Spring has sprung and these scrummy keto lemon sour cream muffins (cake tho, right?) are the perfect way to celebrate! Tender lemon muffin base (seriously, it’s tiny cake people – just keeping it real) with a crunchy streusel topping and a sweet and tart lemon glaze – it’s everything you’ve ever wanted a in a low carb muffin! #butreally #itscake
As most of you know by now, I live on an island in Belize where the weather is perpetually summer-like. The temperatures here range from HOT most of the year, to spontaneous combustion is imminent if you’re outside more than 5 minutes in August. ☀️ ? ?
So it’s not easy for me to get in the mindset of “yay, Spring!” like it used to be when I lived in New York and froze half the year.
Still, I got very excited when out of the blue, lemons showed up on the island about a month ago. ?? ? ? ? ?
They don’t have yellow lemons here usually – it’s all limes all the time in Belize. Which I’m OK with for the most part. But this time of year still means lemon and strawberry (I scored some of those too, new recipe later this week, Woot!) flavored everything to me – so I bought a huge bag of them.
I was amused by the cashier’s obvious confusion – first at the weird yellow limes, and second that I was buying at least 20 of them! ? I couldn’t wait to get started cooking lemon flavored everything – the only problem was that I was leaving for the states for 3 weeks and had no time to use them before they went bad…
So I froze them out of desperation, which I’d never done before. ❄️ ? ?
I was terrified that they’d be ruined when I got home from our trip – but it worked great! As an added bonus, when I thawed and cut them in half to juice them with my hand-held citrus crusher thingy, it was easy to get every last drop out of them – much more so then when they were fresh.
The moral of this story is that if you have more lemons then you can use – you can totally freeze them whole and thaw them as needed! I even zested them with no problems! ?
So, long story long – against all odds I was able to get lemons in Belize and I made you these keto lemon sour cream muffins with them. And THEY ARE GOOD. SO. GOOD.
Don’t be intimidated by the multiple steps in these keto lemon sour cream muffins either – the muffin portion is made in the blender so it’s super easy, and the streusel topping is mixed with a fork in a bowl, as is the easy lemon glaze. There is lemon juice and/or zest added to every component, so it’s sooooooper lemony people – in the best possible way.
Lemon lovers rejoice! ?? ? You are going to LURV this one!
You might be wondering why the sour cream. It’s an honest question. I wasn’t sure about it myself, but I used to order an amazing lemon sour cream pound cake years ago, and it was so very tasty that I thought I’d try it in these keto lemon sour cream muffins.
The sour cream made the muffins very tender, super rich, and the tart cream flavor really complemented the lemon. I’m hooked, and you will be too!
I made these both as muffins and as mini loaves, to see if it would bake up ok both ways. It totally did, and I’m on the fence about which way I liked it more. Both tasted the same, but I liked being able to just slice off a small piece of the loaf without committing to an entire muffin.
That being said, my muffins were pretty large – so if you make them average sized then you’ll probably be getting about the same amount either way.
The point is – you can make these keto lemon sour cream muffins in almost any format and they will be great. I’m including baking times for multiple sizes in the instructions, but please be aware that ovens and cooking times may vary. Bake it until a toothpick inserted comes out clean and you’ll be in business.
Keto Lemon Sour Cream Muffins Recipe Video ??
Keto Lemon Sour Cream Muffins – Low Carb
- Yield: 8 to 12 servings 1x
- Category: Low Carb Muffin Recipe
- Cuisine: American
Description
Tender lemon cake, topped with crunchy streusel and a sweet tart lemon glaze! Keto, low carb, Atkins friendly, and gluten free to boot!
Ingredients
For the muffin:
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 3/4 cup granulated erythritol sweetener **
- 3 large eggs
- 3 Tbsp lemon juice
- 1 Tbsp lemon zest
- 1 1/2 cup superfine almond flour **
- 1/2 cup coconut flour **
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp xanthan gum or arrowroot powder
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup full fat sour cream
- pinch of salt
For the streusel topping:
- 3 Tbsp butter, melted
- 3/4 cup superfine almond flour **
- 3 Tbsp erythritol sweetener **
- 1 tsp lemon zest
- 1 Tbsp coconut flour
For the lemon glaze:
- 1/2 cup confectioners style erythritol **
- 3 Tbsp lemon juice
Instructions
For the muffin layer:
- Combine all of the muffin ingredients in a blender and blend for 2-3 minutes or until smooth.
