Sweet cinnamon muffins filled with rich sugar free chocolate hazelnut spread. A truly indulgent low carb breakfast.
“Nutella-stuffed”. Don’t the words just send a shiver of delight up your spine? Or maybe they don’t. Maybe they make you back away in horror, thinking of all the carbs and how it’s going to throw your diet and send your blood glucose into the stratosphere. Maybe you cover your ears and close your eyes and sing La-La-La-La, hoping to drown out the sirens’ song of sweet indulgence. You just keep hoping that whoever is pushing this sugar-laden treat in your direction will simply go away.
Well I won’t. I won’t go away. You’re stuck with me. Thankfully, my version of nutella-stuffed anything is neither going to blow your diet nor send you into a diabetic coma. I wouldn’t do such a thing; how could you possibly think it of me? I will, however, use my nutella-stuffed goodness to lure you out of your corner and into the kitchen. Because these are worth getting off your duff, getting out your food processor or magic bullet, and making yourself some low carb chocolate hazelnut spread. And then getting out your muffin pan to stuff some muffins with your homemade healthy nutella.
The inspiration for these came from my Facebook followers. I’d made a large batch of nutella for a homemade nut-butter tutorial on The Kitchenthusiast (KitchenAid’s blog) and I was casting around for ways to use it up. A Facebook fan said I should make nutella stuffed muffins and I instantly knew I had to create such a thing. A little additional research led me to these beauties from CenterCutCook, which I used as my model. Obviously I had to ditch the wheat and the sugar and make them over completely, but the idea is similar.
You may notice that my nutella is very dark in colour this time, and it’s because I used Hershey’s Special Dark cocoa powder. I am not sure if this was a fail or a victory. A little of both, I think. I decided it was too dark in colour to showcase on the KitchenAid blog, but it lead me to change up the recipe a bit in a way that I think enhanced it. The dark cocoa powder thickened the chocolate hazelnut spread a lot more than regular cocoa powder and so I needed to thin it out a bit. Instead of adding additional hazelnut oil, I added in some heavy cream. I found that the cream made it slightly lighter in flavour and more like real nutella (which contains milk). I think I will put cream in my hazelnut spread from now on, no matter what kind of cocoa powder I use.
Nutella-Stuffed Cinnamon Sugar Muffins – Low Carb and Gluten-Free
Ingredients
Sugar-Free Nutella:
- 1 cup hazelnuts toasted and husked
- 3 tbsp hazelnut oil (can use other vegetable or nut oils)
- 1/4 cup dark cocoa powder
- 2 tbsp heavy whipping cream (or more for a thinner consistency)
- 1/4 cup powdered Swerve Sweetener
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
Muffins:
- 3 cups almond flour
- 1/3 cup vanilla whey protein powder
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/3 cup Kelapo coconut oil (room temperature)
- 1/2 cup Swerve Sweetener
- 3 large eggs (room temperature)
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp liquid stevia extract
- 1/2 cup almond milk
- Approx 12 tbsp homemade sugar-free Nutella (you will have leftover Nutella)
Cinnamon "Sugar" Topping:
- 1 tbsp Swerve Sweetener
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tbsp butter melted
Instructions
Nutella:
- Grind hazelnuts in a food processor until finely ground and beginning to clump together. Add oil and continue to process until well combined, scraping down sides of processor with a rubber spatula as needed.
- Add cocoa powder, whipping cream, sweetener and vanilla and process until smooth and creamy. If it is too thick, add additional oil or cream until desired consistency is achieved.
Muffins:
- Preheat oven to 325F and line a standard muffin pan with 12 paper liners (I recommend parchment liners).
- In a medium bowl, whisk together almond flour, protein powder, baking powder, and salt.
- In a large bowl, beat coconut oil or butter with sweetener until smooth.
- Beat in eggs, vanilla and stevia, then in almond flour mixture in two additions, alternating with almond milk.
- Divide about half the batter evenly among prepared muffin cups. With the back of a spoon, make a well in the center of each.
- Spoon about 1 tbsp of sugar-free nutella into each well. Top with remaining muffin batter.
- Bake 20 to 22 minutes, or until set and lightly browned on top.
Topping:
- In a small bowl, whisk together sweetener and cinnamon. Brush the tops of hot muffins with melted butter and sprinkle with cinnamon "sugar".
