I love baking homemade cinnamon muffins, which always fills our house with the lovely, nostalgic aroma of this traditional, warm spice. So, I've been
collecting and trying out low carb, keto-friendly cinnamon muffin recipes that
fit my healthy, ketogenic approach to eating.
The recipes I'm sharing produce scrumptious sugar free cinnamon muffins that
the whole family will enjoy, especially if they are trying to reduce or
eliminate grains or sugar and other sweeteners that can spike their blood
sugar levels and be harmful to their health in potentially more serious
ways.
Any of these cinnamon muffins can be paired with a cup of hot tea, coffee, or
cocoa, or a glass of cold, unsweetened vanilla almond milk or macadamia milk
for a guilt-free, wholesome, low carb treat for breakfast, dessert, or a
healthy, nutritious, and delicious snack.
I am also sharing my product review of BochaSweet Keto Cinnamon Muffin Mix,
which makes excellent low carb muffins in practically no time when mixed with
just two ingredients: eggs and melted butter (or coconut oil).
Bon appétit!
The Best Low Carb Keto Cinnamon Muffin Recipes
I have hand picked the following recipes based on their flavor, texture,
calories, net carbs, and other aspects of their nutritional profile that make
them good choices for people who love baked goods and follow a low carb or
keto diet, or who just want to reduce or eliminate sugar from their diets as
part of a healthier lifestyle.
The keto cinnamon muffin recipes I've chosen to feature also can
accommodate a range of common dietary restrictions. Most of them are low carb,
sugar free, gluten free, grain free, and diabetic friendly. Two are also dairy
free, and many of the others can be used to make dairy free muffins by
replacing the butter with coconut oil. One of those is vegan. The other
suggests substituting sunflower seed meal (aka sunflower seed flour) for the almond meal or almond flour
for a nut-free cinnamon muffin recipe option.
Replacing almond flour or meal with sunflower seed flour or meal works well in
many low carb or keto baking recipes, and for someone with nut allergies, it's well worth experimenting with. (You might need to use a bit more than the specified amount of almond flour.)
If you are making these treats for someone who has dietary requirements other
than, or in addition to, following a low carb or keto diet, be sure to review
the ingredients for each recipe to ensure that it will fit that person's
specific dietary restrictions.
Maya Krampf developed the recipe for these yummy low carb keto cinnamon cream
cheese muffins for her deservedly popular Wholesome Yum low carb and
keto website. She is also the author of one of my favorite low carb cookbooks,
The Wholesome Yum Easy Keto Cookbook: 100 Simple Low Carb Recipes. 10
Ingredients or Less.
A sweet vanilla cream cheese filling makes her low carb keto cinnamon cream
cheese muffins like a cross between a coffee cake muffin with cinnamon
streusel and a cheese danish pastry. I always make sure to warm these up
before eating them (or sharing them with my husband, who also enjoys them), so
the creamy filling returns to its slightly runny, just-out-of-the-oven
state.
The batter and cream cheese filling are sweetened with Maya's
granulated/crystallized
Besti monk fruit allulose sweetener blend. She says you could substitute allulose, or granulated erythritol for the
batter and powdered erythritol for the filling, if you wanted to. The cinnamon
streusel topping is sweetened with her
Besti Brown monk fruit allulose sweetener blend, and she says she hasn't found another healthy, keto-friendly brown sugar
substitute that works well in this recipe.
Compare the macros for Maya's Keto Cinnamon Cream Cheese Muffins, at 4.8g net
carbs each, with those for Winchell's Donut House Cream Cheese Muffins
(the most similar commercial muffin I could find nutrition data for), at a
whopping 81g net carbs!
|
Nutrition Facts
|
|
Keto Cinnamon Cream Cheese Muffins
(Wholesome Yum)
|
Winchell's Donut House Cream Cheese Muffins
(source)
|
| Serving Size: 1 muffin |
|
|
| Calories |
318 |
610 |
| Total Fat |
29.3g |
27g |
| Total Carbohydrate |
8.7g |
82g |
| Net Carbs |
4.8g |
81g |
|
| Dietary Fiber |
3.9g |
1g |
| Sugars |
1.8g |
56g |
| Protein |
9.3g |
9g |
Recipe Notes:
As of this writing, these sweeteners are not yet available on Amazon.ca.
However, you can order Besti sweeteners on Wholesome Yum Foods and have them shipped to Canada (although the shipping obviously will
be higher). If you live in a country other than the U.S. and Canada and would
like to be able to order these products, Wholesome Yum plans to expand its
distribution internationally, based on demand. To express your interest, you
can sign up to be notified when Besti sweeteners will become available in your
country.
