Ever since the end of the 18th century, American style muffins have been the perfect excuse to have something sweet and cakey for breakfast. It all began with simple ingredients like sugar and flour to make a quick sweet bread, then they started adding sweet treats like fruit and chocolate or savory foods like bacon, cheese, and herbs.
The result is a delicious breakfast that everyone loves, but the flour and other carb-rich ingredients make them into a low carb keto dieters nightmare. The good news is that muffins don’t have to be this way.
Now, you can make keto muffins with pretty much any flavor that you like. Just make sure you are using keto-friendly flour alternatives and other low carb ingredients when making them, and they will be the perfect addition to your low-carb or ketogenic diet.
To get you started, here are our ten favorite keto muffin recipes. Some are sweet, some are savory, and some are a bit of both. Make a batch of your favorites and have them throughout the week as a quick and delicious breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack, or dessert.
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Keto Breakfast Brownie Muffins
Pumpkin isn’t just for fall inspired recipes, it can also be added to baked goods to give them some extra moisture and fiber. Th...
Keto Lemon Poppyseed Muffins
If you love the taste of lemon and poppy like I do, then you'll be an instant fan of these keto muffins. They're so fast and easy ...
Cinnamon Sugar Donut Muffins
I had a huge craving for something that tasted like Fall last night, and these definitely came through. As one of the softest and ...
Pistachio and Pumpkin Chocolate Muffins
Awww yeah - I have some news! I'm so excited this week to announce that our first cookbook, Cooking by the RULED Book has finally ...
Keto French Toast Muffins
Come on, just admit it. You haven't had french toast in a while and you want it now. This is the perfect excuse to get that cinnam...
Maple Sausage Pancake Muffins
When it comes to making and cooking breakfast on a ketogenic diet, we often think of many different recipes including bacon and eg...
Keto Cheeseburger Muffins
I came across this idea searching for new recipes to put into the Keto-fied Super Bowl line-up. Of all places, it was Campbell's S...
Bacon Avocado Muffins
When you think of muffins you generally reminisce on the overly sweet, sugar-laden pastries you can buy in the coffee shop. You do...
Bacon Crusted Frittata Muffins
These are one of my favorite things to cook; they're easy, pretty fast, and they save extremely well. Cook them in bulk and then y...
Mini Pumpkin Spice Muffins
In less than half an hour, you can have a generous batch of mini pumpkin spice muffins. This is a great quick breakfast or snack. ...
Keto Breakfast Brownie Muffins
Yes, you can have brownies for breakfast. Besides, it is technically a keto muffin anyway, so feel free to indulge. They have no sugar, no processed ingredients, are full of flavor, and have a whole host of health benefits.
The one ingredient that steals the show, in my opinion, is the cocoa powder.
Not only does it gives these keto brownie muffins that chocolate flavor that many of us love so much, but it also has many beneficial effects on our health.
Here’s a quick overview of what the research has found so far about cocoa:
- It can help decrease stress and anxiety by promoting serotonin production which is a calming neurotransmitter.
- The flavanols in cocoa powder have been found to help reduce insulin resistance and increase insulin sensitivity in healthy subjects and in people with high blood pressure.
- It has been found to reduce systolic blood pressure in healthy subjects as well as in young and elderly patients with high blood pressure.
- The antioxidants in cocoa help reduce oxidative stress, preventing diseases like cardiovascular disease, neurodegenerative disease, diabetes, and cancer.
And this is only what the research says about cocoa powder. There are many other ingredients in these keto brownie muffins, like golden flaxseed meal, eggs, and cinnamon (more on these later), that make them even healthier. This is why you can’t go wrong when you have brownies for breakfast — just make sure they are keto brownies like these.
Keto Lemon Poppyseed Muffins
If you love the taste of lemon and poppy like I do, then you’ll be an instant fan of these muffins. Even though they are sugar-free and keto-friendly, they have just the right amount of sweetness to go wonderfully with the citrus and poppyseed flavors.
Plus, with this keto muffin, you’ll be getting a healthy dose of vitamin C, β-carotene, flavonoids, limonoids, folic acid, and dietary fiber from the lemon juice and lemon zest. The combination of these nutrients is the reason why citrus fruit consumption is associated with a reduced risk of degenerative diseases like heart disease, cancer, and Alzheimer’s disease.
To provide you with the perfect low-carb delivery mechanism for the citrus, poppyseeds, and sweetness, you’ll be using almond flour and golden flaxseed meal. Each one of these keto flours will provide you with vitamins, minerals, and plenty of fiber to help improve your gut health and cholesterol and blood sugar levels.
