A very easy recipe for healthy keto chocolate chip muffins, made with almond flour and sweetened with stevia. The perfect keto weekend breakfast!
I am very guilty of having these keto chocolate chip 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. 😀
They’re so good. And unlike sugary wheat flour muffins, these keto chocolate chip muffins actually keep me full until lunch. I have two of them for breakfast with a mug of coffee and I’m good for several hours.
So, are these keto chocolate chip muffins healthy?
Well. It’s not that I recommend eating sweet stuff for breakfast every day. I usually reserve that for the weekend. My standard weekday breakfast is egg muffins, egg sausage muffins or leftover crustless quiche Lorraine. But if you’re going to have something sweet for breakfast, then these healthy keto chocolate chip muffins are probably a better choice than sugar-sweetened wheat flour muffins.
How do you make keto chocolate chip muffins?
I make these keto chocolate chip muffins with almond flour, and I use stevia glycerite to sweeten them. I believe that stevia is safe, and I really like stevia glycerite. The thick glycerin base 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:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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 good, 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 these keto chocolate chip muffins. 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.
These keto chocolate chip muffins 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.
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 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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