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.
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| 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!
Well, I finally made this recipe this past week (better late than never, eh?).
As I only had plain whey protein powder, I added 1/8 tsp. of vanilla essense, hoping for something akin to a”lemon creamsicle” flavour, but that small amount of vanilla made no real addition to the flavour profile (1/4 tsp. next time?).
Folding the egg whites into the batter was a rather grueling exercise, as the batter was unexpectedly thick, but I persevered, hoping to not deflate the egg whites too much.
As I always juice my lemons with a wooden lemon reamer, it tends to tear up the lemon pulp, which I then added into the lemon juice. This was a wonderful addition to these “little lemon thingies.”
Oddly, they took 45 minutes to cook through properly, in a calibrated oven with an oven thermometer.
My non-keto housemate pronounced the texture to be “fluffy,” and the taste to be “eggy, with lemon.” I did not find them to be eggy, and enjoyed the lemon flavour. I found them to be fluffy on the inside and crusty on the outside, a textural contrast which I found to be very pleasant.
I stored them in a sealed plastic bag, and ate them over about 5 days. While they dried out a bit more each day and were rather crumbly as they aged, I found them to be a nice addition to my breakfast of Greek yogurt with berries, keto avocado toast and coffee.
All in all, these seemed to be more like muffins than anything else to me, and a bit more work than the average muffin recipe (due to the folding of the batter mentioned above), but they were tasty and I enjoyed them. Thanks for the recipe!
Thank you for sharing your detailed experience! I’m glad you enjoyed the recipe and found the lemon flavor pleasant. It’s a very old recipe of mine, and I remember my “thingies” turned out almost meringue-like when they dried.
As my whey protein powder is plain and not vanilla, I am presuming to add a touch of vanilla extract. However, I don’t want to add so much as to mess with the lemon flavour. What might you suggest? 1/8 teaspoon? Even less?
Hi John-Mark, I think 1/8 teaspoon should do the job. It actually also depends on the vanilla extract as some of them are stronger than others. How about using vanilla powder? That would also give a natural and elegant vanilla taste.
Where do I find erythriitol
Hi Donna, if you click the link (“erythritol crystals”) in the ingredient list, it will take you to the product page in iHerb.com. I buy my erythritol from iHerb, but I think health food stores sell it as well.