Last summer, I promised you that at some point I’ll publish my extremely versatile basic muffin recipe. Well, now is the point 🙂 This variation is spotted with yummy blueberries. If you like, you can replace them with vanilla extract, chocolate chips, or something else, depending on the contents of your pantry or freezer, or simply what you happen to fancy at the moment. A dairy-free variation is also easy to make with coconut milk.
Tips for making the muffins
These muffins are so quick and easy to make, that there is no reason not to make them! Just mix all the wet ingredients quickly together, add the coconut flour and mix again quickly. Add the frozen blueberries and mix again. It’s that simple! You don’t necessarily need any electric mixer for mixing, a whisk will do.
You can sift the coconut flour, but according to my experiments this is not absolutely necessary. I’m simply too busy to sift anything… And my muffins have turned out well, without any lumps of coconut flour.
You can let the batter sit for a few minutes before adding the frozen blueberries. The batter will thicken and it helps that the blueberries won’t sink to the bottom.
The muffin cups can be filled until they are almost full. Even the muffins rise in the oven, they usually don’t spill over.
The yield is 6 medium size muffins. You can double the amount of the ingredients if you would need more. You can also bake mini muffins in a mini muffin pan.
For my oven, the optimum baking time was 28 minutes for 6 medium size muffins. When I baked mini muffins, the baking time was 15–20 minutes. The yield was 16 or 17 mini muffins.
My low-carb blueberry muffins experiments
So, I have developed this recipe quite a long time ago and I have baked so many variations that I cannot even remember. The basic recipe is anyway the same. I developed it by testing different ratios of coconut flour, eggs, heavy cream and sweetener.
At some point I tested also butter instead of heavy cream, but the resulting muffins were not nicely moist, they were hard. I thought butter might suit cookie dough making the cookies crunchy. Heavy cream ensures that the muffins turn out deliciously moist.
The biggest amazement for me was that the muffins rise nicely even without baking powder. Actually, the result is pretty much the same with or without baking powder. Weird. So, that’s why I have simply left the leavening agent out from this recipe. Why to add something which doesn’t have any effect to the end result?
Ingredients
- 3 extra large organic eggs
- 1/4 cup = 60 ml organic heavy cream OR organic coconut milk
- 1/3 cup = 80 ml = 70 g erythritol crystals
- 5 tablespoons = 75 ml = 37 g organic coconut flour
- 1/2 cup = 120 ml frozen organic blueberries
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 °F (175 °C).
- Line a muffin pan with paper liners.
- In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, cream and erythritol until well mixed.
- Add the coconut flour to the egg mixture and whisk until smooth.
- Wait for 5 minutes until the batter is thick. Add the frozen blueberries and mix well.
- Immediately scoop the batter into each muffin cup.
- Bake for 25–30 minutes, or until a stick inserted in the middle of the muffin comes out almost dry.
- Let cool and serve.
Nutrition information | Protein | Fat | Net carbs | kcal |
The whole batch: | 33.6 g | 47.1 g | 15.8 g | 630 kcal |
Per muffin if 6 muffins in a batch: | 5.6 g | 7.9 g | 2.6 g | 105 kcal |
Per muffin if 16 muffins in a batch: | 2.1 g | 2.9 g | 1.0 g | 39 kcal |
Tips for variation
Feel free to replace the blueberries with other berries. Blueberries are not the lowest in carbs, so if you like your low-carb muffins with even lower carbs, you can use frozen or fresh raspberries or cranberries.
When I bake these muffins for my toddler, I use dried organic cherries or cranberries which are sweetened with apple juice. If you use dried berries, I recommend to use 1/4 cup (60 ml) dried berries. You can also use freeze-dried berries.
These muffins are also great as chocolate chip muffins. Just replace the blueberries with 1/4 cup (60 ml) dark chocolate chips.
If you prefer dairy-free muffins, just simply substitute coconut cream or coconut milk for the heavy cream.
