These gluten-free and keto cranberry orange muffins are truly special, and some of the most aromatic muffins you’ll ever bake. Think of a ridiculously tender and moist sweet-orange crumb, paired with wonderful tangy cranberries. This recipe provides a delightful twist on traditional muffins, making them suitable for those following ketogenic or gluten-free diets.
Understanding the Ingredients
Creating the perfect keto muffin requires a careful selection of ingredients to maintain the desired low-carb and gluten-free profile.
- Flour Blend: The recipe uses a mixture of super fine almond flour and coconut flour. For the almond flour, either Anthony’s or WellBees work great as they both have super fine grinds.
- Psyllium Husk: Don’t skip the psyllium husk. It helps retain moisture, create structure (i.e. it’s highly responsible for the killer crumb), and it just so happens to be a killer source of fiber (it’s responsible for 2g of fiber per muffin 💩!). Without it, your muffins will be more crumbly and they may collapse more when cooling.
- Xanthan Gum: We also highly suggest you do not skip the xanthan gum here, as your muffins will be more crumbly. Borrowed from molecular cooking, xanthan gum is the binding agent which makes your toothpaste jelly-like (and your cream cheese, well cream cheese-like). And it’s also the most common gluten-replacer in gluten free baking.
- Sweeteners: These keto cranberry orange muffins work well with Swerve, xylitol and Pyure. And if you’re doing the orange glaze, which comes highly recommended, your best options are Swerve or xylitol (same amounts). They’re roughly 1-to-1 in sweetness to sugar (and you need the ‘bulk’ here guys!). So get your blender out, make sure it’s completely dry, and process your sweetener of choice until powdered. Or you can always grab a bag of Powdered Swerve.
- Orange Flavor: Yes, oranges are a no-go in the keto diet. But you’ll often find orange zest (and a small amounts of orange juice) scattered throughout keto baking (and even cooking). But know that you can always opt for an orange extract.
Baking the Perfect Keto Cranberry Muffins
Follow these step-by-step instructions to create these delicious muffins:
- Preparation:
- Preheat oven to 350°F/180°C.
- Grease and flour (with coconut flour) a muffin tray.
- Egg Whites: Beat egg whites until soft peaks form and set aside.
- Dry Ingredients: Whisk together in a medium bowl almond flour, coconut flour, psyllium husk, xanthan gum, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
- Wet Ingredients: In a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed, beat egg yolks with sweetener until pale and fluffy, 1-3 minutes. Incorporate orange zest (or extract), vanilla extract, vinegar, and melted butter.
- Combine: Add flour mixture slowly, alternating with water (or orange juice) and beating until well incorporated.
- Fold: Fold egg whites little by little and gently into batter. The dough will be thick initially, but will loosen up as you begin to incorporate the egg whites.
- Add Cranberries: Fold in cranberries.
- Bake:
- Spoon batter onto the prepared muffin tray.
- Bake for 18 to 20 minutes (covering with aluminum foil at minute 13-15), until deep golden and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
- Cooling: Allow to cool for 15 minutes in the pan before removing, and cool completely in a rack (they will be very tender when warm, so handle gently).
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