Pumpkin isn’t just for fall inspired recipes, it can also be added to baked goods to give them some extra moisture and fiber. These keto breakfast muffins are rich, hearty and moist, while low in carbs and high in fiber thanks to their flaxseed base and wholesome ingredients. Each one delivers rich, dark chocolate taste with a hint of caramel (thanks to Torani’s sugar free syrup!).
They’re a great way to start your day and keep you full until lunch time. If you don’t have slivered almonds, some crushed walnuts or pecans mixed into the batter will give you some authentic brownie flavor as well! If you’re tired of muffins that turn into rocks or dry out after a few hours, then definitely give these a try.
They’re super simple to make and they’re really easy for a grab-and-go type of breakfast. If you don’t want to opt in for using the Torani Sugar-Free syrup, you can always make your own Low Carb Maple Syrup to add to the batter. Alternatively, you could use your favorite low-carb syrup to add in to change the flavor base however you’d like.
Yields 6 Keto Brownie Breakfast Muffins
The Preparation
- 1 cup flaxseed meal
- 1/4 cup unsweetened dark cocoa powder
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 large egg
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil
- 1/4 cup sugar-free caramel syrup, such as Torani
- 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- 1/4 cup slivered almonds
The Execution
1. Preheat your oven to 350°F and combine all your dry ingredients in a deep mixing bowl and mix to combine.
2. In a separate bowl, combine all your wet ingredients.
3. Pour your wet ingredients into your dry ingredients and mix very well to combine.
4. Line a muffin tin with paper liners and spoon about ¼ cup of batter into each muffin liner. This recipe should yield 6 muffins. Then sprinkle slivered almonds over the top of each muffin and press gently so that they adhere.
5. Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes. You should see the muffins rise and set on top. Enjoy warm or cool!
This makes a total of 6 servings of Keto Brownie Breakfast Muffins. Each serving comes out to be 195 calories, 15g fats, 3.3g net carbs, and 6g protein.
| NUTRITION | CALORIES | FAT | CARBS | FIBER | NET CARBS | PROTEIN |
| 1 cup flaxseed meal | 555 | 43.7 | 30.2 | 28.1 | 2.1 | 18.7 |
| 1/4 cup unsweetened dark cocoa powder | 80 | 2 | 12 | 8 | 4 | 4 |
| 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon | 19 | 0.1 | 6.3 | 4.1 | 2.1 | 0.3 |
| 1/2 tablespoon baking powder | 4 | 0 | 1.9 | 0 | 1.9 | 0 |
| 1/2 teaspoon salt | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1 large egg | 79 | 5.2 | 0.4 | 0 | 0.4 | 6.9 |
| 2 tablespoon coconut oil | 243 | 27 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1/4 cup sugar-free caramel syrup | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1/2 cup pumpkin puree | 42 | 0.3 | 9.9 | 3.6 | 6.4 | 1.4 |
| 1 teaspoon vanilla extract | 12 | 0 | 0.6 | 0 | 0.6 | 0 |
| 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar | 1 | 0 | 0.1 | 0 | 0.1 | 0 |
| 1/4 cup slivered almonds | 142 | 12.2 | 5.3 | 3.1 | 2.2 | 5.2 |
| Totals | 1177 | 90.6 | 66.6 | 46.8 | 19.7 | 36.5 |
| Per Serving (/6) | 196 | 15.1 | 11.1 | 7.8 | 3.3 | 6.1 |
Keto Brownie Breakfast Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 cup flaxseed meal
- ¼ cup unsweetened dark cocoa powder
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- ½ tablespoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 large egg
- 2 tablespoon coconut oil
- ¼ cup sugar-free caramel syrup such as Torani
- ½ cup pumpkin puree
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- ¼ cup slivered almonds
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F. Add the dry ingredients to a large mixing bowl and stir to combine.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix well to combine.
- Line a muffin tin with paper liners and spoon in the batter. Sprinkle the slivered almonds on top and press them in gently to help them stick.
- Bake for about 15 minutes. The muffins rise and set on top. Enjoy — these taste good both warm and cold!
