A very easy recipe for keto chocolate chip muffins, made with almond flour and sweetened with stevia. The perfect keto weekend breakfast!
I am very guilty of having these muffins for breakfast EVERY SINGLE DAY for the past two weeks. You see, I had no choice! I had to experiment in order to achieve perfection. 😂
And I’ve achieved it! These muffins are SO GOOD.And filling! I have two of them for breakfast with a mug of coffee and I’m good for several hours. (The same is true for this wonderful chocolate chip cake, by the way).
Keto chocolate chip muffins ingredients
You’ll only need a few simple ingredients to make these tasty muffins. The exact measurements are included in the recipe card below. Here’s an overview of what you’ll need:
Eggs: I use large eggs in most of my recipes.
Sour cream: Plain full-fat Greek yogurt also works.
Vanilla extract: Try to use the real thing – pure vanilla extract – and not the artificially flavored stuff.
Sweetener: I use stevia. See my comments below about substitutions.
Almond flour: A wonderful flour substitute that bakes exceptionally well. I use blanched finely ground almond flour and don’t recommend using a coarse almond meal in this recipe. There’s a big difference.
Sea salt and baking soda: If you’d like to try using baking powder (though I haven’t tested it in this recipe), remember that 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda is equivalent to 1 teaspoon of baking powder.
Mini dark chocolate chips: The darker you can go (and still enjoy them) the better.
How to make keto chocolate chip muffins
It’s so easy! Scroll down to the recipe card for the detailed instructions. Here are the basic steps:
Whisk the ingredients (except for the chocolate chips) by hand, in the order listed, starting with the liquid ingredients.
Fold in the chocolate chips, reserving 1/2 oz. You’ll use those to top the muffins.
Divide the batter between greased foil liners. Scatter the remaining chocolate chip on top.
Bake them until puffed and set and a toothpick inserted in one of them comes out dry. This should take about 20 minutes at 325°F.
Can I use a different sweetener?
I use stevia to sweeten these keto chocolate chip muffins. I really like stevia glycerite. The thick glycerin base nearly eliminates the bitter aftertaste typical to other stevia products.
I only tested these muffins with stevia, but if you’d like to experiment with other sweeteners, the amount of stevia I use equals 1/2 cup of sugar.
It’s best to measure the almond flour by weight
For best results, it’s best to measure the almond flour by weight and not by volume. This is always true when baking, and I find it’s especially true when baking with almond flour and coconut flour.
How to ensure the baking soda is activated
This keto chocolate chip muffins recipe relies on baking soda to make the muffins rise. To ensure your muffins do rise, here are three important tips:
1. The sour cream is not optional. Its acidity is needed to activate the baking soda. You could perhaps substitute full-fat Greek yogurt for the sour cream (it’s acidic too), but I haven’t tried that.
2. Please make sure that the chocolate chips you use are made with cacao that was not treated with alkali (it should state so on the ingredients list if it was). Alkali-treated chocolate is not acidic, and again, the acidity is needed here for the baking soda to work properly.
3. This probably goes without saying, but make sure your baking soda is fresh. It should last for a long time – about three years – but I replace it every 6 months. It’s also a good idea, once opened, to store the box in an airtight container, so that it doesn’t absorb odors.
Why I use mini chocolate chips
Big, heavy chocolate chips pose a risk of sinking to the bottom of baked goods, especially almond flour baked goods. So I prefer to use mini chocolate chips in this recipe.
Using mini chocolate chips also enables me to use a little less than I normally would. So I can use the real stuff (I don’t like stevia-sweetened chocolate chips) while still keeping these chocolate chip muffins keto and low carb.
It’s best to use foil liners
It’s been my experience that greased foil liners work best in this recipe. There’s more of a sticking issue when using paper liners, even greased ones.
I know that some worry about aluminum foil touching their food, so if you prefer paper liners, it should be okay. They might stick slightly to the liners, but it’s not too bad. But foil liners do work better. Another option might be silicone baking cups, if you’re not opposed to those, although I haven’t tried this option myself.
They won’t brown as much as regular muffins
These keto chocolate chip muffins have two things going against browning. They’re made with almond flour, which doesn’t brown as easily as wheat flour.
And they are sweetened with stevia, so they don’t have sugar or honey to promote browning. They do become golden-brown at the very last stage of baking.
In my oven, I bake them for exactly 24 minutes. They’re actually done after 22 minutes according to the toothpick test, but I leave them in the oven for a couple more minutes.
This allows them to brown without drying them out. But I wouldn’t bake these muffins for longer than 25 minutes, or they could really dry out.
What about leftovers?
These keto chocolate chip muffins are excellent when freshly baked. Once completely cooled, keep leftovers in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 5 days. Gently warm them in the microwave before enjoying – 10 seconds per muffin on 50% power.
You can also successfully freeze these muffins in freezer bags. I take two of them out of the freezer the night before and place in the fridge, then gently reheat in the microwave the next morning.
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Keto Chocolate Chip Muffins
INGREDIENTS
- 3 large eggs
- 1 cup sour cream
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 teaspoon stevia glycerite (equals 1/2 cup sugar)
- 2 cups blanched finely ground almond flour (8 oz)
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda (make sure it’s fresh)
- 1/3 cup mini dark chocolate chips (2 oz), divided
INSTRUCTIONS
- Preheat your oven to 325 degrees F. Line a muffin pan with 12 foil liners and grease the liners.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, sour cream, vanilla, and stevia.
- Mix in the almond flour, whisking until the batter is smooth and free of lumps.
- Mix in the sea salt and the baking soda. Then fold the chocolate chips in, reserving about ½ oz of them to scatter on top of the muffins.
- Using an ice cream scoop, divide the batter evenly among the muffin liners. Scatter the reserved chocolate chips on top.
- Bake until the top is golden and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 20-25 minutes.
- Cool the muffins in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then serve.
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Vered DeLeeuw, LL.M., CNC, has been following a low-carb real-food diet and blogging about it since 2011. She's a Certified Nutrition Coach (NASM-CNC), has taken courses at the Harvard School of Public Health, and has earned a Nutrition and Healthy Living Certificate from Cornell University. Her work has appeared in several major media outlets, including Healthline, HuffPost, Today, Women's Health, Shape, Reader's Digest, and Better Homes and Gardens.