One great idea is to make these muffins whoopie pie style — baked in a whoopie pie pan and filled with whipped cream. You can season the cream with a couple drops of vanilla stevia if you like. The blueberries give quite much sweetness — at least to my taste — so I prefer my whipped cream unsweetened.
You can use lower oven temperature for the whoopies so that they don’t get too brown from the edges. 300 °F (150 °C) was ideal for me. The baking time was 15–20 minutes.
I noticed that it’s easiest to remove the whoopies from the pan right after removing them from the oven. Turn the whoopie pie pan upside down and carefully shake the whoopies from their wells onto a cooling rack or parchment paper. Be careful not to burn yourself, the pan and the whoopies are hot!
Let the whoopies cool completely and fill them with whipped cream. Serve immediately. Store the leftovers in the fridge and consume within a day.
Angelina Dean
Is there an alternative sweetener you can use instead of erythritol ?
elviira
Stevia and/or monk fruit should be fine, too.
Sara
Hello! I tried this recipe today and they came out delicious! But one thing I noticed is that the muffin kind of stuck to the liner when pulling it out. Next time should Intry spraying the liner with cooking spray so it doesn’t stick?
elviira
Great to hear you liked them! Good-quality liners might perform better, but silicone muffin pans are the best, the muffins shouldn’t definitely get stuck to them.
Kelsey
I would love to modify these by adding a strong lemon flavor with lemon zest and juice, would you recommend adding more coconut flour or would you reduce the amount of cream used in the recipe? I’m always nervous adding citrus, I don’t know if it will curdle the cream. They would be great to turn into cupcakes and/or woopie pies with a whipped mascarpone icing. Really looking forward to making these!
elviira
Hi Kelsey, I would reduce the cream if you want to add lemon juice. It shouldn’t curdle if you add first the cream and then mix well before adding the juice. Yes, these are wonderful as whoopie pies!
Sarah
Can I ask how you calculated the carbs on this? I made them and they were delicious, but when I ran the recipe through a nutrition calculator I came out with the following for a total net carb count of 14:
Nutrition Facts
Servings: 6
Amount per serving
Calories 132
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 5.8g 7%
Saturated Fat 3.5g 18%
Cholesterol 89mg 30%
Sodium 58mg 3%
Total Carbohydrate 19.4g 7%
Dietary Fiber 4.5g 16%
Total Sugars 2.2g
Protein 4.6g
Vitamin D 10mcg 52%
Calcium 15mg 1%
Iron 1mg 3%
Potassium 43mg 1%
elviira
I used Calculus Victus. Here in Europe we always calculate net carbs instead of total carbs so I always use net carbs in my recipes (you don’t digest fiber so there is no reason to calculate total carbs). Nutritional values also depend on the brands you are using.
Diane
I get similar calculations to you in cronometer. 12 carbs per muffin and I am counting only net carbs
Madlen
Hi! So I just tried these and I substituted the heaven whipping cream with coconut milk, and followed directions, but mine came out uncooked! I even left them in for 35mins, please help 🙁
elviira
Sorry to hear! Sounds unbelievable… How large liners did you use, i.e. how many muffins did you get? What was the oven temperature you used?
Madlen
I made 6 muffins and my heat was 350 F. I’m not sure what I did wrong because it didn’t bake at all 🙁
I would like to try this again, do you think it would make a difference if I used the heavy cream this time?
elviira
Everything sounds right but I wonder that they didn’t bake… I doubt heavy cream makes any difference (at least for me it doesn’t; the recipe works equally well with coconut milk) but you can certainly try. Please let me know how it worked with heavy cream if you try it out!
Chrissy Lamp
The same thing happened to me. They didn’t cook well but they still tasted great so I kept them. Then after about 3 days they got soggy and felt wet to the touch? I loved them the first day. I did use raspberries instead of blueberries. I can’t figure out what I did wrong. They ones I ate at first were very delicious though.
Pauline
Same problem here…..
Leslie
I made these tonight, and am really pleased with how they turned out. It’s kind of shocking I can have such a fluffy, cake-like treat for around 100 kcal that still fits my macros. I previously tried an almond-flour based blueberry muffin recipe but it didn’t have the lightness I was looking for. This hits the spot – thank you!
elviira
Thank you so much, Leslie, makes me happy that you are pleased with the result!