I made these last night! They came out looking almost exactly like that, however, I didn’t have any sugar free syrup so I replaced the moisture with a little refined olive oil (mostly for the lack of flavor) and a little extra pumpkin. The texture was spot on, but I realized after my first bite the syrup was the sweetener in the recipe and I forgot to add some truvia.
A little peanut butter on top helps but they definitely need something sweet in there. The fudgey brownie texture is great though and I think I’ll try again with the syrup!
Also I used chia/flax mixed flour instead of just flax- I don’t think it affected flavor too much.
Sounds great on the chia/flax combo. You definitely have to get a little bit of sweetener in there. Liquid stevia or truvia will probably be the best bet for next time. Glad you like them!
would it be possible to substitute 100% chia seeds for the flaxseeds?
I’m not sure 100% how they’ll turn out, but usually I’d recommend using around 2/3 as much chia as you would flax (and let them sit for a little bit). Chia seeds are more absorptive than flax.
Thanks Craig! I just started the keto diet under supervision of my cardiologist. For starters no wiggle room and no flaxseeds allowed. I’m gonna make the argument for a little chia.
No problem – let me know how it goes with the chia. I’ve done a number of recipes where I’ll sub out flaxseed for chia with pretty good success. A small tip also may be to run the chia seeds through a spice grinder so they absorb the liquids quicker.
Great tip – thanks so much. Will report back when I make them.
How much liquid stevia would you substitute for the caramel syrup?
Usually it’s only going to be a few drops as liquid stevia is normally a lot stronger. Experiment, though I’d say somewhere in the 25 drop range.
Thanks! I couldn’t wait to try so I made them with ~15 drops and they were a little too flax tasting. I think a flavored syrup or more stevia is the way to go. Amazing with peanut butter.
Also just made you’re pumpkin pancakes and they are SO good. Love the site!
Looks great. Any suggestions on what I can use instead of pumpkin puree, as it is hard to get here in Iceland.
Can you get your hands on any type of squash there? You could always make your own puree from a lower carb squash. If not, you could skip it and go with a flavored flaxmeal seed + heavy cream. If you add a bit of flavoring and heavy cream to some flaxseed meal and mix it together, it will turn pretty gloopy and I imagine would work well. Pumpkin puree on its own is pretty hard to replace, so I’m sorry I can’t be of more help.
Do you take your own pictures, the last 2 look very professional….Little off topic but how do you do this, is it all done in editing?
Thanks so much James. Yes, I take all of my own pictures (sometimes my girlfriend will help hold food). For most food photos, a successful photo is just a formula. A good setup, a good camera, good lighting. There’s a tiny bit of post-shoot editing that I do (mainly sharpening a photo a little bit), but that’s about all 🙂
Looks really good! What kind of camera do you use?
Also, I tried to register through my iPhone but the sign up link on the home page didn’t work….
I use 2 cameras, but my main one that I prefer is a Canon EOS 70D with a 17-35mm lens for my food photos. Thanks for letting me know – I’ll check it out!
Can they be kept for the following day? How should they be stored?
I tried this recipe after reading that 1 cup = 400 grammes. So i added way to much flaxseed meal & cocoa. What is the qty of the ingredients in grammes ?
I’m not 100% sure of the measurements in grams as I mainly do my recipes with US based measuring equipment. It may be worthwhile to buy a US measuring cup set (will set you back around $10); not just for my recipes, but most keto recipes online are using US based measurements. Sorry that I can’t be more helpful at this time!
Thanks for the reply Craig. I think the measurement is just a small cup. And not a mug ! I’ll try it again today.
I am shocked that you are using something with Splenda. Not a good sweetner. Is there anything else that you can use besides Stevia? Honey?
Honey is definitely not allowed – but it’s true. All of my newer recipes use erythritol and stevia as my blend for sweetener. Xylitol works well, too.
I agree — I don’t want to use a product that contains sucralose, so is there something you would recommend using in place of the sugar free caramel syrup?
Don’t like pumpkin, what can I use instead?
I’d recommend using a different brownie recipe to try for the morning. The pumpkin will help a lot with the consistency in this recipe. The only other thing I can think of is adding a bit more flaxseed meal and more egg to it.
I made these last night, and they were pretty bland. I see some comments mentioning you used Stevia previously, and have since switched to Erythritol but I don’t see it anywhere in this recipe. Is that what was missing? I also used Organic Pumpkin from a can, and that was about the only difference.