- The mixture is thick so you’ll have to stop a few times and scrape the sides down with a silicone spatula to get it going the first minute or so.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (F) and then start your streusel topping.
For the streusel topping:
- Combine the melted butter, almond flour, sweetener, lemon zest and coconut flour in a small bowl and stir well with a fork until a crumbly dough forms.
- Spoon the muffin batter from the blender into 8 large or 12 regular muffin cups (if you’re using foil or thin paper then place inside a muffin tin to support them) – or into a small loaf or cake pan.
- Crumble the streusel topping in pea sized pieces over the top of the batter.
- Bake on the middle rack of your oven at 350 degrees for 35 minutes (large muffins) or 25 minutes (average sized muffin) or 50 minutes (loaf or cake pan) OR until a toothpick or knife inserted in the center comes out clean.
For the lemon glaze:
- Combine the erythritol and lemon juice in a cup or small bowl. Stir with a fork until smooth.
- If too runny, add another Tbsp of erythritol (or more) until an opaque but still pourable glaze forms.
- If too stiff to pour, add another tsp of lemon juice to loosen.
- Pour the glaze over the muffins after they are baked and slightly cool. Serve warm or room temperature.
- Store any leftovers covered in the refrigerator for up to a week.
Notes
** For best results, see what brands I use and recommend for my recipes over on the IBIH pantry recommendations page!
Approximate nutrition info is as follows:
1 average muffin (1/12th of recipe) or loaf slice contains:
290 calories, 25g fat, 4.5g net carbs, 8g protein
1 gargantuan (bakery sized) muffin or 1/8th of recipe contains:
435 calories, 37g fat, 7g net carbs, 12g protein
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 muffin
- Calories: 290
- Fat: 25g
- Carbohydrates: 4.5g net
- Protein: 8g
If you love lemon desserts like I do – you should also try my low carb Lemon Cloud Pie from last season! It’s a stunner for sure! Oh and my favorite keto lemon bars are pretty awesome too – just sayin’.
Can’t get enough delicious low carb recipes? Download all five of my e-cookbooks (over 150 delicious low carb recipes) for just $19.99 for a limited time!
Donna says
LOVE these!! 🍋
I’ve made other Keto muffins and they ended up crumbly… these are soft, moist, lemony and ohhh sooo good! Thank you for a delicious treat!
★★★★★
Jennifer says
This recipe is delicious! I have made it multiple times. I substitute ground flax for the xanthan gum (because that’s what I have on hand.) This last time I made it I skipped the streusel topping and just added the icing and it was perfect.
★★★★★
Suz says
Tried these this morning for a Saturday morning treat with coffee. Oh my,these were fantastic! I made according to directions only used half erythritol and half monk fruit. sweetener I feel like these would not have been as good without the kick from the glaze. I almost didn’t add that, but I’m so glad I did. DH non keto loved these too. He added whipped cream as he always does. I thought they were perfect as is and looked like a perfect muffin also. I mounded mine up before baking, which made them look like they rose and had a nice muffin look. Beautiful, thanks again.
Teresa says
Have tried to bake these 3 times now. Each time they come out tasting like we’re eating DRY almond or coconut flour that has a little lemon flavor. I mean DRY!
They are difficult to remove as they crumble all over the place. Again just so unbelievably DRY.
We tried melting butter and pouring over.
My husband actually gagged and reached for his coffee.
Did anyone else encounter this prob? He and I followed the recipe to the letter each time. Can’t figure out why when most all the reviews are so highly rated.
The crumbly top seems to add to the overall dry texture!
★
Mellissa Sevigny says
If anything these are on the moist side, it’s got to be your coconut or almond flour brand or something. That definitely does not make any sense. Are you accidentally switching the quantities of coconut and almond flour? Maybe putting mostly coconut flour in? Because that would account for dryness since coconut flour is highly absorbent.