Like any coffee cake worthy of the name, these tempting keto coffee cake
muffins from Carolyn Ketchum have a grain-free, sugar-free cinnamon crumb
topping, as well as an optional sweet vanilla glaze drizzle. Carolyn is the writer and fabulous recipe developer for another extremely popular low carb
recipe blog and website, All Day I Dream About Food, another of my
go-to resources for consistently excellent keto recipes.
She says these keto coffee cake muffins are "better and healthier than any
bakery option!" For me, that's a bit of a stretch. (Even though my taste buds
have adapted to enjoy the baked goods from the best keto baking recipes, which
definitely includes Carolyn's, I have never eaten keto baked goods that have a
better taste and texture than their flour- and sugar-laden counterparts from a
good bakery.) That said, this recipe produces wonderful, bakery-style low carb
muffins that have an unusually moist and tender crumb (for keto-friendly baked
goods), thanks to the use of both almond flour and coconut flour, as well as
unflavored whey protein powder that helps them rise properly, since there is
no gluten in the grain-free batter. The cinnamon streusel topping and optional
vanilla glaze also add to their bakery muffin taste and texture.
The recipe calls for Swerve Brown sweetener for the crumb topping, granulated
Swerve sweetener for the muffin batter, and powdered Swerve for the vanilla
glaze drizzle.
Compare the huge differences in nutrition between a Keto Coffee Cake Muffin
from
All Day I Dream About Food (3.9 g of net carbs) and a Cinnamon
Coffee Cake Muffin from Krispy Kreme Doughnuts (54 g of net carbs):
|
Nutrition Facts
|
|
Keto Coffee Cake Muffins (All Day I Dream About Food)
|
Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Cinnamon Coffee Cake Muffins
(source)
|
| Serving Size: 1 muffin |
|
|
| Calories |
285 |
450 |
| Total Fat |
24.4g |
23g |
| Total Carbohydrate |
7.6g |
55g |
| Net Carbs |
3.9g |
54g |
| Dietary Fiber |
3.7g |
1g |
| Sugars |
- |
32g |
| Protein |
9.1g |
4g |
Recipe Notes:
Swerve sweeteners are mostly erythritol. If you don't care for the taste of
erythritol, or if it causes you gastric distress, you can check out Carolyn's
Ultimate Guide to Keto Sweeteners Ultimate Guide to Keto Sweeteners on All Day I Dream About Food to find suitable
keto-friendly brown, granulated, and powdered sweetener alternatives.
I have had a long and complicated relationship with Nutella. The first time we
met, it was love at first bite. I fondly remember the blissful decades when we
were together. Sadly, when I started focusing on improving my health and
trying to lose weight, I was forced to accept that my beloved "Nutty," with
its palm oil, sugar, and artificial vanilla flavoring, was just no good for
me. Finally, I found the strength to break up with it, fervently hoping that,
someday, I would find another chocolate hazelnut spread that would be just as
sweet, satisfying, and special, but also would support my commitment to a
healthier lifestyle.
Fortunately, when I began researching low carb and ketogenic diet recipes, I
discovered Carolyn Ketchum's All Day I Dream About Food website,
which includes quite a few Nutella inspired low carb and keto recipes.
Her amazing keto Nutella-stuffed cinnamon muffins hide a sweet surprise—a
rich, creamy chocolate hazelnut filling made with healthier, fresher
ingredients than the popular commercial spread. In this recipe, her sugar free
Nutella filling is made from freshly toasted and husked hazelnuts, hazelnut
oil, dark cocoa powder, heavy cream, keto-friendly sweetener, and pure vanilla
extract.
These luscious keto cinnamon muffins are sweet and rich enough to enjoy for
dessert. Served with a cup of fresh, hot coffee, they also make a truly
decadent breakfast.
The most comparable muffins I could find (from a reliable source I trust) for
a nutritional comparison were the Nutella-Stuffed Cinnamon Sugar Muffins from Sally's Baking Addiction, which have a cinnamon-sugar topping instead of Carolyn's streusel crumb
topping and vanilla glaze drizzle.
