Enjoy two great fall flavors together in these simple to make muffins. These delicious coconut flour cranberry pumpkin muffins are low carb and gluten free.
Don’t you just love the flavors of the Fall season? I certainly do. That’s why I combined two of my favorites in these gluten free low carb coconut flour muffins.
They are not too sweet and are very moist. And, they are full of cranberry and pumpkin flavors.
I know there are a lot of nut allergies out there so I chose to make them nut-free too. Many of my recipes combine coconut flour with almond flour, but I’ve been getting better at using only coconut flour.
Another great benefit is that coconut flour tends to be a bit cheaper than almond flour which makes going low carb friendlier on the budget. I’ve also found that baked goods made with coconut flour hold together better than those made with almond flour.
When using coconut flour, I like to sift it first. It always seems to be a bit clumpy straight from the container.
Sifting will break up the clumps and allow it to mix into the other ingredients better. For this cranberry pumpkin muffins recipe, I blended the coconut flour with baking powder and pumpkin pie spices first.
Then, in a separate bowl, I whipped up all the wet ingredients, including the sweeteners with an electric mixer. I like to beat the batter for a few minutes to make sure everything is well combined and fluff in some air pocket.
With coconut flour, you need to use about an equal part liquid and double or more eggs to get the batter right. This flour just soaks up liquid like crazy so your batter tends to be very thick.
I used dried cranberries from LC Foods, but you can also make your own low carb craisins at home using a dehydrator or in the oven on a low temperature.
LC Foods tends to sell out of the dried cranberries so I like to buy several bags when they are in stock. You can buy freeze dried cranberries from LC Foods, but you’ll want to reconstitute them in water before using in these cranberry pumpkin muffins.
The dried cranberries are folded into the batter at the end and then spooned into muffin cups. If you want smooth tops, you’ll have to use your fingers or a small spatula to shape the tops of each muffin before baking.
If you don’t smooth out the tops prior to baking, the muffins with have the bumps and ridgees from spooning. This is a matter of preference on how you want the muffins to look.
I didn’t bother taking the time to shape each muffin so you can see that the lumps and bumps remain after the muffins are baked. Not really a big deal to me.
You can certainly change up the spice mix if you like a bit more ginger and less cinnamon or even omit the cloves if you don’t like them. There’s a lot of different spice blends that work with pumpkin, but I always like to include cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg.
What’s your favorite low carb flour to bake with? Do you prefer coconut flour, almond flour, or a combination of the two? There’s an article that compares these two great low carb flours here.
I like to change things up a bit, but coconut flour is becoming my favorite. I also like adding a bit of whey protein powder which seems to help lighten up gluten free baked goods.
If you do give these cranberry muffins a try, I’d love to hear how they came out for you!
Coconut Flour Cranberry Pumpkin Muffins Recipe
Coconut Flour Cranberry Pumpkin Muffins
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup coconut flour sifted
- 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/2 cup granulated sweetener I used Swerve
- 1/4 cup Sukrin Gold packed, or other brown sugar substitute
- 1 cup pumpkin puree
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 2 tablespoons butter softened or melted
- 3 large eggs
- 2/3 cup sugar free dried cranberries homemade or LC Foods
- Cooking spray
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 375°F. Spray or line 12 muffin cups with liners.
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Combine coconut flour, baking powder, and spices; stir well with a whisk.
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Combine sweeteners, pumpkin, cream, butter, and eggs with a mixer at medium speed until well blended.
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Add coconut flour mixture to wet mixture; beat at low speed just until combined.
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Fold in cranberries.
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Spoon batter into prepared cups.
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Bake at 375°F for 25-30 minutes or until muffins spring back when touched lightly in center.
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Place on a wire rack; remove muffins after 15 minutes and cool completely on rack.
Recipe Notes
Makes 12 muffins
Nutrition per muffin: 6.4g, 3.8g net carb
Heather Z. says
OMG — some of these comments — does anyone here know how to problem solve?? If you want to substitute a dairy product for a non dairy product, then you will have to figure out the grams of fat. There is 2.5 grams of fat in 1 cup of almond milk (2.5g x .5 cups of almond milk = 1.25 g fat in 1/2 c.). There is roughly 6g of fat in 1 Tbsp. of heavy whipping cream (6x 8 Tbsp. in 1/2c. = 48 g of fat) That means to get the same amount of fat you’re going to have to add it back in either coconut oil, butter, or some other fat. How much?? Figure it out!! 48g – 1.25g = 46.25g that’s how much you need to add back in to accommodate the substitution. In butter that is roughly 4 Tbsp. Why? Because 1 Tbsp of butter has 12 g of fat x 4= 48g. Coconut oil has 14g of fat per Tbsp, so you will need to add 3.33 Tbsp. (or 3 Tbsp + 1 tsp — there are 3tsp. In a Tbsp). Wonder of wonders Heather Z how did you figure this out? A magic wand, crystal ball, did you ask Alexa?? No. I did this crazy thing called MATH!! Baking is Science, and requires basic math, or fractions. If you don’t know how to substitute, then don’t, you’ll screw up the recipe with all the expensive ingredients in it. Baking is chemistry, more so than cooking. You can’t just add a dash here and there of any ol’ thing: baking is precision. I haven’t even touched in the conundrum of adjusting the liquid ratio for substitutions. I love the one comment where the person didn’t have the common sense to eliminate the salt when using salted butter, even though the recipe made a point of spelling it out. And lo and behold, wouldn’t you know it — the baked good was too salty — ha ha ha! Does anyone read the directions and/or THINK anymore? Does everything have to be spelled out nowadays?? When I do a substitution, I’m taking a risk, albeit a calculated one. This dear lady who makes these recipes doesn’t have time to hold everyone’s hand. There are websites that are dedicated toward substitution assistance. Google them! (End of rant)
JW says
These look and sound fantastic! Is this a regular or mini muffin pan that you are using? Have you tried freezing these?
Thanks!
Lisa says
Made them in a regular size muffin pan. You could certainly use a mini to cut serving size down.
C says
I have almond flour (costly) and would prefer not to make another costly purchase of coconut flour for this recipe. May almond flour be substituted for coconut flour?
Lisa says
You can use almond flour. This recipe would require about 1 1/2 cups of almond flour (costly) and you may need a bit of xanthan gum or chia to hold it together. I love coconut flour because you use much less than almond flour and it costs less too!
Lisa P says
If I use the 1 1/2 cups almond flour, how will I know if I need to use can than gum? How much of the gum would I need to use? A tsp?
Thank you!
Lisa says
I’d try 1 1/2 teaspoon, but 1 tsp might be enough. The eggs help too.
Tova says
Hi looks yummy
Can I substitute almond milk for the heavy cream
Also I can’t do any fruits can I just omit or substitute with pecans ?
Lisa says
It would probably work, but it would reduce the fat. You may want to up the butter a bit and lessen the almond milk.
Lisa P says
How much more butter if almond milk is used?
Lisa says
I’d try increasing butter to 1/4 cup.
Tom Hume says
Please help me find the “Cab grams” , or the “carb exchange” for these muffins and breads.
Thank you.
Lisa says
It was mistakenly left out, but it is about 6.4g (does not include erythritol which has little to no impact).