I bake over and over again these gluten-free, sugar-free low-carb chocolate mini muffins. Usually baked goods made with coconut flour get rock hard when stored, but these muffins stay soft and moist even for few days in a room temperature. I made a lot of experiments until I was satisfied, and now I’m happy to share my best results with you. Here you are, hope you like this recipe as much as I and my family do!
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| Nutrition information | Protein | Fat | Net carbs | kcal |
| The whole batch: | 34.2 g | 48.4 g | 10.1 g | 613 kcal |
| Per muffin if 6 muffins in a batch: | 5.7 g | 8.1 g | 1.7 g | 102 kcal |
| Per muffin if 8 muffins in a batch: | 4.3 g | 6.0 g | 1.3 g | 77 kcal |
| Per muffin if 12 muffins in a batch: | 2.9 g | 4.0 g | 0.8 g | 51 kcal |
| Per muffin if 16 muffins in a batch: | 2.1 g | 3.0 g | 0.6 g | 38 kcal |
| Per muffin if 18 muffins in a batch: | 1.9 g | 2.7 g | 0.6 g | 34 kcal |
Tips for making the muffins
These muffins are very easy and quick to make. You can simply whisk the ingredients with a whisk, no electric mixer is needed. Just mix the dry ingredients together, wet ingredients together, and combine both mixtures and whisk shortly until smooth. That’s it!
After mixing everything together you can wait for some 5 minutes so that the batter thickens a bit and is easier to scoop or pour into the muffin cups. The cups can be filled until they are almost full. Even the muffins rise in the oven, they usually don’t spill over.
Nothing restricts you from making bigger muffins. Personally I prefer bite-size indulgences, that’s why I usually make muffins in mini-size.
My experiments with this recipe
I have a versatile basic muffin recipe which I have developed over years. This chocolate muffin recipe is a modification of that recipe. I was pondering which one to publish and settled on this one. Don’t worry, I’m going to publish the basic muffin recipe at some point as well!
I got familiar with using coconut flour in baking from Elana Amsterdam and her amazing book Gluten-Free Cupcakes which is full of simple and mouthwatering recipes for gluten-free cupcakes and muffins. I’ve baked cupcakes and muffins based on numerous recipes in that book. I remember one evening I carried my baby in manduca and we baked together tens, actually over 100 cupcakes based on the recipes in Elana’s book. I think my absolute favorite is Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes which have delicious peanut butter centers. Elana uses mostly agave nectar as sweetener, I as low-carber prefer erythritol.
I also have book Cooking with Coconut Flour from Bruce Fife, which also has great recipes and useful information about coconut flour. Since the ingredients I use differ slightly from those of Elana Amsterdam and Bruce Fife, I started everything from scratch and developed a muffin recipe of my own. For example, Elana’s recipes call for agave nectar and grapeseed oil, both of which are fluid and need more dry ingredients for perfect batter. I use erythritol and heavy cream or melted butter instead, and those need less coconut flour.
After numerous muffin experiments I gave up melted butter and used only heavy cream, since the muffins seem to be softer and more moist with cream. Butter makes them harder, for some reason.
I don’t use baking powder either, since according to my experiments these muffins rise properly — actually the texture is even better — without it. A couple of days ago I had to make some experiments again, with and without baking powder, and I really liked the result much more when no baking powder was used. So, here we go, a delicious and amazingly easy muffin recipe with just 5 ingredients!
Tips for variation
You can vary these chocolate muffins for example by:
- Adding dark chocolate chips to the batter
- Adding chopped nuts to the batter
- Adding unsweetened, shredded coconut to the batter.
If you prefer dairy-free muffins, just simply substitute heavy cream for coconut cream or coconut milk. I tried it and it worked well for me.
These muffins taste great as such, but you can top them with your favorite icing. I like self-made sugar-free chocolate toffee, my husband prefers chopped fresh strawberries and plain whipped cream.
A great idea is to fill the ready muffins with something delicious, be it just whipped cream, chocolate mousse, buttercream or vanilla pudding.
Behind the scenes: Our cat Pete got curious about the strawberry leaves…
Behind the scenes 2: … have to take a bite, yum! …
Behind the scenes 3: …and our other cat Frieda about the whipped cream.
