Perfect on the go keto breakfast or just a tasty low carb muffin to enjoy with a cup of coffee on a Sunday morning. These keto chocolate strawberry muffins are easy to make and ready when you need a break from your usual bacon and eggs
Muffin or Cupcake? What’s the difference?
It never fails, every time I make a batch of muffins I think to myself am I about to eat cupcakes for breakfast? At least a donut is up front, you know you’re eating dessert for breakfast but a muffin is a bit of a grey area. Sure it’s not as sweet as a cupcake or donut, and yeah it’s not covered in frosting or a glaze but who are we kidding. Now that I’ve basically tried to talk you out of making this recipe that I worked so hard on let’s get started. “I’d make a horrible car salesmen so please for the love of god support this blog”
Muffins in my opinion are breakfast treats and no they’re not as sweet as some other breakfast baked goods so I guess a few of these keto muffins from time to time aren’t a bad idea. Actually for people coming from the standard American diet these muffins may be a great way to get away from traditional sugary breakfast pastries and pancakes. I often forget that everyone is at a different place in there keto journey and I’ll be the first to admit I wish I had this recipe 3 years ago when I first started eating low carb. At the end of the day we all have to make our own choices about the foods we eat. I will say that I would much rather have my niece and nephew eating these muffins rather than a bowl of lucky charms or other sugary cereals.
Blogger Problems
After I snapped the pics for this blog I sat down with my Lukewarm coffee and smeared a nice dollop of butter on each half and chowed down. Admittedly I don’t eat breakfast most weekdays but every once in a while it’s a nice treat. The muffins were perfectly moist without crumbling apart and the fresh strawberries were a fantastic contrast to the slightly bitter cocoa powder. Using ricotta in baked goods also helps the muffins texture keeping it light and tender with a beautiful outer crust. Add a pat of butter and some sugar free strawberry jam and this is one decadent breakfast treat.
What’s the best way to store these muffins??
If you’re a single guy like me that’s not going to eat 12 muffins in a week. Or sharing them with the neighbors you’ll need to come up with a game plan.
Storing the muffins in a airtight container in the fridge will give you a shelf life of 5-7 days. You can also wrap them in parchment paper. Then store in an airtight container for up to 8 weeks without freezer burn setting in. I tend to keep half of the muffin fresh and freeze the rest of them wrapping the muffins in pairs. You can pull the muffins out of the freezer and thaw them in the fridge. Or you can microwave the muffins for about a minute still wrapped in parchment paper to thaw them quickly.
If your packing these Togo you can always grab a pack of frozen muffins. Let them thaw at room temp at your desk or in your bag. By mid day the muffins should be good to go.
Could you turn these muffins into cupcakes??
Sure, instead of using a quarter ¼ cup of erythritol you would double the amount and even a few drops of liquid stevia to the mix. You can make a quick cream cheese frosting to top the “muffins” or cupcakes and as far as the flavors of frosting that’s up to you There are all sorts of flavored glycerin extracts from companies like OOO FLAVORS or you could mix in some fresh strawberries to the frosting. Another route would be to drizzle melted dark chocolate over the top. Then dust with confectioners erythritol and a slice of fresh strawberry. That would probably be the direction I go if you’re interested in my opinion. All of these options would be tasty and a perfect topping for a keto dessert.
Can I use another sweetener of leave out the cocoa powder??
I always say it’s your keto world and I’m just blogging in it. Every recipe I write is just a road map, there’s always an alternative route to flavorville, “Apparently flavortown is taken by Guy”. If erythritol is not your preferred low carb sweetener you can always substitute monk fruit or liquid stevia. You’ll have to play around a bit with amount of liquid stevia and if I may recommend a brand Sweetleaf english toffee or vanilla cream are my absolute favorite flavors that I use them in my coffee every morning.
If you aren’t feeling the cocoa powder feel free to just omit that ingredient and proceed as normal. I was on the fence about the cocoa but I wanted to add a depth of flavor to the muffins. Also to stand out from the multitude of gluten-free muffin recipes on Pinterest.
Real Mexican Vanilla
Finally I want to talk about the beautiful Mexican Vanilla that was given to me from one of the nicest and most inspirational people I’ve met in the keto community. Chela, better known by her instagram handle @foodieturnedsleevie recently visited family in Puebla Mexico. She was so kind to grab me a bottle of real deal vanilla extract from a local market. Then ran the risk of having it explode in her luggage on the flight home. All to send it to me so I could make some cool recipes.
Well Chela, I hope my keto muffin recipe does this fantastic vanilla justice. I’m already planning my next recipe to use it again. Check out her adventures in Puebla Mexico and subscribe to her channel.
Additional Equipment:
Sheet Pan
Silicone Muffin Pan
Mixing Bowls
Measuring Scoop
Parchment Paper Sheets
Spatula
Ingredients
- 2 cups Almond Flour
- 4 eggs
- ¾ cup Strawberries fresh diced
- ⅓ cup Ricotta whole milk version
- ⅓ cup Erythritol
- ¼ cup Butter ½ stick
- ¼ cup Heavy Cream
- 3 tbsp Cocoa Powder
- 3 tsp Vanilla Bean Extract
- 2 tsp Baking Powder
Instructions
- Whisk together dry ingredients in a large bowl then add remaining wet ingredients. combine to form a wet muffin batter.
- Chop strawberries and gently fold them into the batter mixture. This will keep the strawberries from breaking down to much during the mixing process
- Spray a nonstick silicone muffin pan (Link in Blog) and place on top of a ½ sheet pan before spooning mixture out into 12 even portions. You shouldn’t fill any of the muffins past the ¾ mark of the container or they will rise out of the pan forming one giant muffin.
- Bake at 350 Degrees F. for about 25 minute until they are fully cooked. Stab a muffin with a toothpick and if it comes out dry your muffins are done.
- Let muffins cool for 30 minutes before gently removing them.
Leave a Reply