Andrea
I know this post is super old and I’m commenting super late, but I just made these last night! I found I had to double the recipe though, because otherwise I would have had enough for only 3 regular sized muffins. :/ I was using a 6 muffin tin, and even not filling the cups all the way I found I had to make a second batch just to get all 6 muffins. But doubling the recipe also doubles all the carbs and I found I already exceeded my carb count for the day with a single muffin. Is there something I’m missing?
elviira
Hi Andrea, if you would like to keep an eye of your carb quota, I recommend to make mini muffins. How does that sound?
katie
Instead of Erythritol can I use the same amount of sugar?
elviira
Sure! But then the muffins are not low in carbs.
Inge
I made these this morning and have to say they are quite tasty for a low carb muffin. I only used 3 tablespoons of xylitol and fresh blueberries-didn’t want them too sweet. They are perfect for me. I also used parchment paper muffin cups – which never stick to anything I’ve made so far. I put them under the broiler for a few seconds to brown since they weren’t brown at all after 25 minutes. Worked perfectly. Thanks for the recipe. Will certainly make again
elviira
Hi Inge, thanks for your comment! So great to hear you were pleased with the muffins!
Alex
Hi only have large eggs handy does this matter? Could I just edd some extra cream or will it make them too heavy?
elviira
Hi, you can use large eggs and add 1-2 tablespoons heavy cream, that should be okay.
Alex
Hi, thanks, I know coconut flour is really absorbent so wanted to make
elviira
Yes, you’re right, coconut flour requires really much fluid.
Alex
I did as you suggested, but seemed a bit too thick, then I ended up putting in too much. Will try again with extra large eggs. thank you for your help
elviira
Hi Alex, sorry to hear it didn’t work out perfectly, hope the muffins turn out better with extra large eggs!
Colleen
Can you use almond flour? I’m trying it now just scared they may not come out good.
elviira
I guess you can, but you have to increase the amount of flour and decrease the amount of fluid (heavy cream and eggs). Usually 1/4 cup (60 ml) coconut flour corresponds 1 cup (240 ml) almond flour. So if I tried this with almond flour, I would use 1 1/4 cups (300 ml) almond flour, 2 eggs and 1-2 tablespoons heavy cream and see how that works. Btw, if you tried them, how did they turn out?
marcia
Hi. I made these exactly as written, except I used fresh blueberries since they’re in season. They are very good! Thank you. One question. Mine didn’t brown, although they were definitely cooked through. Some browning would be nice, just because it looks good. Any thoughts? In case it matters, I used heavy cream.
elviira
Hi Marcia, great that you liked them! Using higher temperature might help getting them more brown or simply baking them longer, as I think 350 F (175 C) is already quite high.
Paul
Just jumped back onto the low carb wagon and was after something a bit sweet rather than a having the usual small portion of blueberries or raspberries with cream. Made these tonight & they tasted good; even the “carbo” wife enjoyed them. Many thanks.
elviira
Thanks, Paul, for your comment! Great to hear that you both enjoyed them!
Rachel Ashwell
Just made these this morning and they were yummy. Used fresh blueberries and added a touch of organic vanilla. Not quite like a traditional blueberry muffin, but a really good substitution when watching your carb intake. My only issue was that they stuck to my paper liners – so the next time I will just use coconut oil to grease the muffin tin and skip the liners altogether. Thanks for a great and easy recipe!
elviira
Hi Rachel and thanks for your comment! Great to hear that you liked the muffins 🙂
Jax
I made these today and they came out surprisingly well! Can I replace the heavy cream with a low carb, non-dairy alternative? And can the erythritol be replaced with stevia?
elviira
Great to hear that they turned out well! See my previous reply about the dairy-free option and stevia.