Could you use greek yoghurt or quark insted of heavy cream?
how does theese compare to your low carb fluffy dairy free muffins?
Hi Åsa, sure, both Greek yogurt and quark should work, though they are not runny like heavy cream. I think yogurt would work better. The consistency of these muffins is slightly heavier than the fluffy dairy free muffins.
tried both recepies today and liked the texture of the dairy free fluffy ones better. The chocolate muffins was to dense (used heavy cream).
Will experiment more with the dairy free more and try different flavours and fillings.
Hi Åsa, sounds good!
These were the absolute best low-carb baked good I have ever made! Thank you so much for this wonderful recipe. I was worried about not adding the baking powder but it truly does not need it. If you are wondering if you should make these do it now! They are fantastic. I used xylitol in place of the erythritol but I think they are very similar. Made 6 beautiful looking muffins, tasted like cupcakes with frosting added. I couldn’t believe they were a healthier alternative. Will make over and over again. Thanks!
Hi Amy, thank you for trying out my recipe! So great to hear that you liked the muffins! Yes, erythritol and xylitol are very similar.
I always make these muffins and they are delicious! I usually add in caramel extract too which makes them even more delicious! Question – do you think I can sub the erythitol crystals for liquid or even powdered stevia (that’s all I have right now) or do you need the granulated crystals for bulk in this recipe? Thanks!?
Hi Anna, I think I just answered your question on my Facebook page 🙂 Yes, I’ve made these muffins just using liquid stevia as sweetener, and for me that worked fine.
Hi Elviira!
First of all, thank you for sharing with us your amazing recipes!
Can I ask you a quick question? Do you think I can substitute erythritol crystals for Truvia? It is the only thing I can buy where I live.
Thank you very much in advance,
Maria
Hi Maria! So great to hear that you like my recipes! Yes, it should be possible to use Truvia instead of erythritol crystals. I’m not sure how sweet Truvia is compared to pure erythritol but I would expect it to be a bit sweeter, so you might want to adjust the amount to your liking. Hope this helps!
These are the absolutes *best*!!! So moist and chocolate!! I swapped out the cocoa powder with cacao powder and the sweetener was Xylitol. *amazing* Thank you so much!!!
Hi Lee, and thank you for your comment! I’m pleased to hear that you like the muffins, so great!
Hi i love all your other recipes by the way, thank you and can i use a baking bar instead of cocoa powder? and also for heavy cream what can i use instead of that?
Hi Angela, great to hear that you like my recipes! You can use coconut milk instead of heavy cream. I haven’t tried how baking bar would work instead of cocoa powder in these muffins. If you try it out, I would love to hear how it worked out!
I made these the other day and loved them however I was just wondering how you stored them?
I stored them in an air-tight tupperware container just in the cupboard as I was concerned they would go too hard but they went moldy really quickly.
Do you store them in the fridge?
Hi Rebecca, I’ve usually stored them just like you, in an air-tight container on the table because the muffins tend to be eaten in a day. If I need to store them for a few days, I’ll store them in the fridge. You can also freeze the muffins if you need to store them longer than a few days. Hope this helps!
Did you ever post your basic muffin recipe? I was looking at your website about a week ago, and I thought I found it then… but I can’t find it now. Tried your pumpkin spice muffins yesterday… Yum!
Hi Debby, the basic muffin recipe is basically this one: https://www.lowcarbsosimple.com/low-carb-blueberry-muffins/. I have just added there the blueberries. You can leave them out and use 1 teaspoon vanilla extract. Hope you like them!
What will happen if I use large instead of extra large eggs for any of your recipes?
Hi Meredith, thanks for your question. I guess the baked goods are more dense and dryer with less amount of eggs. Not much, and in some recipes this might affect more and in some recipes less.
Have you made whoopie pies with this recipe? 🙂
Hi Shannon! Yes, I’ve used this for whoopie pies as well. Even better recipe for whoopie pies (over 5 ingredients, though) is this one which I developed last week:
1/4 cup = 60 ml coconut flour
3 tablespoons dark cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 extra large eggs
1 package caffeine-free instant coffee granules (e.g. Mount Hagen)
1/4 cup = 60 ml heavy cream
1/3 cup = 80 ml erythritol crystals.
