What’s better than a delicious keto chocolate muffin? One with a cream cheese center, of course! Add a few melty chocolate chips on top and you’re in low carb breakfast heaven.
Surely you know by now how much I rely on keto muffins to stick with my health goals. I always have some in the fridge or freezer for easy breakfasts or snacks. I have often credited them with keeping me on track because they’re easy, delicious, and store so well. And the flavor variations are endless!
Sometimes it’s fun to jazz them up a little and take them over the top. These Chocolate Cheesecake Muffins have been one of my favorites for quite some time. How can you go wrong with a rich chocolate base and a creamy cheesecake filling?
While they make an excellent breakfast treat, they are also special enough for dessert.
Reader’s Thoughts
“By far my boyfriends favorite keto dessert I make! It’s gone into regular rotation. Currently making a batch and going to try freezing half of them. Thanks so much for this amazing recipe!!” — Jess
Why You Will Love This Recipe
- Bakery-style: These muffins are worthy of any occasion. They look and taste like they came from your favorite bakery!
- Nut-free option: You can swap out the almond flour for sunflower seed flour, for a nut-free keto treat.
- Make-ahead recipe: Make a big batch and store in the freezer for whenever you need a treat.
- Creamy cheesecake: The cheesecake center is ultra-creamy and decadent.
- Low-carb: This recipe is perfect for low carb, keto, and gluten-free diets.
Ingredient Notes
- Cream cheese: You can’t have a cheesecake center without cream cheese!
- Heavy cream: This helps make the filling extra creamy.
- Almond flour: I typically use almond flour, but sunflower seed flour makes a wonderful nut-free version.
- Cocoa powder: Dutch cocoa powder gives these muffins a rich, deep chocolate flavor.
- Protein powder: This gives the muffins better lift and structure.
- Sweetener: I recommend an erythritol based sweetener for the muffin batter. You can use your preferred sweetener in the filling.
- Heavy whipping cream: This is used to thin out the cream cheese filling.
- Liquid: I like to use leftover coffee but water works as well.
- Chocolate chips: Feel free to use your favorite brand of keto chocolate chips.
- Kitchen staples: Eggs, butter, vanilla extract, baking powder and salt.
How to Make This Recipe
- Prepare the filling: Beat the cream cheese with the sweetener until combined. Mix in the cream and vanilla until smooth.
- Combine the dry ingredients: Whisk the almond flour with the sweetener, cocoa powder, protein powder, baking powder, and salt.
- Add the wet ingredients. Add the eggs, melted butter, coffee, and vanilla extract.
- Assemble the muffins: Divide the batter evenly into muffin cups. With the back of a spoon, create a well in the center of each muffin. Divide the cream cheese filling among the wells and sprinkle chocolate chips on top.
- Bake the muffins. Bake until the edges are set and the centers are puffed up. Remove and let cool in the pan.
Tips for Success
I used chocolate protein powder for this recipe, but you can use plain or vanilla instead. If using vanilla, make sure to leave out the added vanilla extract.
A little coffee enhances chocolate flavors, without making them taste like coffee, so I highly recommend. But plain water is a good option too!
Sweetener Options: I recommend erythritol sweeteners for the muffin batter, as allulose can make the muffins overly browned and taste a little burned. If you wish to cut back on the erythritol, you can try one quarter cup, and use some stevia or monk fruit extract for additional sweetness.
For the cheesecake filling, any kind of sweetener works, as long as it is powdered.
Keto Chocolate Cream Cheese Muffins
Ingredients
Cream Cheese Filling
- 6 ounces (170.1 g) cream cheese, softened
- 1/4 cup (47.5 g) powdered sweetener
- 3 tbsp (45 ml) heavy whipping cream
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Chocolate Muffins
- 1 3/4 cups (196 g) almond flour, (can use sunflower seed meal)
- 1/3 cup (63.33 g) sweetener, erythritol based recommended
- 1/4 cup (21.5 g) cocoa powder
- 1/4 cup (27 g) whey protein powder, or egg white protein powder
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 3 large eggs, room temperature
- 1/3 cup (75.67 g) butter, melted
- 1/3 cup (78.86 ml) coffee or water, room temperature
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 tbsp (45.65 g) dark chocolate chips, sugar-free
Instructions
Cream Cheese Filling
- In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese with the sweetener until well combined. Add the cream and vanilla and beat until smooth. Set aside.
Muffins
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF and line a muffin pan with 12 silicone or parchment muffin liners.
- In a large bowl, combine the almond flour, sweetener, cocoa powder, protein powder, baking powder, and salt.
- Add the eggs, butter, coffee, and vanilla extract and stir until well combined.
- Divide the batter evenly among the prepared muffin cups, filling each no more than 2/3 full. With the back of a spoon, create a well in the center of each muffin.
- Divide the cream cheese filling among the wells, adding about 1 1/2 tbsp to each muffin. Sprinkle the tops of the muffins with chocolate chips
- Bake 20 to 25 minutes, until the edges are set and the centers are puffed up. Remove and let cool in the pan (the centers will rise and sink, this is normal).
Notes
Nutrition
Frequently Asked Questions
If you can find a good cream cheese alternative that you like, you certainly can. Replace the butter with avocado oil and the heavy cream with some coconut cream. Be sure to read the label on the dairy-free cream cheese, as many of them contain more carbs.
