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These healthy raspberry pumpkin muffins taste so sinful that nobody will believe that they are actually low-carb, low-fat, and sugar-free when you tell them.
We often bring them to parties and have fun watching the people on diets look at them longingly until we tell them what the macronutrients are. After that, the muffins will be gone in seconds.
They are super simple to put together and they will become a family favorite for breakfast, lunch boxes, and snacks.
How to make pumpkin raspberry muffins?
Step 1: Preheat your oven to 350 F (177 C) and line 12 muffin cups with muffin papers.
Step 2: In a large bowl, stir together the coconut flour, almond flour, stevia, tapioca starch, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and sea salt until it is all mixed well.
Step 3: Stir in the egg yolks (keep the egg whites separate for the next step), pumpkin puree, coconut oil, stevia drops, and vanilla, until completely incorporated.
Step 4: In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff white peaks form.
Step 5: Fold the egg whites and frozen raspberries into the muffin batter.
Tip: Take care to not mix the batter too much at this stage as the muffins will become more dense if you mix the batter a lot. Just gently fold the egg whites and raspberries into the batter with a spoon or spatula.
Step 6: Spoon the muffin batter into the muffin papers and then smooth out the tops. The muffin batter should just be at the top of the muffin papers. These muffins don’t rise very high so keep the muffin papers fuller to compensate.
Optional: I put a few pumpkin seeds on some of the muffins for decoration.
Step 7: Bake the muffins for 25 minutes. The muffins will be a light golden on top and a toothpick should come out clean when inserted. Allow to cool in the muffin tray for 5 minutes before placing the muffins on a cooling rack to cool completely.
Should I use fresh or frozen raspberries?
The reason I use frozen raspberries instead of fresh ones is that the frozen berries will hold their shape better when mixing everything together, so you get a lot of whole raspberries in the muffins. This both looks and tastes better than if you use fresh berries.
How to store the muffins
The muffins should be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator. They can stay fresh for up to a week if stored in this manner.
Why do my muffins come out flat and don’t rise?
It is very common when making low-carb and gluten-free baking recipes to see that they don’t rise as much as normal baking recipes. Gluten is a large part of why baked goods rise and have a good texture.
This recipe uses tapioca starch to add more binding to the dough and there is another small trick to getting these muffins to come out perfectly.
When spooning the mixture into the muffin papers, fill the paper almost to the top and then make a small dome with 1 tablespoon of dough on the top of each muffin. This small dome of dough will rise and make the muffins look less flat once they are baked.
Making these low-carb muffins your own
If you don’t like raspberries, you can use pretty much any other kind of berry instead.
Blueberry muffins are a classic, but blackberry muffins are also really interesting and have a very strong flavor.
Can they be made vegan-friendly?
If you would like to make this recipe vegan-friendly, you can swap out the eggs for a mixture of 4 tablespoons water and 4 tablespoons flax seed powder. Mix them together in a small bowl and set aside for 5 minutes to thicken.
More healthy low-carb snacks
This healthy pumpkin raspberry muffin recipe is just one of many low-carb recipes on Diabetes Strong. Here are a few more I think you will like:
If you like low-carb and diabetes-friendly dessert recipes, you can also check out my roundup of easy diabetic desserts for more inspiration.
When you’ve tried these healthy pumpkin raspberry muffins, please don’t forget to let me know how you liked them and rate the recipe in the comments below!
Pumpkin Raspberry Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 cup pumpkin puree, (from a can)
- 1/2 cup coconut flour
- 3/4 cup blanched almond flour
- 1/2 cup Stevia
- 3 tablespoon tapioca or arrowroot starch
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
- Pinch nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 4 egg whites, (1/2 cup)
- 4 egg yolks
- 1/2 cup coconut oil, (melted)
- 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cup frozen raspberries
- 10 drops liquid stevia
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350F (177 C) and line 12 muffin cups with muffin papers.
- In a large bowl, stir together the coconut flour, almond flour, stevia, tapioca starch, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and sea salt until it is all mixed well.
- Stir in the egg yolks (keep the egg whites separate for the next step), pumpkin puree, coconut oil, stevia drops, and vanilla, until completely incorporated.
- In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff white peaks form.
- Fold the egg whites and frozen raspberries into the muffin batter.
- Tip: Take care to not mix the batter too much at this stage as the muffins will become more dense if you mix the batter a lot. Just gently fold the egg whites and raspberries into the batter with a spoon or spatula.
- Spoon the muffin batter into the muffin papers and then smooth out the tops. The muffin batter should just be at the top of the muffin papers. These muffins don’t rise very high so keep the muffin papers fuller to compensate.
- Bake the muffins for 25 minutes. The muffins will be a light golden on top and a toothpick should come out clean when inserted. Allow to cool in the muffin tray for 5 minutes before placing the muffins on a cooling rack to cool completely.
Kim
Just tried these for the first time, and they seem to be a success! Made at the same time as your cheesecake so had 4 egg yolks left over and just used these. No whites. But an Oz or more purée. Hard to get pumpkin purée here in Australia so used unsweetened baby purée – sweet potato, carrot and parsnip. Still tastes great! Also used a few whole almonds on top to decorate as had no pumpkin seeds.
Lisa
Can you use whole-wheat flour instead of almond & coconut flour?
Christel Oerum
Theoretically, yes, but it does fundamentally change the recipe so you’d have to experiment with adjusting the liquid/fat content as well as almond and coconut flour has a higher fat content.
LEA
How much protein powder did you use. I think all the scoops are different sizes.
Christel Oerum
A scoop is usually about 1 oz. / 28 grams
Madison M
I had to kind of taste test with splenda instead of stivia and I used pumpkin spice instead of the ginger and cinnamon (it’s a mix of the two and some other herbs) and so far so good! They’re rising in the oven as we speak! I also used almond flour instead of coconut flour. Cant wait to taste them!
sha
Do cook the pumpkin
Christel Oerum
Yes! If you choose to use raw pumpkin, it should be cooked first and made into a puree before being mixed into the dough
R. Vandam
What is 6.3 oz of pumpkin? Is that a coffee cup measurement? Or is it a typo? The smallest can of pumpkin that is sold is 15 oz, so not sure how to measure it?
Christel Oerum
6.3 oz of pumpkin is about 0.8 cup. There are some excellent conversion calculators available if you’re in doubt about other recipes. On example is: https://www.thecalculatorsite.com/cooking/cups-ounces.php
Maria Almeida
Hello Christel,
How about almond flour? Also isn’t coconut high in calories? I have arbonne protein powder.. Will it work? I am trying to lose weight ( Never ending battle) and find it so hard:-(
Love your desserts recipe.
Thank you
Maria
Christel Oerum
Almond flour should be fine. Yes, both almond and coconut flour is relatively high in calories. It’s always a balance making recipes with low carbs and moderate calories. I don’t know the Arbonne protein powder. Looks like it might be a vegan option and not a whey protein like I used. To be honest, I don’t know if it will work, but you can always try
Adele Strada
I bake with Arbonne Protein so issues
Rika Johnson
Please recommend a protein powder for making the raspberry pumpkins muffins.
Christel Oerum
The protein powder I prefer to bake with (and that has been used in this recipe) is Met-Rx Vanilla
Apryl Lee
I’m so happy to have found your website! Can I sub hemp protein powder for the vanilla protein powder and maybe add a splash of vanilla extract?
Christel Oerum
Thank you, so glad you did too!
I’m not sure how well hemp protein powder bakes. You can of course try, but some powders don’t really act like flour does and the dough never really comes together. If you do try, and it works, please let me know