Jax
Thanks for your suggestion about the coconut milk. I would assume that coconut cream would be better, wouldn’t it? Also wondering how much stevia to use if I’m substituting for the erythritol.
elviira
Yes, coconut cream might be even better, depends on the brand (some of them feel gritty and some of them are really thick, but if you find something with consistency of heavy cream, that should be the best option). I would try 40 drops stevia, though it depends on the brand. I tried muffins with Clear NuStevia, it used to be my favorite, though nowadays I prefer Now Foods Better Stevia Glycerite, which brings lots of sweetness. The latest batch had some aftertaste, though. Which stevia brand are you using, and do you use powder or liquid?
Jax
I’m using trader joe’s brand of stevia – a powder. Sounds like coconut milk might be better since I use Native Forest coconut cream which is pretty thick.
Thanks for all your feedback, I appreciate it 🙂
Jack
Made this today and they came out great!
Is it possible to sWapakoneta out the heavy cream and somehow make it dairy free? And what about swapping erythritol with stevia??
elviira
Hi, you can use coconut milk instead of heavy cream, I often do that. Stevia should also work okay, but it might affect to the texture a bit. I think I tried once and the muffins turned out okay.
Liz
Hi,
This looks like a great recipe. I try and eat low carb and was confused as to what Erythritol you are using? I followed your link and it shows that per 1 teaspoon it is a net of 4 carbs. Since you have to use 1/3 cup of the Erythritol, that equates to 16 teaspoons x 4 grams/tsp =64 carbs. Just curious how you got the 15.8 net grams of carbs? Thanks!
elviira
Hi, erythritol doesn’t have any effective carbs, so those which would be absorbed by your body. Erythritol is practically calorie- and carb-free.
Michelle
These were really yummy and the first low carb muffins I’ve made that taste remotely close to what a muffin should taste like! I used Splenda and added a teaspoon of vanilla and the zest of an orange. Really good with butter and coffee.
elviira
Hi Michelle, thanks for trying them, so great to hear that you liked them! I also love to add orange zest often to muffins, it gives elegant orange taste without too many carbs.
elviira
Hi Michelle, thanks for trying them out! I also love to add orange zest often to my baked stuff, it gives really nice orange flavor with practically no carbs.
lori
add me to your email list
elviira
Hi lori, my email system says that you are already subscribed. I’m sorry I haven’t sent mail for some time, I’ve been extremely busy with another product (Facebook marketing related) and I’ve slept just a few hours a night… However, now when it’s done, I’m planning some surprises to my subscribers here and I promise will be more active on my blog.
Emma
Hi, im in a low-carb diet and I can only eat up to 1g of carbs.. what can I do to make each cupcake worth just 1g of carbs?
elviira
Hi Emma, there are several ways to get lower-carb muffins modifying this recipe. If you would like to have blueberries in your muffins, basically the only way is to make mini muffins, i.e. smaller ones so that you don’t consume too many carbs at once. Like you see from the table, one mini muffin contains 1.0 gram effective (net) carbs. Since blueberries are relatively high in carbs, you can leave them out. If you use the otherwise the same ingredients, leave out blueberries and make 12 muffins, there are 0.9 grams net carbs per muffin. Replacing the heavy cream partly with water affects also slightly, but not that much that I would recommend it, since it will just sacrifice the flavor and the mouthfeel. This wasn’t the most clear explanation in the world but hope it helps!
Joy Kurtz
I made these muffins last week according to the directions and they were perfect. Today, I omitted the blueberries and added 4 oz unsweetened organic applesauce and nutmeg, ginger, cinnamon and cloves. Made 7 muffins instead if six and only slightly changed the carb count. The applesauce was 12 carbs per 4 oz serving. Blueberries are 10.5 for half cup.
These turned out really good.
elviira
Hi Joy, your variation sounds really delicious and a great fall time treat! Thanks for sharing it!
