Grain-free pancakes are transformed into delicious, grab ‘n go low carb muffins. Enter the world of grain-free baking with confidence with this easy pancake muffins recipe to fuel your mornings!
Grain-Free Baking
When you decide to go grain-free, the world becomes a very different place. It becomes a little tougher, a lot more complicated and not nearly so friendly. At least, that’s how it can feel when you start this dietary journey. It’s not easy being grain-free, because grains are everywhere and in everything. You start looking at labels and find yourself continually astonished at the seemingly innocuous foods that actually contain gluten or grains. And all those comfort foods like biscuits and breads and muffins? Forget about it. You’re terrified of even eating a crumb.
Except that if you take a little time and explore the grain-free world, you’ll quickly discover it’s not quite as unfriendly as you think. Okay, so you can’t walk in to too many stores yet and buy grain-free muffins. The world isn’t quite that ready for the grain-free revolution. But if you are willing to make these things yourself, you will find you have more options than you ever dreamed possible. And if you need a little helping hand a little guidance, that’s where a book like Every-Day Grain-Free Baking comes in.
I will be honest and say that I am not completely grain-free myself. I don’t have any sensitivities, so if a little bit of grains sneak into my diet, I am fine with it. But I certainly can’t sit down and eat a slice of grain-based bread or I will pay the price in a glucose spike. So the majority of my cooking and baking, and subsequent eating, is free of grains and I’ve come to love it. It’s not a strange and unfriendly wilderness any longer, but I do remember vividly how uncertain it felt when I first started out. When Kelly Smith of The Nourishing Home asked me to review her new cookbook, it seemed like a good fit for All Day I Dream About Food readers.
Now, Kelly is not low carb per se, although she does steer clear of refined sugars. But there is so much crossover in our lifestyles and grain-free baking is something of an art form. When you see someone with great skills and solid recipes, you know you have a good basis for adapting the recipes to fit your own needs. Kelly was more than happy to allow me to adapt her grain-free pancake muffins recipe to use low carb sweeteners, so I quickly got to work adapting her Grab-n-Go Pancake Muffins recipe. I live a busy life, you live a busy life, we all need easy low carb breakfast recipes, right?
Grab n Go Pancake Muffins
Ingredients
- ½ cup plain whole milk yogurt
- 2 tablespoon unsalted butter or coconut oil melted
- 3 tablespoon Swerve Sweetener or equivalent of choice (more if you like sweet muffins)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- 1 ¾ cup blanched almond flour
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 3 large eggs
- ½ cup frozen blueberries and raspberries
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F and line 8 muffin cups with parchment liners (or grease muffin cups very well).
- Add yogurt, butter, sweetener, vanilla and apple cider vinegar to a blender. Then add almond flour, baking soda, and salt on top. Blend on low for 10 to 15 seconds until combined.
- Add eggs and blend on low for another 15 to 20 seconds, then blend on high for 20 to 30 seconds, until eggs are just incorporated into the batter.
- Add all but 2 tablespoon of the frozen berries to blender and stir in by hand (do not blend!). Divide batter among prepared muffin cups and then place a few remaining berries in the top of each.
- Bake 15 to 18 minutes, until slightly golden brown and a tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove and let cool in pan for a few minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
Saturated fatty acids: 3.61g
Total fat: 17.09g
Calories from fat: 153
Cholesterol: 79mg
Carbohydrate: 7.90g
Total dietary fiber: 3.29g
Protein: 8.28g
Sodium: 218mg
Grain-Free Pancake Muffins Recipe Notes
Word to the wise, grain-free pancake muffins are not meant to be sweet muffins. They are like pancake batter baked in muffin tins, and as such, are delicious spread with butter or drizzled with sugar-free syrup.
You can up the sweetness of the low carb muffins easily to suit your own tastes. I did change one other little item, simply out of sheer laziness, and that was to stir some of the berries right into the batter in the blender. I simply didn’t want to dirty another dish by transferring the batter to another bowl to stir in the berries. I held some of the berries back to press a few into the top of each muffin so they’d look berry bountiful. I think these were a definite win. And a ridiculously easy grain-free recipe, making the world of grain-free a little easier for all of us!
Nancy says
This is my go-to muffin recipe that I can’t get enough of! I love the light, pancake texture. I add a bit more sweetener as I do not use sugar free pancake syrup on them. Thanks for another perfect recipe Carolyn!
