Keto pancake muffins are an easy and healthy grab-and-go breakfast. Enjoy the best of both worlds with this high protein make-ahead recipe. Perfect for keto beginners!
Struggling to decide between pancakes or muffins for your first meal of the day? Well now you don’t have to! Pancake muffins are the perfect blend of breakfast foods.
Surely you know by now how much I love keto muffins. And I have an abiding affection for keto pancakes too. So why not marry the two together? Why not, I ask you! Then I don’t ever have to face that wrenching breakfast dilemma.
Crisis averted! Now off to dip them in some keto maple syrup!
Why you will love this recipe
This recipe has been on my website since 2015 and was badly in need of an update, with new photos, tips, and information. I tweaked it a bit to add more protein as well. So now they really help fuel you for busy mornings.
What hasn’t changed is how easy they are to make. These pancake muffins take a handful of keto ingredients and about 30 minutes of your time. And they really do have the taste and texture of pancakes. But they’re so much more portable.
If you’re looking for a make-ahead breakfast, this recipe can’t be beat. You can whip up a batch and store them in the fridge or freezer, so they’re ready whenever you need.
With 9.1g of protein and only 5.9g of carbs, you can feel good about adding these muffins to your daily routine.
Ingredients you need
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- Yogurt: I recommend full fat Greek yogurt for the best consistency and the highest protein content. You can also use higher protein yogurts like Two Good.
- Almond flour: Finely ground, blanched almond flour works best.
- Protein powder: I added some unflavored whey protein to up the nutritional content. You could use egg white protein as well.
- Sweetener: These muffins are not overly sweet. I used just ⅓ cup of Swerve Granular. See the Expert Tips for more sweetener recommendations.
- Eggs: Large eggs give the muffins the right pancake/muffin consistency.
- Berries: I use a combination of frozen blueberries and raspberries in these pancake muffins. But you could do nuts or chocolate chips too!
- Kitchen staples: Butter, baking powder, vanilla, salt.
Step by Step Directions
1. Blend the wet ingredients: In the jar of a blender, combine the yogurt, eggs, sweetener, butter, and vanilla extract. Blend briefly to combine.
2. Add the dry ingredients: All at once, add the almond flour, sweetener, protein powder, baking powder, and salt. Blend until smooth.
3. Add the berries: By hand, stir about two thirds of the berries into the blender jar. Do not blend them up!
4. Fill the muffin cups: Divide the batter evenly among 12 silicone or parchment muffin cups. Top each with a few more berries.
5. Bake the muffins: Bake at 350ºF for 20 to 25 minutes, until the muffins are golden brown and just firm to the touch. Remove and let cool in the pan.
Expert Tips
These are not meant to be very sweet muffins. Rather they taste like baked pancakes, and are meant to be spread or drizzled or dipped. I really like them with a little butter and homemade syrup or a little allulose maple syrup. They’re also delicious with a smear of peanut butter or my homemade Sugar Free Nutella.
They will rise quite a bit and then sink after baking. This is normal and simply a product of how pancake batter bakes in a muffin tin.
Sweetener Options: The consistency does not rely on the sweetener, so you are free to use what you like best. Do keep in mind that allulose will make them brown much more quickly so keep your eye on them.
Frequently Asked Questions
You can use another batter for these Keto Pancake Muffins but the results may be different. I tweaked this recipe to make it a little less rubbery and more fluffy, so I think it works best.
This low carb pancake muffin recipe has 5.9g of carbs and 2.3g of fiber per muffin. That means each serving has 3.6g net carbs.
These muffins are quite moist so they are best stored in the fridge in a covered container for up to a week. You can also freeze them for several months.
Keto Pancake Muffins
Ingredients
- ¾ cup plain Greek yogurt
- 3 large eggs
- 3 tablespoon butter melted
- ⅓ cup Swerve Sweetener
- 1½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups blanched almond flour
- ⅓ cup unflavored whey protein powder
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ⅔ cup frozen blueberries and raspberries
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF and line a standard muffin pan with silicone or parchment liners.
- Add the yogurt, eggs, butter, sweetener, and vanilla to a blender. Blend quickly to combine.
- Add the almond flour, protein powder, baking powder, and salt. and blend until the batter is well combined.
- Stir half of the berries into the batter by hand. Divide the batter among the prepared muffin cups and then place a few remaining berries in the top of each.
- Bake 18 to 25 minutes minutes, until the muffins are golden brown and just firm to the touch. Remove and let cool in the pan.
Ginger says
These sound great. Wondering if you can uses a non-whey protein powder instead?
Carolyn says
Yes but FYI that egg white protein may make them a little rubbery, since they already contain quite a bit of eggs.
Rosemary Lare says
what could I use in place of protein powder since I don’t normally buy that?
Carolyn says
You can skip it but they won’t rise as nicely. Try adding another 1/4 cup of almond flour.
P Bradley says
If you only had Oikos Triple zero yogurt . What changes would you make to recipe ?
Carolyn says
No changes at all, it’s a good choice. Just measure it out carefully.
Mary wilson says
what kind of whey protien did you use? and can I get it at walmart? or is there a brand I can get at walmart? thank you
Carolyn says
My preferred brand is linked in the recipe but I don’t really know what you can get at your Walmart.
Amy says
Delicious! I didn’t have whole milk yogurt, so I subbed it with cream cheese, and it was quite tasty. I also added 1 tbsp sugar. Calculated this out to be 4.1 g net carbs each when I made 10 muffins.
So happy I found this recipe.
Jessica says
not being able to eat yogurt, I tried using half cup ricotta cheese plus 1 tablespoon heavy whipping cream. turned out great! I took lazy to the next level and didn’t reserve berries for the top, just mixed them all in, and they were distributed nicely. for those who complained of batter too thin and berries sinking to the bottom, I always go by weight with my flour and didn’t have a problem so you may want to try that
Kimmie says
Can these be frozen and reheated later??
Carolyn says
YOu bet!
Terry Marks says
You call for whole milk plain yogurt. Can I use whole milk Greek playing yogurt? Thank you
Carolyn says
Yes!
Andrea says
I have unflavored Greek yogurt, would that work? If so do I need to change anything?
Carolyn says
Yes, it’s fine.
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.