When you put all of these ingredients together, you’ll end up with a delicious lemon poppyseed keto muffin that can be stored in the freezer and popped in the microwave whenever you want a quick breakfast or snack. If you want a little extra sweetness and fat, feel free to whip up a quick cream cheese frosting and have it for dessert.
Cinnamon Sugar Donut Muffins
These really stand up to their name. They are one of the softest and most moist muffins that’ll find on keto with a texture that emulates a fresh donut almost identically.
The secret to their soft cakey texture lies in the combination of butter, heavy cream, and psyllium husk powder.
The butter and heavy cream add the perfect amount of fat and moisture, while the psyllium husk powder holds on to the moisture and gives the muffins some sturdiness.
After you indulge in these muffins, the fiber from the psyllium husk powder will go to work in your digestive system, feeding the good bacteria and improving your gut health. Meanwhile, the healthy fats, minerals, and fat-soluble vitamins found in butter and heavy cream will improve bone health and overall metabolic health.
As an added bonus, you’ll also be getting a massive dose of antioxidants from the nutmeg, allspice, clove, ginger, and cinnamon that you will be using to add some more flavor to these marvelous muffins.
From the texture to the flavor to the health benefits, these muffins have it all. In fact, they are so good that people who aren’t on keto may finish them before you do.
Pistachio and Pumpkin Chocolate Muffins
Weird combination of ingredients, right? But don’t disregard these keto muffins before you try them.
They have the perfect combination of chocolate, nuttiness, and fall spices that may turn these into your new favorite breakfast.
What’s even better is that these are one of the most nutrient and antioxidant-dense muffins out of all the low-carb muffins I’ve tried.
The pumpkin puree will help you meet your daily requirements for vitamin A — a vitamin that is essential for skin, bone, and eye health. The eggs will provide you with a significant amount of thirteen essential vitamins and minerals and eye-protecting antioxidants like lutein and zeaxanthin. From the eggs, you will also be getting an excellent source of choline, a vitamin-like nutrient that’s important for liver function, normal brain development, nerve function, and maintaining a healthy metabolism.
And the health benefits of these low-carb muffins don’t stop there. The pistachios will provide your body with an excellent source of amino acids, fiber, healthy fats, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants — some of which you may not be getting enough of from other food sources.
Altogether, the pumpkin, pistachios, eggs, and other keto ingredients in these muffins give them such potent health benefits and flavors that I encourage you to try them for yourself at least once.
Keto French Toast Muffins
At first, you may be skeptical. A carb-loaded french toast muffin seems like no easy task in itself, but a low-carb keto muffin that tastes like french toast? Is that really possible?
Try this recipe out for yourself, and you’ll soon realize that you can get all of your favorite french toast flavors in one keto muffin.
From a nutritional perspective, these muffins are a great way to get more healthy fats, antioxidants, vitamins, minerals in your keto diet.
Not only will you be getting a good portion of nutrient-dense eggs with these muffins, but you’ll be having all of the health-promoting goodness of peanut butter and coconut oil as well. More specifically, The peanut butter will provide you with extra vitamin E, B vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and heart-healthy monounsaturated fats, while the coconut oil will give you some ketone-boosting medium chain triglycerides (MCTs).
If these keto muffins still aren’t packed with enough nutrition for you, try having them with some low-carb berries and/or homemade keto maple syrup. Either way, these french toast muffins will be exactly what you’ve been looking for to start your morning.
Maple Sausage Pancake Muffins
Let’s move on to a muffin that is a bit more savory. These keto muffins have a lot of the same flavors as the french toast muffins, but with the extra addition of ground sausage.
Not sure how you feel about this? Think of what it is like to have pancakes with a side of savory sausage — you take a bite of the pancake, followed by a bit sausage, and the savory and sweetness dance together in your mouth to provide you with the perfect start to your morning. This muffin is exactly like that, but in a personal cake-like package.
Perhaps the best part about these muffins is that you can start your morning off with a healthy dose of eggs, sausage, and fiber to fill you up and make you feel energized throughout your day. Whether your sausage is made of pork, beef, chicken, or turkey, it will provide you with a significant amount of creatine, taurine, and glutathione — all of which are compounds that are essential for health enhancement and disease prevention.
The protein from the sausage will also help you feel fuller longer and maintain your strength and muscle mass, while the other ingredients like keto maple syrup and coconut milk will give you some extra MCTs for an energy and ketone boost.
Altogether, these keto muffins are perfect for you if you want something that is savory and sweet for breakfast. So, when those sweet muffins just aren’t satisfying your appetite, try these low-carb muffins instead.