Because of the cream cheese filling, I recommend storing these muffins in a covered container in the fridge. Eat chilled or room temperature. You can also freeze them for up to 3 months.
This keto chocolate cream cheese muffins recipe has 7g of carbs and 3.3g of fiber per serving. That comes to 3.7g net carbs per muffin.
Nutritional Disclaimer
Please note that I am not a medical or nutritional professional. I am simply recounting and sharing my own experiences on this blog. Nothing I express here should be taken as medical advice and you should consult with your doctor before starting any diet or exercise program. I provide nutritional information for my recipes simply as a courtesy to my readers. It is calculated using MacGourmet software and I remove erythritol from the final carb count and net carb count, as it does not affect my own blood glucose levels. I do my best to be as accurate as possible but you should independently calculate nutritional information on your own before relying on them. I expressly disclaim any and all liability of any kind with respect to any act or omission wholly or in part in reliance on anything contained in this website.
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Grew up in the 70’s my favorite Girl Scout cookies were the Scot Teas, thin crispy dusted with granular sugar, and the sandwich cookies, lol. Now it’s the Thin Mints, Samoas and Shortbread. Love your recipes, can’t wait to try the muffins. Sounds like a winner! Thank You!
I was wondering about the stevia drops – i have stevia extract, is that the same thing? Very excited to make these muffins!
The same thing…I use the liquid extract.
Oh, these are so yummy! Both the chocolate and the cheesecake portions were great. My blender wouldn’t fit all the batter, so I mixed it with a hand mixer and then added it to my blender in two batches. It was so fascinating to see the difference in the batter after the high-speed blending. So much smoother! I get it now. Definitely making these regularly!
Glad they worked out!
Thank you, Carolyn, for the tip about using the blender for the batter: I have a Vitamix that makes wonder for a lot of things, as many people that have one can say; lately my mum made me a big surprise and bought me a food processor (a KitchenAid, my next point on my wish list is the stand mixer): since it has a wider jar and is dishwasher safe (unfortunately the Vitamix isn’t, big negative point) I am finding it to be more helpful in a lot of recipes: could it do the same job in this one or should I stick to the blender to have a satisfying result with the batter?
Good question! I haven’t tried this in a food processor but it may work well.
These were delicious. I’m diabetic controlling it with exercise and diet. I took my glucose before having one and one hour after. Before my glucose was 99, 1 hour after it was 98. It didn’t affect my sugar at all.
Nice! I love hearing that.
Do you know how well these freeze? I’m the only one in the house that will eat them.
They should freeze fine.
Love this recipe, thank you, was wondering if you have a replacement for the protein powder , I cannot have whey, thank you ?
I use this egg white protein when I don’t want to use whey… http://amzn.to/2myXsZi
These reminded me of the chocolate cheesecake brownies my friend’s mum used to make for us when I was a kid about 30 years ago. So I tried to bake them and they are delicious! Very similar. I did put in 1.5 tsps of Xanthan Gum and they turned out fine. I also added chocolate chunks (100% cocoa).
I don’t see xanthan gum in the list of ingredients, but it is in the directions. Just wondering…
Thank you…
How much xanthan gum? I see it in the instruction list for the muffins, but no in the ingredient list. Thank you.
You can leave it out. That must be an error.
Hi Carolyn!!!These do look great can we use something other than liquid stevia? Like granulated Swerve? How does the measurement change?
Sure, you can use another 1/4 cup Swerve.
Just wondering how powdered stevia or THM sweet blend would convert? I don’t have stevia drops. 🙂
For the muffins, in place of both the erythritol and stevia drops, you can use 2 tbsp Sweet Blend. For the filling, use the same amount. I don’t use a lot of powdered stevia so I am not sure about that.
These look amazing thanks! As for the Canadian Girl Guide cookies (which I sold when I was in Brownies and Guides myself!). I have to say we love the vanilla sandwich cookies in my house– the problem is only1/2 a box is vanilla so you have to suffer through the other 1/2 of chocolate ones! Lol!
Just taking these out of the oven now. I had jumbo muffin tins so I did that instead of the odd number of regular size. Look good and smell great! Can’t wait for them to cool enough to try!
i love these muffins!! so good, the cheesecake part is heaven. but my chocolate muffin dough turned out way too dry. i had to put in lots more almond milk to make it pliable enough to fill into the muffin pan. did i miss something?
the muffin itself turned out a chewy, brownie type muffin which was really good anyway
What brand of almond flour did you use?
in germany it’s hard to find almond flour. i used unblanched, partially de-oiled flour. could it be that it sucked up all the moisture? now i ordered some blanched almond flour online. is that better?
Same.
Where do you buy the powdered E? And protein powders?
Thanks 🙂
I mostly use Swerve now and you can purchase it directly from their website. If you use the code DREAM10, you will get 10% off your order. http://www.swervesweetener.com/103-1-1-29.html
Protein powders, I usually purchase on Amazon. I like Jarrow Brand http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005EQPGCC/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B005EQPGCC&linkCode=as2&tag=aldaidrabfo05-20
Thank you for posting this recipe! I made it my first attempt of low carb gluten free baking and they are super yummy. How did you store them? Can I freeze them with the cream cheese center? I am afraid my family of 2 wont be able to eat them all before going bad…. I know, I can't imagine not finishing them before that 🙂
Why. whhhhy have I not made these yet? Everything about a chocolate muffin with a cream cheese center just seems so right. Congrats on your article and thanks for reminding me I need to try these!