1. Preheat the oven to 350 °F (175 °C).
2. Grease a whoopie pie pan generously with softened butter.
3. Mix all dry ingredients well together (i.e. coconut flour, cocoa powder and baking powder).
4. Combine the rest of the ingredients in a large bowl and mix well with an electric mixer. Mix just that everything is mixed, you don’t have to mix very long.
5. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix well with the electric mixer.
6. Scoop into the whoopie pie pan.
7. Bake for 15 minutes. Be careful not to overbake.
Makes 12 normal-sized whoopie halves (i.e. 6 whole whoopies)
Btw, these whoopies taste heavenly with the recipe I’m going to publish tomorrow… You’ll see a photo of them, too!
I see you made your blue berry muffins into whoopie pies, have ever used this recipe?
These are soooo good! I added some chopped pecans and coconut flakes. I am doing the ketogenic diet and I have a sweet tooth, so these were perfect! Thanks!
Monaca, so great to hear that you like the muffins and they help satisfy your sweet tooth!
I FINALLY made these tonight! I used raw cacoa powder instead of cocoa, mostly because I already had it. I don’t buy extra large eggs, so I used 4 large. I ended up with 24 exactly. The flavor is excellent, but I think I overcooked them?? They do not release from the paper at all. They are slightly on the dry side as well. Don’t worry, the kids and I are still gobbling them up as they are still quite delicious! When (and I do mean when!) I make them again, should I use 5 large eggs? Should I use cocoa instead of raw cacoa, or do you think my problem is just straight up overcooking? Also, they all formed these weird small shallow craters on top. They don’t bother me but I am curious as to why if you have any idea. I am hoping once I perfect the recipe to take them into work as I have 2 diabetic coworkers and another low carber, so no craters would be more presentable 😉
Hi Deana! Thanks for trying out the recipe 🙂 The ratio between eggs and coconut flour needs to be optimum for the best result. I always use extra large eggs, simply because the best quality organic eggs in the nearest grocery store happen to be extra large in size. If you use large eggs, I would recommend to use one more tablespoon coconut flour, otherwise the result might resemble omelet rather than muffins… Today I made these muffins like this:
5 tablespoons coconut flour
3 tablespoons organic raw cocoa powder (Navitas Naturals)
4 large organic eggs
1/4 cup = 60 ml organic heavy cream
1/3 cup = 80 ml = 70 g erythritol crystals
and baked medium size muffins for 20 minutes. They rose nicely and were nicely moist and also released from the paper. If you are familiar with my Facebook page, you can see photo of these muffins.
Actually, esapecially with chocolate muffins it’s important that the baking time is rather too short than too long. I think for mini muffins the maximum baking time should be 15 minutes. I think I’m going to change it to the recipe. Thanks for your observations 🙂
Do you think raw cacoa powder will work the same here as cocoa powder?
Hi Deana, yes, raw cocoa powder works as well, at least it worked for me.
Wonderful! I just left a comment on another recipe concerning powdered vs granulated vs crystals for the erythritol. If they are all different, can I use the granulated Zsweet for this recipe?
Hi Deana! Thanks for your comments! I left a lengthy answer to the other question, hope you find it helpful. Granulated Zsweet should work in this recipe, since it seems to be pure erythritol (with some flavorings, though). I haven’t tried it out, however I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t work. If you try, please tell me how it worked!
They are the same thing. Cacao is the French spelling of Cocoa.
I just made these. Your recipes are so reliably delicous! I’m sure I will make these many many times again. I put some dark chocolate chips in mine and loooooove them. I also sliced one in half and put some peanut butter filling inside (that I have left over from a cookie experiment gone bad)–also delicous. Thank you yet again! I really am so thankful for a source of reliably good low-carb goodies.
Tara, thanks for your nice comment! So great to hear that you like my recipes. Peanut butter filling sounds really yummy!
Just made these. Only did a couple of things different. Didn’t have papers so just greased the tin REALLY well. Added pecans and caramel extract (turtle muffins!!!) and an extra egg cause I didn’t have extra large(they’re fresh eggs from a family member)
Came out yummy. I got exactly 24 muffins at a tablespoon each. These are gonna be SO good with my coffee in the morning 🙂
Thanks for commenting and trying out my muffin recipe! Pecans and caramel extract sound really yummy! I might give a try to them next time when I’m baking these muffins. Thanks for a great idea 🙂