Flax seed muffins are a satisfying, filling keto breakfast for any day of the week. Make ahead or freeze and have these low carb pumpkin pecan flax muffins whenever you’re hungry, for a snack or meal!
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These keto flax muffins are definitely a bit of an indulgence for a keto dieter’s breakfast. They’re packed with healthy fats and protein, so why am I calling them an indulgence?
Let’s talk about flax.
The Facts About Flax
I’m not going to rehash all the benefits of flax seed. If you want to know more about flax, you’ll need to go read about it on this post.
What I will tell you here is that ground flax seed is a great low carb flour for keto baking. It’s an indulgence because it will likely be a higher carb meal on a keto diet.
Looking for more ways to get low carb veggies into your breakfast? Try this Keto Apple Crisp.
But let’s do the numbers. Compared to wheat flour, flaxseed flour is much lower in carbs. Per one cup if ground golden flax seed, there are 30.4 grams of carbs.
In one cup of wheat flour, you’ll find 86 whopping grams of carbohydrates! And don’t get me started on gluten! None of that with the flax seed flour.
This is why it’s so important to remember that when you have a “bad” day indulging in low carb foods, you shouldn’t beat yourself up.
Crazy about flax? Try these Double Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting!
Carbohydrates in Flaxseed
Even if you ate 4 of these low carb flax muffins for breakfast or a snack, you’d still be way farther ahead than if you’d eaten one single wheat flour muffin.
Plus, I know some of you count carbs by counting only net carbohydrates. With all the fiber in flax, that comes to 2.4 grams of net carbs! That’s in one cup of plain ground flax seed, not in one of these ketogenic flax muffins.
And that makes just 4 net carbs per muffin!
So relax. Never take a food at its face value. Look into it a little more. Flax is not a bad keto choice.
Looking for a more indulgent muffin? Try this Chocolate Peanut Butter muffin recipe I created for Have Butter Will Travel!
Notes for Keto Flax Muffins
- There’s not a whole lot of mystery behind these muffins. Mix everything together, bake, and you’re done!
- One note I want to add though, is that like all keto and low carb flours, ground golden flax seed is very dense when baked. Though lighter than almond flour, it still takes a bit of getting used to on the cooking end of things.
- My advice is to follow the part in the recipe where it advises you to allow the muffins to set for about 15 minutes.
I love these pumpkin muffins straight from the oven (especially with butter!), but for those new to keto and keto flours, the crumb might be very different at first. Allowing these healthy flax muffins to sit will help them not be mushy in the middle. - This is a great quick keto breakfast on it’s own, but I also love to spread some grass fed butter or cream cheese on the muffins, too.
Grab some more Keto Breakfast Recipes!
Mini Muffins or Regular Muffins for Breakfast?
Whether you want mini muffins or regular sized muffins is completely your choice. I generally make both and here’s why.
These breakfast muffins are packed with fats and protein to fill you up. We’re serious about satisfying, low carb, filling breakfasts here.
But we have a few tiny tummies here, too. So a couple of mini keto muffins are plenty for those tiny tummies, and for the adult and prepubescent tummies, we have regular sized muffins.
Just be sure to note the baking time difference depending on which version you’re baking. It’s difficult to gauge doneness with some gluten free flours, so be sure to check often.
If you see any sign of shiny moistness on the tops of the muffins, you’ll want to put them back in for a few minutes.
Also, when you fill the baking cup liners, the recipe says to fill ¾ full. If you’d like a nice, rounded dome top, fill the cups up all the way.
If you do anything different with these easy keto muffins, I’d LOVE to hear from you in the comments!
If you like this recipe, give it a 5 star rating below!
Flax Muffins
Flax seed muffins are a satisfying, filling keto breakfast for any day of the week. Make ahead or freeze and have these low carb pumpkin pecan flax meal muffins whenever you're hungry, for a snack or meal!
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cup ground golden flax seed
- 1 tablespoon coconut flour
- ½ teaspoon gluten free baking soda
- 3 tablespoons stevia sweetener
- ¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- ¼ teaspoon ground mace and/or ground nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon pink Himalayan salt
- 4 eggs
- ⅓ cup olive oil
- ½ cup fresh or canned pumpkin puree
- ¼ cup heavy whipping cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- ¼ cup chopped pecans, plus more for topping (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325°F.
- Stir all dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl.
- Add the remaining ingredients and stir until completely incorporated.
- Using a silicone muffin pan or a metal muffin pan filled with cupcake liners, fill ¾ full.
- For mini muffins, bake at 325°F for 15-18 minutes. For regular sized muffins, bake at 325°F for 18-22 minutes.
- Allow to rest for 15 minutes before serving. Serve alone or topped with butter or cream cheese. Makes about 12 regular sized muffins or 24 mini muffins.
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Nutrition Information:
Yield: 8Amount Per Serving: Calories: 253Total Fat: 23gCarbohydrates: 8gProtein: 8g
Keto Flax Seed Recipes
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These look delicious! I will make these soon! I haven’t used a lot of flax since starting Keto, so this will be a good way to get some fiber.