Also they came out really tacky and thick instead of a little loose, kind of like yours does in the picture. I’m sure I used the right ingredients, but I will give these a shot again when I get confirmation on the sugar and organic pumpkin.
Thanks! You have lots of great recipes on here!
Pretty much any liquid will do. You could even leave it out. Heavy cream would work (and up the fat) or just a touch of an extract (for flavor).
I skip the erythritol here since we use the Torani. You’re welcome to use erythritol + extra in place if you found them to be thick vs. loose (brownie vs. cakey). They were a bit cakey, so keep that in mind but they should be pretty dense and relatively moist inside as well.
The pumpkin wouldn’t be an issue, but the sweetener may be a small one.
I made these and they were ok (moist and together like a real brownie) but were not sweet at all… did I miss something?
Maybe will try with a sugar replacement? I need that sweet taste I crave and if I could add it to this recipe it would be perfect.
What is pumpkin puree? Is it fresh pumpkin, that you mash in a kitchen machine? Or does it need to be cooked first?
I don’t know about cups, we use grams. Can I just measure with a real cup or does it not work like that?
Hi Wilma. Where we are located Pumpkin puree is often canned, so if you want the same texture I would cook it first. An American “cup” is a physical measurement vs. a weight measurement with grams. Different types ingredients might weight really differently but still be 1 cup. I looked it up , and it seems that an american cup of pumpkin puree is about 225 grams.
Would it be okay to use honey instead of the caramel and also, could these be frozen if made in big batches?
If it’s not just a flavoring, the honey would add too many carbs for it to be keto friendly, unfortunately. You can freeze them, though!
This sounds great! can I substitute the sugar-free caramel syrup for anything else?
I would try using the caramel recipe from our pork rind cereal:
https://www.ruled.me/salted…
Torani syrups are rather thin…so you could also try adding more liquid, perhaps water, and a little sweetener of choice too.
I used Yacon syrup. It tastes like molasses (so less sweet than other syrup, but very taste IMHO). Google Yacon syrup and you will find the health benefits, such as extremely low glycemic index, good prebiotic, high in fiber, lots of good minerals, etc.
I added a 1/4 teaspoon of instant coffee granules, it made the chocolate pop out with extra goodness. Excellent recipe.
Just be careful, it can add up pretty quickly! The brands I’ve seen are about 3g sugar per teaspoon.
Could I use almond meal instead? Would the ratios stay the same if so?
I haven’t tried this but I think almond flour would work and that you could keep it the same ratio.
These were not good. 🙁 I actually had to spit mine out. It was bitter and salty. I double checked all the measurements and ingredients, as well, to make sure there was no error.
These turned out well for me. I subbed 1/4 each of heavy cream and swerve granular sweetener for the torani (I just can’t get behind splenda). Subtle sweetness and great texture. I will make this again.
Really glad to hear it – thanks so much for the feedback!
I have tried many of your recipes and most of them turn out well, however this one was not good at all. I followed the recipe to the comma with the exception of the Torani syrup which I subbed with 2.5 tbs of Monkfruit erythritol. Firstly these did not come out sweet so I guess I should have used more sweetner and secondly they were crispy on the outside but chewy on the inside….that sounds good in theory however with a flaxmeal base chewy on the inside tasted like some kind of “not so good” protein bar. What went wrong???
The extra water in the syrup and overall sweetness (syrup is much more sweet than something like monkfruit and erythritol) might have had something to do with it. They are a big chewy as you described, so it’s possible that you just didn’t enjoy the recipe as well, unfortunately.
Torani uses sucralose – have you looked at the studies?? I bought it but kept researching and then chickened out because it sounded so bad. Ended up using 1/4 cup Lakanto powdered Monk/Eryth. and a TB of maple flavoring. They’re in the oven now, so we’ll see!!
I’m personally fine with a little bit of sucralose. The negative studies I’ve seen were animal-based so I’ll wait until there are human evaluations done before I stop using it completely. Generally you limit sucralose given how sweet it is anyways and many of these studies use hundreds of times the dosages that you’d normally use. That said if you don’t want to use a certain sweetener, you don’t have to. I hope they turned out well for you!