Compare the calories, net carbs, fat, fiber, and protein in these indulgent
yet low carb, keto-friendly Nutella-Stuffed Cinnamon Muffins from
All Day I Dream About Food to the wonderful Nutella-Stuffed
Cinnamon Sugar Muffins on Sally's Baking Addiction.
|
Nutrition Facts
|
|
Nutella-Stuffed Cinnamon Muffins (All Day I Dream About Food)
|
Nutella-Stuffed Cinnamon Sugar Muffins (Sally's Baking Addiction) (source)
|
| Serving Size: 1 muffin |
|
|
| Calories |
310 |
450 |
| Total Fat |
29g |
23g |
| Total Carbohydrate |
8g |
55g |
| Net Carbs |
4g |
54g |
| Dietary Fiber |
4g |
1g |
| Sugars |
- |
32g |
| Protein |
10g |
4g |
Recipe Notes:
In the comments, Carolyn Ketchum explains how she toasts and husks the
hazelnuts. Toast the nuts in a preheated 350 °F oven for 8 to 10 minutes, take
them out, and let them cool for 5 to 10 minutes. Then roll them between your
fingers while still warm and most of the husks will come off easily. Don’t
worry about a few stubborn bits of husk; they won’t matter after you grind the
hazelnuts.
In my experience, nuts can go from nicely toasted to burned very quickly. I
toast mine on a rimmed baking sheet, so I can give it a shake every few
minutes without the nuts falling off the pan, and keep a close eye on them
until I remove them from the oven. I let them cool for only 3 or 4 minutes,
and then rub the toasted nuts briskly inside a clean kitchen towel to loosen
the husks. I find that they loosen more easily when they are quite warm, and
the towel protects my fingers from the heat.
Note to low carb baking enthusiasts:
In addition to being the driving force behind
All Day I Dream About Food, Carolyn Ketchum has written eight keto cookbooks (as of this writing). I highly recommend the two I have purchased so
far, the Keto For Two Cookbook (e-book) and
The Ultimate Guide to Keto Baking: Master All the Best Tricks for Low-Carb Baking Success, which I consider my keto baking "bible" and a must-have for anyone who
wants to understand the chemistry and techniques of successful keto baking
recipes (which are fundamentally different than those of successful
conventional baking).
Note to conventional baking enthusiasts:
For many years, Sally McKenny's Sally's Baking Addiction
website and her superb
baking cookbooks have been among my favorite sources for consistently reliable, clearly
written and clearly explained recipes for mouthwatering baked goods made with
conventional ingredients, such as sugar, wheat flour, and cornstarch. So,
although they don't fit within a sugar free, gluten free, or low carb diet, I
recommend her cookbooks and website very highly to anyone who loves to
bake with sugar and other high carb ingredients.
This high protein, low carb cinnamon roll muffins recipe from Arman Liew of
The Big Man's World is quite unusual, since it contains no eggs
and no butter. In fact, this recipe is keto, paleo, vegan, sugar free, gluten
free, grain free, and dairy free.
These almond flour muffins also contain vanilla protein powder to add
sweetness, increase the protein, and help them rise in the absence of gluten,
which creates a lighter texture and a better crumb. Pumpkin purée makes them
moist. Coconut oil provides the fat in the muffin batter, along with your
choice of unsweetened, low carb nut butter or seed butter (Arman suggests
almond butter, peanut butter, sunflower seed butter), which further boosts the
protein, while coconut butter (also called coconut manna) gives the lemony
glaze a luxurious mouthfeel.
It was hard to find a close analog for a nutritional comparison. I finally
chose to compare the impressive macros for these Low Carb Cinnamon Roll
Muffins from The Big Man's World (only 1g of net carbs per
serving) to Starbucks Cinnamon Muffins (41g of net carbs
each).
|
Nutrition Facts
|
|
Low Carb Cinnamon Roll Muffins
(The Big Man's World)
|
Starbucks Cinnamon Muffins
(source)
|
| Serving Size: 1 muffin |
|
|
| Calories |
112 |
350 |
| Total Fat |
9g |
27g |
| Total Carbohydrate |
3g |
42g |
| Net Carbs |
1g |
41g |
|
| Dietary Fiber |
2g |
1g |
| Sugars |
- |
30g |
| Protein |
5g |
5g |
This versatile recipe for gluten free, dairy free, sugar free cinnamon muffins
comes from another of my favorite low-carb food bloggers, Carine Claudepierre,
the writer, recipe developer, food photographer, and videographer at
Sweet As Honey.
Her bakery-style keto cinnamon muffins are dipped into sugar-free
cinnamon sugar while they're still hot, to add a crunchy topping and more
cinnamon flavor. After they have cooled completely, the tops are coated with
icing, made from powdered sugar-free sweetener mixed with just enough
unsweetened almond milk to achieve your preferred consistency.
This recipe is made with equal amounts of almond flour and flaxseed meal (aka flax meal). Flax is a source of many nutrition and health benefits, and flaxseed meal contains very few carbs, so it's great to bake with. Carine recommends using golden flaxseed meal rather than brown flaxseed meal, which would give these baked goods an
unpleasant, bitter aftertaste (and no one wants that!). I prefer Bob's Red Mill organic golden flaxseed meal.