Susannah
These were great! Made them for my family this morning in a doughnut pan (made 6; baked 19-20 mins) and everyone loved them. I used fresh blueberries and added a little bit of vanilla extract and they tasted just like normal blueberry muffins. Yum!
elviira
Susannah, thanks for your comment! Great to hear that your whole family liked the muffins!
angela
can i use anything else besides the heavy cream and erythritol crystals? thank you
elviira
Hi Angela, xylitol or other bulk sweetener should work equally well. Pure stevia might make the muffins too dense. Coconut milk should work instead of heavy cream, I have used it many times for dairy-free muffins instead of heavy cream.
Nancy
I just made these…ok..I added more blueberries then the recipe called for…I think next time I will add what I was told to but boy are they AWESOME!!!!
elviira
Hi Nancy and thanks for your comment! So great that you liked them!
Becka
I made these today, and they did not look the same, and they were not moist at all…. I’m wondering what I did wrong? The muffins stayed in the same shape as when I put them into the liners too… they didn’t flatten out and look all pretty like yours. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
elviira
Hi Becka, I’m sorry that the muffins were not as expected. To me it sounds that there was too much coconut flour. Are you familiar with coconut flour and baking with it? The measuring has to be very exact, since even a teaspoon more than what advised can make the end result dry. Did you use 15 ml measuring spoon? The coconut flour shouldn’t be packed but just loosely measured. The spoonfuls shouldn’t be heaping but leveled. Or did you use scale for measuring the coconut flour? These were the first thoughts which came into my mind. What do you think?
Becka
I don’t think I leveled the spoons. I will try again and see what happens! Thanks so much! I hope to report better results 🙂
elviira
Great, happy baking! Waiting for your report 🙂
Becka
So, I made them again (I’m off work today with nothing else to do lol) and I used different coconut flour too. They turned out much better. Definitely like the picture. But still had a slight gritty-ness to them. Would that just be the flour?
elviira
Great to hear that the result was now much better! The grittiness is usually caused by gritty and “flaky” flour, just like you suspect. It might be quite difficult to find high-quality coconut flour, and even in those the quality varies from batch to batch… challenging!
edna weddell
can fresh berries be used rather than frozen as i do not buy any frozen fruit,,,,,looking forward to your answer,,,,, thanks
elviira
Hi Edna, I noticed your question in the Facebook group and answered there as well 🙂 Here my reply, I hope it reaches you: Sure, however I would recommend adding the fresh berries to the batter immediately after combining all ingredients and not wait for 5 minutes before adding them, as they might get mashed if you add fresh berries to thick batter. My family picks wild blueberries from forest and we freeze those for winter. Hope you like the muffins if you try them out!
Jackie
Made these today yum yum! Substituted: used light coconut milk instead of heavy cream, used a stevia/erythritol mix as sweetner. Also added about 3 Tbsp of water as I found the mix a bit dense for my liking. These are so good and so healthy! I used coconut oil to grease the pans for extra coconutness 🙂 husband also loved them.. Cant wait to play with this recipe with different ingredients!
elviira
Hi Jackie! Great that you and your husband liked the muffins! Sounds also great with those alterations. Anyway, the recipe is easy to vary; happy playing! 🙂
Helle
I think i love you!!! Thank you sooo much for all you`r fantastic recepies.
elviira
Takk, Helle!! Great that you like my recipes!
sandi
I just made these and they were delicious! I didn’t add any berries but a Tbsp of cocoa powder (trying to do as low carb as possible) and used stevia instead. I even topped them with homemade whipped cream. YUMM!!
elviira
Hi Sandi, great that you liked them! Your variation sounds really good and low in carbs!
Jackie
How much stevia did u use?
elviira
I think I used 40 drops NuNaturals Clear Stevia.
Amber Janzen
Yum! Just made these. They turned out fantastic! Thank you, Elviira, for sharing the fruits of your labor. You have a great talent.
elviira
Hi Amber, perfect! The best reward is that you like my fruits of labor! 🙂
Lisa sandoval
How many calories per muffin are the blueberry muffins? They are amazing!
elviira
Hi Lisa, if you bake the batter as 6 medium-sized muffins there are 105 kcal per muffin, if you bake 16 mini muffins there are 39 kcal per mini muffin. (More nutrition info is in the table right under the recipe.) Hope this helps!
