Looking for the best keto lemon muffins around? These tender cream cheese muffins are easy to make, with a bright luscious lemon flavor. Grain-free!
Spring is springing and lemon recipes are popping up everywhere. And I demand that you put these Keto Lemon Cream Cheese Muffins to the top of your must-make list.
Yep, I absolutely demand it. Because adding cream cheese to your keto muffin batter is a game changer.
I can hear some of you right now: “But Carolyn, you already have a bunch of cream cheese muffin recipes”. And yes, friends, that is correct. There is my ever popular Starbucks copycat Keto Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins. And my recently updated Chocolate Cheesecake Muffins.
But while both of those recipes feature a delicious cream cheese center, it’s not in the batter itself. And after my success with Keto Gingerbread Cream Cheese Pound Cake, I found I was eager to try that method again.
Best ever keto lemon muffins?
I am inclined to say yes. I’ve made any number of low carb lemon muffin recipes, but I realized the other day that I don’t have a single one featured here on my blog, as they were all written for other publications.
One of my favorites is the Lemon Ricotta Muffins I created for The Ultimate Guide to Keto Baking. If you love to bake, I cannot recommend my new cookbook enough.
It was time to address the lack of a keto lemon muffin recipe on my site, and after poking around and doing some research, I decided to try them as cream cheese muffins.
Oh my word, I am glad I did! Adding cream cheese to keto muffins gives them both great structure and a rich tenderness that is unparalleled. This may be my new favorite way of making muffins!
How to make keto cream cheese muffins
Darlings, it’s as easy as softening some cream cheese with your butter, and beating them together with the other keto ingredients. But as always, I have some great tips for you to make them perfect.
Room temperature ingredients: You may have seen me mention this before but it’s important. All the beating and creaming of the cream cheese and butter will be for nothing if you add cold eggs. It will clump up and your batter won’t be smooth.
Your choice of sweetener: The muffin batter will be great with any sweetener you like best, as the cream cheese is what provides structure and consistency. You do need a powdered sweetener if you choose to make the drizzle.
Eggs or egg yolks? The egg yolks in this recipe help give these keto lemon muffins a deep rich yellow. If you would prefer, you can use another whole egg instead.
Why protein powder? Oh boy, I get asked this a lot! Simple answer: Gluten is a protein and in its absence, another dry protein powder helps keto baked goods rise and hold their shape. The best sub for whey protein is egg white protein.
Almond flour and coconut flour: I really do love this combination of keto flours and I always use Bob’s Red Mill for both. If you prefer to use only almond flour, you will need an additional ¼ cup.
Can you make cream cheese muffins dairy-free?
Well, I haven’t tried it myself but I do think you can. Kite Hill almond milk “cream cheese” is an excellent option, and I’ve found it works well in almost all cases. So you should be able to sub that for the cream cheese.
For the butter, you can use coconut oil or another non-dairy oil. If it’s a liquid oil, such as avocado, add it in along with the eggs.
Replace the whey protein with egg white protein powder. Voila! Dairy-free keto lemon muffins.
More keto lemon recipes
- Keto Lemon Cheesecake Bars
- Keto Lemon Poppyseed Bundt Cake
- Easy Keto Lemon Curd
- Low Carb Lemon Ricotta Scones
- Keto Lemon Butter Cookies
- Keto Lemon Coconut Balls
Keto Lemon Cream Cheese Muffins
Ingredients
Lemon Cream Cheese Muffins
- 4 ounces cream cheese softened
- ¼ cup butter softened
- ⅔ cup granulated Swerve Sweetener
- 2 large eggs room temperature
- 2 large egg yolks room temperature
- Zest of one lemon
- 1 teaspoon lemon extract
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups almond flour
- ¼ cup unflavoured whey protein powder
- 2 tablespoon coconut flour
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Lemon Drizzle (optional)
- ¼ cup powdered Swerve Sweetener
- 1 ½ tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
Instructions
Muffins
- Preheat the oven to 350F and line a muffin pan with silicone or parchment liners.
- In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese and butter together until smooth. Beat in the sweetener and then beat in the eggs, egg yolks, lemon zest, lemon extract, and vanilla extract until well combined.
- All at once, add the almond flour, whey protein, coconut flour, baking powder, and salt, and beat until thoroughly mixed.
- Divide the batter among the prepared muffin cups and bake 20 to 25 minutes, until the tops are golden and set to the touch. Let cool completely in the pan.
Drizzle
- In a medium bowl, whisk the sweetener together with the lemon juice until smooth. Drizzle over the cooled muffins.
Barbara O’Neill says
These are terrific, please advise how to store them. Thank you
Carolyn says
Fridge is best.
carmen marilla says
Hi ! I don’t have protein powder ? Any substitutions for that ? Thanks I wanna try this weekend
Carolyn says
Protein powder replaces gluten and helps keto baked goods rise properly. You can skip it but the results will not be nearly as good.
Bridget Booth says
Hi. Made these yesterday. Had to use Good Earth granular sweetener from Costco as a sub for Swerve granular as that’s what I had. They were very dry. Do you think using different sweetener could have caused? I cooked for 20 minutes in ceramic muffin pans. Do you know if dark ceramic needed less temp or time?
instead of drizzle on top. Spread on lemon curd.
Carolyn says
It’s very likely the ceramic pans… ceramic takes longer to heat up but then it holds its heat longer. So if you let them cool in the pan, they would keep cooking for quite some time. You need to lower the heat by 25 degrees and bake them for a bit longer… and then get them out of the pan quickly after baking.
Bridget Booth says
Thanks I did get out of pan quick but next time will lower temp
Christy says
Best keto muffins I’ve ever made! And I’m not a good baker. These were excellent!
Jennifer says
Can I use monk fruit sweetener in place of the swerve? I have so much on hand already..
Carolyn says
That’s fine.
Paula Zajac says
Love your recipes!
Cathy L Hammond says
I made these for visiting friends on two separate occasions and they were wondrous, light, fluffy, and utterly delicious, looking quite pretty on the plate too, lol. 🌼
Kristen says
Can you use vanilla flavored whey protein instead of unflavored whey protein in your lemon cream cheese muffins as well as your carrot cake recipe?
Carolyn says
Sure but you are going to taste the vanilla a lot, particularly in the muffins. Make sure you don’t add any additional vanilla.
Cree Holland says
I am allergic to Whey Powder. Can you please make a recommendation that does not include Whey?
Carolyn says
Please read the blog post as I addressed this already! 🙂
Deb says
Question,
If you wanted to use fresh lemon juice in the muffin recipe, would it be the same amount as the extract?
Thank you,
Deb
Carolyn says
No, it won’t be nearly enough to give it lemon flavor. You will need to add more but then offset the wetness by adding more flour.
Lisa says
Thank you! A friend from Phoenix just sent me a big box of freshly picked lemons from her trees. I used every one of these recipes. All of them are delicious!
Lisa says
This is one of my first keto baking recipes attempted and I’m so pleased!! They are just delicious. You would never suspect there is no (wheat) flour in them, great texture and perfectly moist. I didn’t have lemon extract so I used extra zest as you suggested and just a small squeeze of lemon juice. I’m excited to enjoy these for the rest of the week, thank you for making this keto journey so enjoyable!
Carolyn says
Great! Welcome to the delicious world of keto baking! 🙂