She says she always uses an erythritol and monk fruit sweetener blend, and although the ingredients list says "erythritol," it links to the original Classic White Lakanto Monkfruit Sweetener With Erythritol. The recipe was published in August 2019, three months before the brand introduced its Lakanto Monkfruit Baking Sweetener With Erythritol, which also contains tapioca fiber, chicory root inulin, and cellulose gum and was created specifically as a 1:1 sugar replacement for baking recipes. According to Lakanto, some of its advantages for baked goods recipes are that it "dissolves effortlessly, retains moisture, can control cookie spread, and provides better browning for your desserts." I suspect it would be even better than the Classic White Lakanto for this recipe.
Since I couldn't find any commercial equivalents to these Sweet As Honey Keto
Cinnamon Muffins whose tops are completely covered with icing (2.3 g of net carbs), I'll compare them to the Walmart Bakery Marketside Cinnamon Coffee Cake Muffins with no icing (45g of net carbs):
|
Nutrition Facts
|
|
Keto Cinnamon Muffins
(Sweet As Honey)
|
Walmart Bakery Marketside Cinnamon Coffee Cake Muffins (source) |
| Serving Size: 1 muffin |
|
|
| Calories |
217 |
370 |
| Total Fat |
16.5g |
19g |
| Total Carbohydrate |
5.5g |
46g |
| Net Carbs |
2.3g |
45g |
| Dietary Fiber |
3.2g |
1g |
| Sugars |
0.4 |
26g |
| Protein |
5.3g |
5g |
Recipe Notes:
Carine offers several suggestions for optional mix-ins, if you would like to customize these muffins to suit your personal preference. (Keep in mind that any additional ingredients or substitutions will affect the calories, macros, and other aspects of this recipe's nutritional profile.)
Even though the recipe uses flaxseed meal, she warns against trying to replace the whole eggs with "flax eggs" (flaxseed meal mixed with water), egg white, or another substitute.
She suggests coconut milk as an alternative to almond milk for the glaze. (I'm sure any keto-friendly dairy-free milk would work.)
If you don't need dairy-free muffins, you can use melted butter in place of the coconut oil, if you prefer.
For nut-free low carb cinnamon muffins, you can replace the almond flour with the same amount of sunflower seed flour or meal.
BochaSweet Keto Cinnamon Muffin Mix
If you don't have a lot of time for (or don't enjoy) baking from scratch, you
can still indulge in some delicious, fragrant, freshly baked keto cinnamon
muffins, thanks to
BochaSweet Keto Cinnamon Muffin Mix.
|
|
My most recent batch from BochaSweet Keto Cinnamon Muffin Mix
|
Low Carb Muffins in About 15 Minutes
Preparing these tasty treats couldn't be any faster or easier! Just mix the
contents of one bag of BochaSweet Keto Cinnamon Muffin Mix with 3 whole eggs
and 1/2 cup of melted butter (or coconut oil, for dairy free muffins), portion
the batter into a lightly greased 12-cup cupcake or muffin tin, and bake in a
preheated 425 ℉ oven for 12–14 minutes, until golden brown, and enjoy!
Low carb keto baking recipes often turn out to be dense, coarse, and dry. Not
these delectable muffins! The texture is lighter than I was expecting, which
is great. My first batch was a bit on the dry side, but only because I left
them in the oven a bit too long. (It's hard to tell when the muffins are
"golden brown" when that's the color of the batter to begin with, lol.) So, I
baked my second batch for just 12 minutes, and allowed them to cool a bit
longer before sampling them. This time, the muffins were delightfully moist
and tender! And, both times, not just my kitchen but my whole smelled divine.
High Quality, Wholesome, Healthy Ingredients
I have shared many posts on Review This Reviews about my keto diet weight loss journey that began in May 2019 and enabled me to lose nearly 60 pounds, and my
subsequent decision to continue to follow a very low carb, ketogenic approach
to eating that has made it easy to maintain my new, slim, healthy weight for
more than a year so far. If so, you know that my primary motivation for this
change in diet and lifestyle was getting healthier and lowering my risk of
cancer and other serious diseases. So, although I am somewhat flexible, I try
to make fairly "clean" food choices. And, when I purchase a low carb or keto
baking mix (or prepared baked goods), the first thing I look at is the
ingredients.
