Fluffy Little Lemon Thingies

Here is a recipe for airy, fluffy, lemon-flavored pastries. You could also call these muffins or cupcakes even they are not exactly like conventional ones.

 

 

 

Fluffy Little Lemon Thingies 1/2 cup = 120 ml = 75 g organic almond flour (from Ölmühle Solling) 1/2 cup = 120 ml = 45 g vanilla whey protein 5 organic extra large eggs, separated (room temperature) 3/4 cup = 180 ml = 150 g erythritol crystals juice from 2 organic lemons (1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon = approx. 1 dl)   Directions Preheat the oven to 300 °F (150 °C). In a small bowl, mix well the almond flour with the whey protein. In a large, preferably deep and narrow bowl, beat the egg whites with an electric mixer until they are firm and stiff peaks form. Put the egg yolks, erythritol and lemon juice in a large bowl and beat until well mixed. Add the almond flour and whey protein mixture to the egg yolk mixture and beat well. Fold gently the egg whites to the batter. Scoop the batter into muffin cups, silicone ones work best. Bake for some 25 minutes or until a stick inserted into the center of a pastry comes out clean.

 

 

 

Nutrition information	Protein	Fat	Net carbs	kcal
The whole batch:	96.3 g	48.3 g	12.7 g	871 kcal
Per portion if 12 thingies in total:	8.0 g	4.0 g	1.1 g	73 kcal
Per portion if 16 thingies in total:	6.0 g	3.0 g	0.8 g	54 kcal
Per portion if 20 thingies in total:	4.8 g	2.4 g	0.6 g	44 kcal
Per portion if 24 thingies in total:	4.0 g	2.0 g	0.5 g	36 kcal

 

 

 

 

 

I started developing these based on the recipe of the Featherlight Hazelnut Almond Torte from The Low-Carb Baking and Dessert Cookbook by Ursula Solom. I was fancying something airy and fluffy, but was running out whole almond flour and hazelnut flour, so I used blanched almond flour instead. The recipe also calls for oat flour which doesn’t really belong to my pantry since I’m avoiding cereals. I was wondering what to use as substitute, and thought that coconut flour might be a good candidate. It was, but later when simplifying the recipe I omitted it and the result was even fluffier and the texture nicer.

The recipe in the book uses xylitol as sweetener and instead of that I use erythritol since as healthy xylitol is, at least when compared to some other sweeteners, it does have some carbs and might cause rise in blood sugar levels unlike erythritol. Besides, it can cause an upset stomach.

In addition to airy and fluffy, I was also fancying something fresh and tangy. Instead of lemon peel and vanilla extract I added some lemon juice, first just from one lemon, but soon realized that it didn’t give enough lemon taste, so I added another one. I also added a pinch of xanthan, but with later experiments noticed that it doesn’t improve the texture — rather the opposite, it made the texture a bit gummy.

At some point I decided to add whey protein, since I had good experiences with its puffing capabilities from my previous experiments for example with the Simple and Fluffy Gluten-Free Low-Carb Bread. The result was amazing. In the end, what is left from the original recipe are basically just 5 separated eggs.

First experiments I baked in a cake mold, but then I wanted to try out muffin cups and noticed that the pastries turn out somewhat fluffier and nicer as muffins. The ready fluffy lemon thingies get easily stuck to the cups so I found out that silicone is the best material for baking these pastries, although paper cups work also quite okay. I also love to bake these in mini muffin cups, since I’m obsessed with bite-sized morsels. They are easy and neat to eat.

These fluffy thingies puff and rise nicely even there is no chemical leavening agent in the batter. It’s the whey protein and egg whites which do the trick, together with vigorous beating, I guess.

Again, as almond flour I’ve used fat reduced almond flour from Ölmühle Solling. I also tried normal fat almond flour, but instead of 1/2 cup I had to use 1 cup (= 4 oz. ≈ 115 g) for best results. In the end I prefer the fat reduced almond flour not only because it’s organic, but also because it gives better texture. In case you don’t have fat reduced almond flour at hand you might want to try these with 1 cup of normal fat almond flour. The result should be successful.

These delicious thingies taste great as such, but even better with icing. They also keep well especially if covered. If uncovered, they tend to dry, which is actually not too bad since then they are almost like lemon meringues. Talking about meringues, in case you would like these thingies to be even more to the direction of meringues, you can gradually beat the erythritol to the egg whites rather than mix it with the egg yolks.

How would you call these Fluffy Little Lemon Thingies? Are they cupcakes, muffins, tiny chiffon cakes or something else? Next I’m going to publish a simple recipe for smooth and velvety low-carb vanilla cream cheese icing, so stay tuned!