Keto Cheeseburger Muffins
Now, let’s get completely away from the sweet stuff and go full savory on this one. These keto cheeseburger muffins are exactly what you’d expect — all your favorite cheeseburger ingredients, but instead of a bun, you’ll have a muffin. Better yet, it’ll be a muffin stuffed with cheese and meat.
The cheese will provide the meltiness that you crave and the protein, minerals, and fat-soluble vitamins that your body needs, while the burger meat gives you plenty of fat and protein to build your body and fuel your cells.
With the ground beef, you will be mixing onion powder, garlic powder, and tomato paste with all of their delicious flavors and powerful health benefits. The garlic powder, in particular, will help your body combat sicknesses like colds and the flu and prevent cognitive decline. On top of that, the tomato paste will help protect against cancer, maintain healthy blood pressure, and reduce blood glucose in people with diabetes.
Keep in mind, however, that you don’t have to stick with these ingredients if you don’t want them. Feel free to make these savory keto muffins with your own with a personal twist.
For example, you can add sausage or chorizo to the beef for extra fats and a different flavor. You can also use non-traditional toppings like avocado and salsa to make a southwestern style burger muffin — the possibilities are endless.
Bacon Avocado Muffins
This is a savory muffin experience like no other. The little chunks of avocado come through as a creamy and delicious change in texture and flavor every few bites. The crunchy bacon and soft, eggy muffin balance everything else out.
Plus, with each piece of avocado, you’ll be getting plenty of heart-healthy monounsaturated fatty acids, fiber, potassium, vitamins, and antioxidants that will help you improve your triglyceride and cholesterol levels, prevent cancer, protect your eyes, and enhance your health.
When you consider this with all of the nutrition you’ll get from the eggs and bacon in these keto muffins, it’ll be hard to pass up the chance to make them.
If you want to add a bit more flavor and healthy fats to your meal, then make some Keto-Approved Ranch Dressing and use it as a dipping sauce. There’s nothing like having a meal with some bacon, avocado, and ranch.
Bacon Crusted Frittata Muffins
What happens if you run out of keto flours like almond flour, flaxseed meal, or coconut flour? Make a frittata muffin. Each one comes with some delicious bacon and cheese in the middle of an egg-based, flour-free mini muffin. This is one of my favorite ways to eat bacon, egg, and cheese in the morning.
The trifecta is a great way to start your health off on the right foot as well. The saturated fats in the bacon and cheese will provide you fat for fuel, while all three foods contain all the amino acids your body needs to ensure optimal health and vitality.
You already know of how awesome eggs are, but did you know that cheese is packed with nutrition as well. An entire cup of milk is used to produce one slice of cheese. This means that it is packed with vitamins like B12, riboflavin, vitamin A, and vitamin K2 and minerals like selenium, zinc, calcium, phosphorus, and sodium. Cheese also provides us with a healthy dose of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), which has several health benefits and may promote weight loss in overweight individuals.
To put it more succinctly, you can’t go wrong by having bacon, egg, and cheese for breakfast. If you need more fat and protein with your meal, feel free to add a little extra cheese on top.
Mini Pumpkin Spice Muffins
Now, it’s time for some dessert. Put these in the oven while you are eating dinner, and they’ll be ready just in time to give you all of those sweet and savory pumpkin spice flavors right after you finish up.
Their incredible flavor, however, might not be the best thing about these keto muffins. The ingredients that you will be using to make them will provide you with exactly what you need to cap off a good day of keto eating (or start off the day if you’d like to have them for breakfast).
The coconut flour feeds your gut bacteria and slows digestion with its high fiber content. In other words, this will help you extract even more nutrition from the food that you just ate and improve your digestive health at the same time.
All of this sounds great, but this isn’t the ingredient in these keto muffins that will confer the most benefits for you. The real nutritional powerhouse in this recipe is the sunflower seed butter. It is high in protein, full of healthy fats, and loaded with vitamin E and magnesium. The vitamin E will help protect your cells from free radical damage and boost immunity, while the magnesium improves digestion and sleep quality.
Altogether, these keto muffins make a magnificent breakfast or snack and an even better way to finish off your day of low-carb eating. They will satisfy your cravings while the ingredients take your health to the next level.
How To Use These Low Carb Muffins to Meet Your Macronutrient Needs on The Ketogenic Diet
Muffins are the most convenient way to add some quick (and delicious) calories to your daily keto diet. I prefer to cook up a whole batch of muffins every week so that I can reheat them whenever I need a fast meal.
It is crucial to understand, however, that you can’t just eat them without any limitations. Even though they are low-carb, keto-friendly, and healthy, these muffins should always be eaten in the context of your daily calorie goals.
To find out how many calories, fats, protein, and carbs you should eat to get the results you want, plug your information into our keto calculator. This is the simplest way to figure out how these keto muffins will fit into the grand scheme of your keto diet.