BochaSweet Keto Cinnamon Muffin Mix is made with the same high quality,
wholesome, healthy ingredients I use in my homemade keto baking recipes when
I'm making low carb muffins from scratch: almond flour, BochaSweet (kabocha
extract), grass-fed collagen, psyllium husk powder, organic coconut flour,
organic cinnamon, MCT oil powder, baking soda, aluminum-free baking powder,
pink salt, and xanthan gum. The ingredients are non GMO, and the mix contains
no preservatives or additives. (For that reason, the prepared muffins need to
be stored in the refrigerator or freezer.)
I love the fact that this keto cinnamon muffin mix is sweetened with BochaSweet sugar replacement, my favorite zero calorie, zero glycemic sweetener! BochaSweet tastes nearly
identical to cane sugar and (to me and many other happy BochaSweet customers)
has no aftertaste and none of the cooling effect produced by some other keto
friendly sweeteners (such as erythritol). After using this healthy sweetener
every day for about 1.5 years so far (to sweeten my tea, among other things),
I have experienced zero gastric distress or laxative effect from this healthy
sweetener, and most other product reviews I have read from customers who
mention their reactions concur with my experience. The only downside is that
it costs more than most other healthy keto-friendly sweeteners. However, for
me and many other people who are looking for healthier, zero calorie, zero
glycemic sugar alternatives, it's worth paying the higher price for this one,
as well as for products that are sweetened with it.
BochaSweet Keto Cinnamon Muffin Mix was launched in late August, 2020, just as I was finishing up my review of recipes and baking mixes for making Low Carb Muffins & Cupcakes: Treats to Enjoy on a Keto Diet. That meant I wouldn't be able to order, test, and review this new cinnamon muffin mix in time to include it in that review of my favorite keto muffins and cupcakes. In the course of testing the recipes and mixes for that review, I ended up with a freezer full of baked goods and a pantry that was positively overflowing with packaged low carb keto baking mixes. So, it was only recently that I finally ordered a couple of bags of the BochaSweet Keto Cinnamon Muffin Mix to try. Now that I've made these quick and easy, tender, toothsome low carb keto cinnamon muffins, I will definitely update that review to include this yummy, convenient BochaSweet baking mix!
|
Nutrition Facts
|
|
BochaSweet Keto Cinnamon Muffin Mix
|
|
Serving Size:
23g of dry mix |
|
|
| Calories |
60 |
|
| Total Fat |
3g |
|
| Total Carbohydrate |
13g |
|
| Net Carbs |
3g |
|
|
| Dietary Fiber |
4g |
|
| Sugars |
<1g |
|
| Protein |
4g |
|
Product Review Notes:
The company provides this information for the dry mix only. However, you can easily calculate the nutrition data for the prepared muffins by entering the data for the dry mix into a tracking app such as Carb Manager and then creating a recipe entry in the app that will calculate the macros based on the ingredients (12 servings of the dry baking mix, three large eggs, and 1/2 cup of butter or coconut oil).
The net carbs for this BochaSweet Keto Cinnamon Muffin Mix are calculated as follows:13g total carbohydrates - 4g dietary fiber - 6g BochaSweet = 3g net carbs
BochaSweet is the name of the company, its flagship product (BochaSweet sugar
replacement), and the overarching brand for its other products (such as baking
mixes), including those with secondary brands (such as BochaSweet BochaBars
high protein, high fiber bars and and BochaSweet Bocha-Beets nutritional
supplement). For some reason, on the brand's logotype, the words Bocha and
Sweet are separated by a space, which likely explains why it is often
misspelled "Bocha Sweet" (occasionally, you'll even see an Amazon product
listing for a "Bocha Sweet" product).
Recipes and Product Review: The Best Low Carb Keto Cinnamon
Muffins by Margaret Schindel
Posts About My Keto Diet Journey
My First Year on The Keto Diet
Preparing to Succeed on the Keto Diet, Part One
Preparing to Succeed on the Keto Diet, Part Two
Low Carb Muffins & Cupcakes: Treats to Enjoy on a Keto Diet
Low Carb Keto Chocolate Yogurt Granola Chip Pudding Recipe
Good Dee’s Keto Cookie Low Carb Baking Mix Review
Hamama Microgreens Growing Kit Review & Success Tips
My Favorite Hamama Microgreens Seed Quilt Accessories
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The Ultimate Keto Hot Chocolate Recipe
The Best Low Carb Keto Gift Ideas: Keto Gift Guide
The Best Low Carb Keto Cinnamon Muffins
Wholesome Yum Keto Bread Mix and Yeast Bread Recipe
The Good Chocolate 100% Organic No Sugar Dark Chocolate Review
The Best Advice to Maintain Your Keto Diet Weight Loss
My New Irresistibly Delicious Keto Cheese Crackers Recipe
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My Personal Keto Testimonial
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