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!
Annie says
These are awesome Carolyn. Thank you!
Pattie says
Just made a batch of these and they are terrific. Love that the carbs are lower than a lot of low-carb muffin recipes out there. Good amount of protein per muffin too. I agree with your previous comment about not counting the carbs in erythritol. Most low carbers do not. I used foil liners and had no problem with them sticking. They are delicious with some Kerrygold butter on them. Fabulous recipe! Thank you.
Carolyn says
Thanks so much, Pattie!
Katie says
Does the swerve sweetener serve a structural purpose or is it purely for the sweet flavor?
Carolyn says
For sweetness. You can replace it.
Alex says
I made these this morning with extra Erythritol, some liquid stevia and I subbed homemade kefir made with heavy cream for the yoghurt. Also I used almond meal that I grind up from making almond milk. These were amazing. They are as satisfying as the traditional oatmeal buttermilk blueberry muffin recipe I made for years before baking grain free. My kids (who are not grain free) enjoyed them as well. Excellent recipe!!!
Dominique Brown says
These were sooo good. Thanks.
Missy says
I just made these and they were absolutely delicious! Probably the best baked goods I’ve tried that are low carb. Thank you so much for all of your recipes, they are really a life saver. 🙂
Carolyn says
Thanks so much!
Andrea says
These are so delicious, and unlike regular muffins, they taste even better after cooling and refrigeration, which makes them perfect for Grab and Go! I usually just reheat them in the microwave at work. Super easy for my crazy mornings! Thanks so much for sharing your talent in the kitchen with us!
Kathleen W. says
I made these this morning and they are great !
Kelly H. says
SO GOOD! I actually blended the berries completely and it was delicious. Just a suggestion maybe, since I’m currently making everything you upload haha, but is it super hard to also give the actual weight of things, in grams or ounces? Not sure what your process looks like. Since I have GD (just emailed you, hi again!) I weigh everything for every recipe I make to keep scrupulous count of the carbs, so I can connect higher values to what I’m eating and avoid all medications. I mean, like I said, I end up weighing it all, but its amazing how different 1/4 of almond flour measures each time you do it! I often wonder if your stuff tastes a little differently than mine! The frozen berries in this recipe is really what I was thinking of. I bet those measurements can vary a lot! Maybe it doesn’t affect the taste that much and my type A/OCD is showing 🙂
Anyway, loved these! they’re so moist. I love having stuff like this to grab in the mornings.
Sogol says
These are AMAZING. So simple and so delicious! I think these are going to become a weekly staple, with maybe so chocolate chips being added in as well. I used sour cream like some others did above because I always have it handy and I used mixed frozen berries so there were some blackberries and strawberries as well. Divine! Didn’t need any additional sweetener, but I couldn’t say no to some extra butter! Thanks for another winner! 🙂
Carolyn says
I’ve done raspberries and chocolate chips. Those were popular with the kids!
AB says
You need to verify your carb count on this one. I uploaded this recipe into MyFitnessPal and with 8 muffins, they come out to 32 NET CARBS per muffin!
Carolyn says
No, actually I don’t have to. I make it very clear on my blog that I do not count the carbs in erythritol, as they do not raise my blood sugar one little bit. Most low carbers don’t either. Hope that info helps!
Carolyn says
Actually, now that I look at the recipe, it only takes 3 tbsp of Swerve. I know these ingredients do NOT add up to 32 g per muffin so I think either MyFitnessPal has lost its mind or you entered something incorrectly. Believe me…my software (MacGourmet) pulls from the USDA database of nutrition so something is off in your calculations, not in mine. 🙂
AB says
So… this was really bugging me because my family said they were awesome but I decided not to try them. Yet, could NOT figure out how MFP calculated the way it did. 🙁
Dug into it a bit deeper. Lo & behold, the “food” it grabbed when I imported the recipe was listed as 225 grams sugar!!! What!?!??! Let’s just say I quickly fixed that baby!! Whew…
I enjoyed one for breakfast today & am looking forward to “leftovers” tomorrow!
Thanks! 🙂
Carolyn says
yes, I asked about this on Facebook and a reader said that when she imported it, it turned 3 tbsp of Swerve into 3 CONTAINERS (full containers!) of stevia. Not sure what is up but MFP is really not reliable. When you see a big discrepancy like that, be sure to check each individual ingredient.
Barbarainnc says
Can these be made with out a blender?? Just use a spoon to mix them ?? I have seen foil liners, and will look for parchment liners. ? ?
Carolyn says
Yes, they can be. A little more work but it shouldn’t be a problem. Make sure to mix your dry ingredients first, then add the wet ingredients.
Barbarainnc says
Thanks
Anne says
I used an electric hand mixer with no problems. Just dumped everything in sans the berries. Worked – and turned out – great!!
Lorri says
These are super easy and DELICIOUS! Eating some right now. They baked up lighter than I expected. My picky 12 yo is eating one right now. He loves it and said “It doesn’t even need butter!” Thank you for sharing this. I will be making this again. Just a note, I used Greek Yogurt for mine.
Jen says
Made a double batch this morning. Came out delicious. My only issue is that they stuck to the paper liners horribly. I ran out of paper and greased some, and I have to recommend skipping the paper and just greasing. So delicious.
Carolyn says
I always, always recommend the parchment paper liners to avoid this issue. If you want easier clean up, make sure you grab some!
Nicole says
I often grease (spray with coconut oil spray) my liners so they don’t stick as much.
Angela says
Made a batch of these delicious muffins this morning and I have to say it was incredibly hard to stop at only 1. Thanks again Carolyn, for the amazing recipes.
Jill says
I just made a double batch of these. They’re very good! I ended up getting 24 mini muffins and 12 regular muffins out of the double batch. The mini one I tried is slightly dry, but the the flavor awesome. I used 3 T Swerve plus some liquid stevia and did everything else as written. They’ll be great with some butter or cream cheese.
Helena Angelina says
U should say these look amazing Annie AND Carolyn! 🙂
Helena Angelina says
These look incredible Carolyn – the texture and crumb looks amazing! I’ve not seen anything low carb turn out like that. I’ll be giving them a whirl for sure!
Anne L. Texas says
PS about an 1/8 tsp of lemon oil really brings out the flavor
el says
Do these freeze well?
Carolyn says
They should. In my experience, all muffins like this freeze well and I’ve frozen similar ones, although not these in particular.
Anne L. Texas says
Yes! I bake them up and freeze them then set one out in the morning when I get up. When I’m ready..it’s ready!