilla extract (if using) into a mixing bowl and mix with a hand mixer until smooth.
- Note: if you go through tons of salt in your household like we do, check out this salt purchasing hack that will save you money + make things more efficient. We started this last year, and I'm so happy we did!
Form the cookies.
- Note: This step is optional, but if you want perfectly round circles for your cookies, this is what I did.
- Place a piece of parchment paper on your baking sheet.
- Take a ramekin, mason jar, or anything with a circular opening that's about the size you want your cookies. Flatten one serving's worth of cookie dough onto the parchment paper, and use the circular opening of your object as a cookie cutter. I included a photo of this in the "Tips to make the best..." section above. Smooth the tops with your finger or a tool.
- Repeat for all of the cookies.
Bake the cookies.
- Note: these cookies do not rise or spread, so you will need to form the dough pre-baking into whatever shape you prefer them to end up in.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes. Be sure to pay attention to the cookies near the end of the bake time as they brown/burn fast due to the collagen. The sides will start to brown first and will blacken if left in too long.
- Once the cookies are done, remove them from the oven and allow them to cool for about 5 minutes.
- My husband and I both preferred these cookies fresh as they were softer and chewier that way. They still have a palatable texture if consumed after storing in the fridge, they're just a bit firmer with a more mild flavor.
- Note: these cookies are not overly sweet, so if you're looking to add some sweetness, pour some honey on top right before eating. Enjoy!
What I used for this recipe:
A few of my other favorite sweet eats:
Jumbo Chocolate Cups with Salted Chunky Date Filling
Flourless Lemon Blueberry Muffins
Note: This post contains Amazon affiliate links. This means that if you click on a link and make a purchase, I will receive a small commission at no cost to you. Thank you for supporting me!
Ashley Rothstein develops tasty, whole food, animal-based recipes that include a moderate amount of “minimally toxic” plant foods. To fix her own health issues, she bounced around between the carnivore, keto, and paleo diets for a few years. After experiencing and studying each diet philosophy, she learned she feels her best by merging the three and following an animal-based diet. As a glut at heart, she likes to channel her creativity and create meals that are healthy but also satisfy her inner gluttonous spirits.
Do you think grassfed gelatin would work in place of the collagen? If not I can probably grab some packets from Whole Foods but I usually keep gelatin.
Author
I have never tried it, but I don’t think so. I haven’t worked much with gelatin, but from my experience with it, it’s much more finicky than collagen. I’d be concerned the batter would come out too sticky and affect the consistency of the cookies.
Update – thanks for the feedback! I got some collagen and also added some Ceylon cinnamon and a pinch of cardamom (not strict AB, but I love it anyway) and whipped up a batch of these – totally delish!! I love how chewy they are. I keep them frozen and toast up one or two when I’m in the mood (and toasting makes them beautifully crispy around the edges too! ). Great recovery snack after an intense rock climbing session too.
Thanks as always for a fantastic recipe!
I love how chewy they are but the whole cookie tastes like pork rind. Like chewy pork with sugar. My partner and I had a cookie each and left the rest. Is there any other carnivore powder that can replace the rind?
Author
My readers have used ground up dried chicken skins with success. I also plan to experiment with ground up Carnivore Crisps soon. Not sure if you’ve heard of them, but they have tons of dried meats that could work in place of the pork rinds. https://carnivorecrisps.com/?ref=ASHLEYR If you end up using them, I have a discount code (ASHLEYR) for 10% off.
These are great! I used glycine as the sweetener & added some lemon oil. Over baked to a crispy brown. My husband loves them! I know you said they weren’t very sweet but I’m going to cut back the amount of glycine back to 1/3 next time. Thanks for figuring this out & sharing.
How much glycine did you use?
These smell amazing, waiting for them to cool down to try it. I followed the recipe and the cookies turned into a flat sheet while baking. Not sure what I missed.
What is the collagen in this recipe for thank you for sharing
Author
I use this one (it’s certified glyphosate-free): https://www.perfectsupplements.com/Perfect-Hydrolyzed-Collagen-p/ps-collagen.htm?Click=633f573db5334