Extra fudgy and intensely chocolatey, these are not your average gluten free, paleo and keto double chocolate muffins! Whip them up in 30 minutes for an easy and speedy low carb chocolate treat.
Paleo & Keto Double Chocolate Muffins 🍫
Extra Fudgy & Intensely Chocolatey!
Full disclosure: I’ve never been a big fan of chocolate muffins. They’re generally too spongy, more often than not a little dry, and generally not chocolatey enough for my liking. I mean, why have a muffin when you can have a brownie. Or even a cupcake (big buttercream frosting fan over here!).
So when creating a low carb chocolate muffin for you guys, I took a little different route. Think a cross between between a crazy fudgy brownie and a dense Italian almond chocolate cake.
The ultimate inspiration? Our suuuper fudgy keto brownies (easily the most popular recipe on the site).
The Method
You guys will essentially be following our super easy brownie methodology (see video for reference). The ratios are a little different though, and there is some added flax for a more crumb-like texture.
The most important thing though? The baking time! If you like your keto chocolate muffins extra fudgy you’ll want to do 10-13 minutes, for medium fudgy-ness 14-17, and for ‘normal muffin’ texture 18-20 minutes. Varies a little from oven to oven, but these are good guidelines.
Also keep in mind that if you want your muffins fudgy they will sink while cooling. Which in my humble opinion, simply makes them even better vessels for a generous scoop of (no churn!) vanilla ice cream.
Otherwise, if you bake them fully, you’ll get nicely-domed muffins (see picture below). So long story short, adjust the baking time to get the outcome you desire.
The Sweetener 🍯
You’ve got options here. Think xylitol (no aftertaste and gooey texture), Lakanto (barely any aftertaste), and Swerve (some cooling sensation). Xylitol takes (much) longer to dry out though so your muffins will be extra delicate right after baking, so just keep that in mind.
Fun fact: it might also be our taste buds here, but we’ve noticed that stevia-based sweeteners (such as Pyure) don’t work so great when chocolate is involved as the aftertaste is accentuated. So we cannot recommend enough that you don’t use stevia-based sweeteners here.
Oh, and if just paleo or gluten free (or not restricted by sugars), simply sub 1-to-1 with coconut or regular sugar.
And if using xylitol, make sure to be careful if you have a pup around the house, as it’s highly toxic to the little guys! 🐕
The Flours
We like a mixture of super fine almond flour and flaxseed meal best. No xanthan gum is needed here to yield a wonderful and moist crumb (hurray!).
Just keep in mind that for best texture and rise, you’ll always want to regrind your flaxseed meal in a dry blender or bullet.
In terms of brands, for the almond either Anthony’s or WellBees work great. Both are super fine grinds.
The Chocolate 🍫
You’ll want to use a Dutch-processed alkaline cocoa here. As there’s baking powder involved, using cacao won’t give the same results (at all!).
In terms of brands, our favorite will forever be Valrhona, known to be one of (if not the) best cocoas in the world.
p.s. a lightly sprinkle of flakey sea salt works wonders to cut through the chocolate in these guys!
(Ultra Fudgy!) Paleo & Keto Chocolate Muffins
Ingredients
- 48 g almond flour
- 30 g golden flaxseed meal finely ground
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 70 g unsalted grass-fed butter or 4 TBS coconut oil + 1 TBS coconut cream
- 1/3-1/2 cup allulose *xylitol or coconut sugar if paleo (I use 1/2 cup allulose and 1/3 otherwise)
- 40 g cocoa powder **
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon espresso powder or instant coffee (optional)
- 2 eggs at room temperature***
Optional add-ins
- 50-80 g Lily's Sweets dark chocolate bar to taste
- 50-80 g pecans or walnuts
- flakey sea salt to garnish
Serving suggestions
Instructions
- See recipe video for guidance on methodology! These low carb chocolate muffins follow our brownie methodology. Albeit with different ratios and added flaxseed and baking powder.
- Position a rack in the lower third of your oven and preheat to 350°F/180°C. Line or grease and flour a muffin pan, set aside.