Kelly
This is simple and yummy. I had to make slight changes based on what I had. I used 6 teaspoons of granulated splenda and 2 tablespoons of sugar free vanilla syrup. I had fresh blueberries and used them instead. This is my go to muffin recipe and will be changing out ingredients.
elviira
Kelly, thanks for trying out my recipe. Great that you like it! It’s good to know that the recipe works also with Splenda and vanilla syrup.
Rachael
These are so good I found myself scraping off the bits stuck to the muffin liner!
elviira
Rachael, thanks for your comment! Great to hear that you like the muffins 🙂
Brittany
I plan on making these tomorrow for my kids! I have lots of experimenting to do! I have some coconut sugar I am going try try, then date sugar…oh the possibilities are endless!!!
Thanks!
Britt
elviira
Brittany, thanks for your comment! Yes, the possibilities are endless, just choose the sweetener which is the best for you and feel free to make your own variations. Hope you and your kids like the muffins!
Angie
Hi,
Just wanted to know what can you substitute the Erythritol Crystals for if you do not have this? Thanks
elviira
Angie, xylitol or Splenda would do, but they increase the carb count. I don’t know if stevia would work, or if the texture will be different.
Axematax
Your a Genius! .. Love it that I stumbled across Your Site.. Im going to try these out right away..
Also, What can I use instead of Cream?.. I was thinking coconut milk, or almond Milk?..
and can I add some baking powder if I want them a Lil raised?..
Xx thankyou!
elviira
Hi, thanks for stumbling across my site! I’m not genius, I just like to do things 🙂
Coconut milk works well instead of cream. You can also add 1 teaspoon baking powder for ensuring better rising, although in my experiments it had hardly any effect. Maybe it works better for you. Happy baking!
Amanda
Ok thank you very much that sounds really good! I was looking through all the recipes and the cinnamon cake caught my eye so even better! I recently started the gluten and sugar free diet and have been trying to find yummy recipes and am so glad I found your blog! Thank you 🙂
elviira
You’re welcome 🙂 I hope you like the cake/muffins!
Amanda
Hi I was wondering if you can substitute almond flour for the coconut flour?
elviira
Hi Amanda, unfortunately almond flour won’t work here because it reacts so in a different way. Coconut flour absorbs huge amounts of fluid (cream and eggs) compared to almond flour. You might want to try my other recipe: https://www.lowcarbsosimple.com/low-carb-cinnamon-bundt-cake/. Just omit the cinnamon and add 1/2 cup (120 ml) blueberries in the end and bake the batter in muffin cups. How does that sound?
Michelle
How many total carbs are in each muffin?
elviira
Good question! Have to find a way to calculate it. The program I use to calculate the nutritional info gives just net carbs.
Alexandra
I love how incredibly tender these muffins look, and all of those bright blue blueberries in them are gorgeous!
I also love the looks of those whoopie pies… what a creative twist on the recipe!
elviira
Thanks, Alexandra, for your nice comment!
Tara
Mmmmm. I made these this morning. I think they are *delicious*. And I have already eaten three of them. Oops. Thanks for the recipe! I’m sure I’ll make these regularly in the future!
elviira
Hi Tara, thanks for giving them a try 🙂 I’m glad you liked them!
Megan
I cannot wait to do these!!! (dairy free version)
also I think I own the same muffin liners!
Twins!
elviira
Megan, hope you like them 🙂 If you try them, please let me know how they turned out!
Becki
Would you sub 1/3 cup granulated Splenda? Has anyone tried liquid sweetener? Do you think it would work??
elviira
Becki, I think 1/3 cup Splenda makes the muffins too sweet. As far as I have understood the sweetness is 1:1 with sugar. Erythritol is 60–70% as sweet as sugar. I guess 1/4 cup Splenda would be enough.
I have tried to sweeten the muffins with liquid stevia (20 drops unflavored + 20 drops vanilla stevia). The muffins turned out fine, however the texture was a bit spongy. I guess baking powder might help improve the texture.