I love flax. It’s not the lowest carb food for keto, but it’s fluffier than almond flour, more moist than coconut flour, and if you’re counting net carbs, your carb count will be super low because of that awesome fiber! Plus all those great omega 3’s!
My family says these are the best low carb muffins I’ve ever made. Thanks.
Oh that’s so awesome! You really made my day. Thanks for taking the time to comment!
I hate pumpkin, can you suggest a substitute?
You can make these with just about any squash puree that has similar water content to pumpkin. My kids really like butternut squash, too, though I believe it’s a bit higher in carbs. I hope you love the muffins!
Great recipe…love the Keto…I always wonder in pumpkin recipes, do we drain the pumpkin in the can…sometimes it seems watery. Thanks!
Hi Linda! I would say in most recipes, don’t drain the pumpkin puree. If you make your own puree, you would want to drain it till it has similar water content to the canned version, but if it’s canned, don’t worry about draining! I hope you love the muffins!
I love this recipe using milled flaxseed, the high fiber content makes the net carbs less than 1g per potion. I use a muffin pan that makes 6. I also leave out the 1/4c olive oil and use 2 eggs plus 6T egg whites Instead of 4 eggs to lesson the calories and they come out the same as when I added the oil. Don’t know why but they are great, thanks!
How about a recipe jump tab?
That’s a great idea! However, it’s not right for this website. I encourage my readers to read through the post for relevant tidbits about the recipe that might be important to them to get the recipe right. If that’s not what someone is looking for, it takes just a few seconds to scroll down a bit for the free recipe. Thanks for stopping by!
Would unsweetened applesauce instead of pumpkin work in this recipe? Too many carbs?
That’s a really good question, Darla. If you’re doing keto, most people would say applesauce is too many carbs. But that is not a hard and fast rule, either. If you work out often, you could have an apple or unsweetened applesauce as a carb-up before or after the workout. If you don’t work out very often, you probably have less wiggle room for carbs. Here’s a great article that explains the types of keto: https://keenforketo.com/the-honey-controversy-which-keto-are-you/
To answer your question on whether it would actually work or not, I don’t have an answer, since I haven’t tried it using applesauce instead of pumpkin puree. Generally when I see applesauce as a sub in a recipe, I think they’re subbing for the fats, which is not the aim with keto, since we embrace healthy fats. :) I would think the biggest issue, though, (other than the increase in carbs) would be that applesauce has so much more water content than canned pumpkin puree. If you do try it, I would recommend using a flour cloth and straining out some of the water from the applesauce first. And don’t forget to come back and let me know if it worked! :)
Thanks for your question, Darla!
This recipe looks delicious! I don’t eat dairy though – do you know if coconut milk would work instead of the heavy whipping cream?
I haven’t tried that yet, but it should work! Let me know how it goes.
Milkadamia makes a really good “heavy cream” creamer, too!
After eating a Keto diet for two years last November these are my absolute favorite go to muffins. 🙏🏼 FYI I leave the olive oil out and have not noticed a difference yet. It was by accident the first time but I like the consistency a little better. Happy New Year and thanks again for a delicious recipe!
Oh wow! That’s such a nice compliment to wake up to today! Thanks for sharing that and thanks for sharing your adjustment with the olive oil. It’s so helpful to other readers to see what people are doing with my recipes. I hope 2022 is a good year for you, Carma!
Such a great question, Bonnie! Thanks for asking. Monkfruit is my preferred sweetener! I haven’t tried this one yet with monkfruit (I need to!), but you need more monkfruit, since stevia is naturally sweeter than monkfruit or sugar (you generally need 1/3-1/2 the amount of stevia versus sugar, monkfruit, or erythritol). I would try about 1/3-1/2 cup of monkfruit instead of the 3 tablespoons of stevia this calls for. Let us know how it goes, and enjoy the muffins! :)
Can I omit the 1 tbsp coconut flour? I don’t have any and don’t want to buy a bag just for 1 tbsp. Or can I substitute 1 tbsp almond flour or another ingredient? Also can I sub the same amount of Swerve sweetener for the Stevia? Thanks ka I am excited to try this recipe!
Yes, you can omit it. If you can, I would keep it in, but it’s not going to ruin your muffins if you leave it out. The coconut flour is finer, fluffier, and helps to keep the muffins together a bit. You can actually buy pretty small bags of coconut flour now, and a lot of keto recipes do call for it. But I understand the hesitation.
Thank you for the recipe! It is very good! I didn’t have pumpkin so tried unsweetened applesauce. It worked!
You’re so welcome. I’m glad you liked the muffins, and thanks so much for stopping by to share your sub!
Thanks for your suggestion
Sure thing!
I made these delicious muffins today but tweaked it by using 1 cup Almond flour and 1/4 cup Ground Flaxseed..it came our perfect. Thanks for this delicious recipe
Oh, great idea! Thanks for sharing your changes!