- Add almond flour, flaxseed meal and baking powder to a medium bowl. Whisk until thoroughly combined, set aside.
- Add butter (or coconut oil and cream), sweetener, cocoa powder, salt and espresso powder (optional) to a large heatproof bowl. Melt over a water bath whisking constantly (or use the microwave). You'll want to heat it up until most of the sweetener has melted and the mixture is well incorporated. Remove from heat and allow the mixture to cool slightly.
- Add one egg at a time, whisking well after each one until completely incorporated. The texture should appear smooth, with all the sweetener dissolving into the mixture. If you used coconut oil, you want to be sure to mix it particularly well. Add the flour mixture, whisking vigorously until fully blended (about a minute). Fold in chocolate pieces (or pecans) and spoon into prepared muffin pan.
- Bake for 10-13 minutes if you like your keto chocolate muffins extra fudgy (they'll be set, but still jiggly), for medium fudgy-ness 14-17, and for 'normal muffin' texture 18-20 minutes. Varies a little from oven to oven, but these are good guidelines. Always keep in mind, however, that your muffins will continue to cook while cooling!
- Sprinkle with flakey sea salt (optional) and allow to cool for at least 15-20 minutes in the muffin pan. They'll be particularly fragile right out of the oven if you made them fudgy and with xylitol, so you need to let them set.
- Keep stored in an airtight container for 3-4 days. These guys are also best served warm.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve made this recipe. I LOVE it! Thank you Paola!
These are amazing, even better then my non keto recipe. I love all of your recipes. They have made being on keto so much easier. I appreciate all of the hard work you put into your recipes.
Can I use cacao powder instead of cocoa powder?
Hi Karen! I’ve used both and while you can use cacao powder cocoa powder is miles and miles better.
Does anyone know if these freeze well?
they do ruth!
If im not into the diet but would love to try this.. can i use normal all purpose flour? If so, how much is the substitution?
Thanks! Will highly appreciate the help.
If I want to use psyllium husk instead of flaxseed meal, how much do I use?
Thank you 🙂
Can I replace xylitol with Erythritol ? Or there will a change in measurement?
I must be doing something wrong. The reviews on these muffins are so great!! I just made these, but I dont have that sweetener in the recipe, so i used my ‘Great Value Stevia’. Im recently onto keto and i feel like everytime i wanna make a chocolate dessert, the taste is always the same. Weird aftertaste and kinda grainy texture.
It specifically says to avoid stevia brittany 😉
Incredible. These are moist and fudgy. I used coconut oil and coconut cream. I also used xylitol the first batch and Lakanto the second. Both were great but the taste was a bit better with Lakanto surprisingly. They looked better (smoother) with Xylitol though. They just looked a bit more like a muffin with Lakanto and more like the photos with Xylitol. I used ground psyllium because I don’t like the flavour of flax and I didn’t taste anything other than chocolate. I did use the full amount of sweetness with the Lakanto but slightly less with the Xylitol(maybe that’s why Lakanto tasted better?). Doubled the batch both times because 6 is not enough as I freeze them for future treats. They are SO good. I love your recipes Paola. You save my life, repeatedly. Thank you xo
Tried these with psyllium husk instead of flax seed and they look nice! The consistency is great and really muddy. But the taste is not really satisfying. Tastes psyllium husk! Can I cut it by half, or use something more neutral? Like Xanthan gum?
Okay so I decided to make the other day so I would have a snack while we had guests over and before I was done making them I thought to myself am I really going to like chocolate muffins… Maybe I should have made something else and boy was I WRONG! These are AMAZING!!!!! Wow they are moist and fudgy and everything I’d want in a muffins and then some! I added walnuts to mine the first time but I think I may experiment and make these again with some grated zucchini in them to lighten them up? Anyways thanks for sharing the recipe 😀
How do I convert the recipe to cups from grams?
Click on us cups below the ingredients
This is another win. These are fantastic! Keep up the good work!
😉