We also recommend tracking your calories and carbs for the first couple of weeks, so that you know how much you are actually eating, and if you are eating too much or too little. The easiest way to do this is with a calorie tracking app like MyFitnessPal or Cronometer. We put together a guide on how to use these apps to help you get started with calorie and carb tracking on keto.
Once you know how much you need to eat and how much you are actually eating, use the calorie breakdowns at the end of each keto muffin recipe webpage to guide on how many muffins you should eat.
If the muffins by themselves aren’t enough to help you meet your macronutrient needs, there are plenty of things add to them to customize them specifically for you.
If you want to add more fat:
For sweeter muffins, top them with one of the following options:
- Butter
- Cream cheese
- Mascarpone cheese
- Cream cheese frosting (you can find recipes for high-fat keto frosting, here and here)
- Heavy whipped cream or coconut cream
- Low Carb Blackberry Chipotle Jam
- Thick and Sticky Maple Syrup
- Keto Friendly Bacon Jam
For the more savory muffins, top them with (or dip them in) one of the following options:
- Butter
- Cream cheese
- Mascarpone cheese
- Keto Friendly Bacon Jam
- Keto-Approved Ranch Dressing
- Catalina Style Dressing
- Handcrafted Mayonnaise
If you want to add fat and protein:
For the sweeter muffins:
- Mix crushed high-protein nuts (i.e., peanuts, almonds, and pistachios) into the batter or sprinkle them on top
- Top it with some crushed bacon, low carb candied bacon, or Keto Friendly Bacon Jam
- Top it with high-protein nut or seed butter.
For the more savory muffins:
- Add crushed bacon
- Melt your favorite cheeses on top
Putting it All Together — The Top 10 Keto Friendly Muffins
Muffins don’t have to be unhealthy. All you need are keto-friendly flour(s), eggs, and some other low-carb ingredients, and you will be ready to create a masterpiece of a muffin that tastes good and is good for your health at the same time.
What’s even better is that keto muffins are easy to make in bulk and store away for you to eat throughout the week at any time you like. Just make sure you customize the serving sizes and the toppings/ingredients so that they will help you meet your macronutrient needs and health goals.
For your convenience, here are the links to the ten delicious and healthy keto muffins we went over in this article:
- Keto Breakfast Brownie Muffins
- Keto Lemon Poppyseed Muffins
- Cinnamon Sugar Donut Muffins
- Pistachio and Pumpkin Chocolate Muffins
- Keto French Toast Muffins
- Maple Sausage Pancake Muffins
- Keto Cheeseburger Muffins
- Bacon Avocado Muffins
- Bacon Crusted Frittata Muffins
- Mini Pumpkin Spice Muffins
Feel free to try out these other tasty low-carb muffins (that didn’t make the list) as well:
Sources
- Top 10 Foods for the Ketogenic Diet — Ruled.me
- Muffins: A History — Food Reference
- Chocolate/cocoa and human health: a review — The Netherlands Journal of Medicine
- Oxidative Stress and Neurodegenerative Diseases: A Review of Upstream and Downstream Antioxidant Therapeutic Options — NCBI
- 9 Health Benefits of Pistachios — Healthline
- Oxidative Stress and Neurodegenerative Diseases: A Review of Upstream and Downstream Antioxidant Therapeutic Options — NCBI
- 11 Proven Health Benefits of Garlic — Healthline
- Anti-Oxidative Polyphenolic Compounds of Cocoa. — NCBI
- 12 Proven Health Benefits of Avocado — Healthline
- Tomatoes: Health benefits, facts, and research — Medical News Today
- Cheese 101: Nutrition Facts and Health Benefits — Healthline
- Dietary lignans: physiology and potential for cardiovascular disease risk reduction — NCB
- Vitamin A — Medline Plus
- Anticancer and health protective properties of citrus fruit components — Wiley Online Library
- Facts about monounsaturated fats — Medline Plus
- Chemistry and Biological Activities of Flavonoids: An Overview — Hindawi
- Health Benefits of Methylxanthines in Cacao and Chocolate — MDPI
- Daily cocoa intake reduces the susceptibility of low-density lipoprotein to oxidation as demonstrated in healthy human volunteers — Taylor & Francis Online
- Dark Chocolate — University of Michigan
- Choline: an essential nutrient for public health. — NCBI
- Are eggs healthy? — Examine
- Health Benefits of Nut Consumption — NCBI
- What are the health benefits of pumpkins? — Medical News Today
- Sunflower Seed Butter: the Peanut Butter Alternative with More Benefits! — Dr. Axe
- 16 Nuts and Seeds High in Protein — Health Alicious Ness