Danielle Zimmerman says
Hey Carolyn,
I made this recipe as listed above. I used Kirkland almond flour and Lakanto sugar. I have a dark non stick pan that I use in my large toaster oven (because it’s much easier and doesn’t heat up the whole kitchen). I even let the muffins cool all the way (which I never do because I can’t wait that long). The muffins came out a little flatter on top but otherwise looked great, until I tried to get them out the pan. They crumbled and the blueberries all sank to the bottom (I didn’t use raspberries) and the bottom was soggy. They taste great but are not grab and go. What did I do wrong???
Carolyn says
Sounds like you didn’t have enough flour in them. If the batter is too thin, then the berries will sink to the bottom and that will, of course, make it soggy. Coconut flour is tricky since different brands differ in absorbency.
Danielle Zimmerman says
I didn’t use coconut flour, just almond flour as the recipe calls for.
Carolyn says
Sorry, I was getting this one confused with my blueberry pancake bites! Still sounds like you didn’t have enough flour, or maybe your yogurt was thin (would still need to add a bit more flour!).
Michelle Rensburg says
Being South African, pancakes are a very big part of my Afrikaans heritage, and having to let them go because we’re anti-Teflon has been a real thorn in my side. These look like they may very well be my salvation. I will update my post once I have made them, but you know, Carolyn, I’m sure you are a bona fide genius!
Carolyn says
Is there no other option there for non-stick pans? There are some great “green” pan brands in North America that are ceramic coated… but I know we have more availability of things than you do.
Angelica says
Can you use fresh berries instead of frozen?
Carolyn says
Sure!
janet says
I am also dairy free. What would you suggest in place of the yogurt
Carolyn says
Try coconut cream.
Liz J says
Hi Carolyn,
I made these this morning, I changed was adding some Choc Zero dark chocolate chips, fresh blueberries and raspberry. I also used a 5.5 ounce wild blueberry yogurt and added two more tablespoons of almond flour, so I ended up with 10 muffins, these are soooo good, and I think the coconut oil gave it more moistness. Thanks for these wonderful recipes, super helpful for a DM2 person like me. lol I have a Vitamix that I have owned for over a 5 years, and never thought of using it to make batter. Thanks again for all you do!
Best,
Liz J
Tricia says
Hello! Have you by chance tried this recipe with cream cheese instead of the yogurt? I’m not sure how the extra thickness would affect the muffin quality. I have some in my fridge and thought I’d use it if possible. Thanks for your help!
Carolyn says
I think you would need to let it soften and then add some cream to get it to be the right texture.
Shirl says
These are great. Just wanted to let you know that I saw a recipe at Sugar Free Londonder that looks really really close to this one, just doubled. She published it after you did, and called it GRAB & GO LOW CARB MUFFINS.
Carolyn says
Yep. She did that quite some time ago and it was almost identical. I reached out to her and she credited me. It should have a link to me.. if it doesn’t, then perhaps I should reach out again.
Pam Cockrell says
I used a silicone muffin pan and it took FOREVER for the muffins to cook! Is that normal? Should I not use the silicone pan? Also I looked everywhere for whole milk plain yogurt that didn’t have a sugar count in the nutritional chart. Used what I found but curious to see if all whole milk yogurt has a natural sugar content.
Thanks for another yummy recipe.
Pam Cockrell says
Uh oh!! I just read some of the other comments and realized that I used baking powder not baking soda! My muffins turned out really good but a little dense. Could that have been the difference? Still tasted awesome.
Carolyn says
Yes, that would make a huge difference. For baking powder you need at least 2x if not 3x the amount.
Therese Bartlett says
These are the ONLY thing helping me get the rest of my family on board with keto way of eating. Amazing! I find they take longer to bake in silicone muffin trays so I’ll stick to my (parchment cup lined) metal muffin tin, but we make these regularly and freeze them in individual servings. Such a nice change from all the egg breakfasts. Mmmmm tasty. Thank you!!
Carolyn says
Glad to help. I know how hard it is to get kids to eat keto.
Andrea says
Suggestions on how to substitute fresh berries instead of frozen? Coat them in almond flour?
Carolyn says
You shouldn’t have to do anything, just add them and stir gently.