Carrots are pretty controversial these days. In low carb circles anyway.
I belong to a whole mess of Low Carb and Keto Facebook groups, so I’ve seen the conflict that this unassuming vegetable has wrought.
Some people think it’s too high in carbohydrate for low carb diets and some do not. For myself, I’ve decided to allow it. Carrots are delish, and you don’t need to use very much in this recipe for low carb carrot muffins. (Each muffin has only 3g net carbs.) I based the recipe on a great carrot muffin that the Low Carb Maven makes. My version has a sweet cream cheese filling and is topped with chopped pecans. Yum. So I proudly stand by my healthy carrot recipe.
Bring it on, naysayers.
Low Carb Keto Carrot Muffins with Cream Cheese Filling
These low carb cream cheese filled carrot muffins are great snacks with just 3g net carbs each.
- Prep Time: 10
- Cook Time: 25
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 9 muffins 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
muffin batter:
- 4 tablespoons butter, softened
- 1/4 cup Swerve or equivalent granulated sweetener
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon blackstrap molasses, optional
- 1/3 cup coconut flour
- 1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
- 2 tablespoons unsweetened whey protein powder
- 1/3 cup super fine almond flour
- 1 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3 large eggs
- 2 tablespoons heavy cream
- 2 oz finely grated carrot (1 medium)
filling:
- 4 oz cream cheese, softened
- 2 tablespoons Swerve or equivalent granulated sweetener
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
topping:
- 1/4 cup pecans, chopped
Instructions
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and add 9 cupcake liners to a cupcake pan.
2. Cream together filling cream cheese, sweetener and vanilla. Set aside.
3. Mix together the almond flour, coconut flour, shredded coconut, baking powder, protein powder, cinnamon, ginger and salt in a small bowl. Whisk to get out any lumps.
4. Cream together muffin butter, sweetener and molasses with an electric mixer in a large bowl. Beat in 1 egg.
5. Beat 1/3 of the dry mixture into the wet mixture. Add another egg. Mix in 1/3 of the dry mixture and then add another egg. Beat in the remaining dry mixture.
6. Quickly mix in the cream and carrot.
7. Fill 9 cupcake wells halfway up. Make an indentation in the batter and fill it with 1/2 tablespoon of the cream cheese mixture.
8. Top each cupcake with more batter. It can rise above the top of the well.
9. Sprinkle pecans on top of the muffins.
10. Put the muffins in the oven and turn up the heat to 400 degrees F. Bake for 5 minutes, and then turn the temperature down to 350 degrees F and bake for another 20 minutes, until the tops are firm and lightly browned.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 muffin
- Calories: 138
- Fat: 11
- Carbohydrates: 5
- Fiber: 2
- Protein: 5
Keywords: Low Carb Carrot Muffin, Keto Carrot Muffin, Sugar-Free Carrot Muffin
If you liked this low carb carrot recipe, then you might like my recipe for Carrot Cake Bites.
I’ve included links in this post for the specialty products that I used. The best prices I’ve found are from Thrive Market which is like the Costco of health food. After you pay a $60 membership fee, you’ll be able to order low carb products at a discount of 25-50%. So the links in the recipe ingredients are links to the less expensive Thrive Market products. But I’ve also included Amazon links below to use if you don’t have a Thrive Market membership. Both kinds of links are affiliate links, so I’ll receive a commission if you buy something. Which is, honestly, a pretty sweet deal.
Could you use maple syrup instead of swerve. Is swevre a good sweetener?
★★★★★
You really can’t substitute maple syrup for Swerve in this recipe. The liquid to dry ingredient ratio would be all off. And if you used maple syrup the muffins wouldn’t be low carb. Swerve is a great low carb alternative to sugar though. I use it for all my baked goods because it’s got zero calories and zero net carbs. And the taste is the closest thing to real sugar that I’ve found.
Favorite keto muffin yet! Nailed it! Thank you
★★★★★
Sure thing! So glad you like it.
I love me some Clive Owen.
★★★★★
And how.
What could I sub for the protein powder and can I leave out the shredded coconut?
Thanks! These look so yummy!!!
I wasn’t certain of the answer, so I just made a batch of muffins without the shredded coconut and protein powder and they came out great. If you make it this way then the nutritional info changes to:
NUTRITIONAL INFO: Calories 126 Fat 11g Protein 4g Carb 5g Fiber 2g Net Carbs 3g
Is the protein powder necessary? What does it dfo?
Whey powder really improves the texture of the muffin.
You forgot to include the coconut in the mixing instructions, FYI 😉
Thanks so much for catching that! I just fixed it.