The best paleo blueberry muffins ever! They have a great texture, like angel food cake, and a delicious almond taste. Grain-free, gluten-free and dairy-free.
I wanted to hold off on posting these paleo blueberry muffins until it got a bit cooler but they’re just so good I can’t keep them to myself any longer. After making my paleo chocolate chip muffins, I knew I had to make a blueberry version.
And I’m so happy I did because these are my favorite blueberry muffins ever. Scratch that. Favorite muffins ever. They’re light and have an awesome texture, almost like angel food cake!
You know how some paleo muffins have this eggy, weird texture thing going on? Not these. Beating the egg whites and then folding them into the batter seems to make all the difference and creates the angel food-like texture (here’s some actual gluten-free angel food cake!).
And the flavor?! I’ve probably mentioned it about 14 times, but I have something of an almond extract addiction. That + a whole bunch of blueberries and I can hardly contain myself.
I thought the coconut sugar would be a little strange in these or would conflict with the almond extract but nope. It was perfect.
I have to say that I made the hazelnut version of these muffins (these paleo hazelnut muffins) seven times before posting them and they came out a little differently every time. Sometimes they had the angel food cake thing going on and sometimes they were more like normal muffins.
I’ve only made these three times and they’ve been angel food cake-ish every time so I have hope that that’s just how they are.
Maybe the difference is unblanched hazelnut meal versus blanched almond flour? Or maybe it was just the weather.
One thing I’ve learned is to use a glass or stainless steel bowl when beating the egg whites. Oil residue on some plastic bowls can prevent the egg whites from beating properly.
It worked in some of my plastic bowls, but in one, I couldn’t even get them to soft peaks. It happened a few times so I’m sure it’s not a coincidence. One time all I could get was soft peaks and I decided to bake them, anyway. They still came out perfectly!
If this egg beating business sounds too cumbersome, try these gluten-free mini blueberry muffins from What The Fork Blog!
If you’re looking for the best paleo muffins, look no further. I’m super excited about this recipe if you can’t tell. :D I’d love to hear how they come out for you!
Want more amazing paleo muffin recipes? I have you covered! Check out my paleo apple muffins if you’re in more of an autumnal mood. These paleo carrot cake muffins are also ridiculously delicous! And for another paleo blueberry treat, check out this paleo blueberry crisp.
The Best Paleo Blueberry Muffins Ever (grain-free, gluten-free, dairy-free)
- Prep Time:
- Cook Time:
- Ready in:
- Yield: 12 muffins
Ingredients
- 4 large eggs, divided, room temperature
- 1/2 cup (100 grams) coconut sugar (please weigh this! If you don't have a scale, pack your cups super tight)
- 2 1/2 teaspoons water
- 1 1/4 teaspoons almond extract
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 160 grams (this is about 1 cup + 9 1/2 tablespoons) blanched almond flour
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups (280 grams) fresh blueberries, divided
- about 1/4 cup (20 grams) sliced almonds, optional
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 325 °F (167 °C) and line a muffin pan with 12 liners.
- Place the egg whites in a medium glass or stainless steel mixing bowl and the egg yolks in a large mixing bowl (glass or plastic is fine). If you don't have a glass or stainless steel bowl for the egg whites, make sure your plastic mixing bowl is super clean and free of any oil residue as this can interfere with beating the egg whites.
- Beat the egg whites and 2 1/2 tablespoons (31 grams) coconut sugar at high speed until stiff peaks form (about 30-90 seconds). Keep the beaters in the mixer.
- In the bowl with the egg yolks, add the remaining 69 grams coconut sugar, water, vanilla extract and almond extract. Beat for about 30-60 seconds at high speed or until thickened and lighter in color. Mix in the salt and then use a silicone spatula to fold in the almond flour.
- Fold in the egg white mixture to the egg yolk mixture just until combined. Do not over mix but make sure it's thoroughly combined.
- Fold in 1 1/4 cups (175 grams) blueberries. Fill each liner almost all the way full. Sprinkle some sliced almonds on top, if desired, and then sprinkle a tablespoon of blueberries on top of the almonds.
- Bake for 21-23 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and the tops of the muffins no longer appear wet. They should feel springy when touched. The muffins will rise quite a bit but will fall back down during cooling.
- Let cool for 3 minutes in the pan and then carefully remove the muffins from the pan and cool completely on a wire rack.
- Cover and store at room temperature for 24 hours or refrigerate for up to 3 days. These get quite moist on the second day! I prefer them straight from the oven or some hours after baking.
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117 comments on “The Best Paleo Blueberry Muffins” — Add one!
2 comments are awaiting moderation!
Is it possible to use Truvia as substitute for the coconut sugar? Diabetic hubby.
I’ve never used it so I’m not really sure. Does it say on the bag that it’s a 1-to-1 sub for granulated sugar? If so, it’d probably work. Sorry I don’t have a better answer for you!
Hi!
Plan on making these over the weekend. I don’t see any leaveners in the ingredients list. Will the egg white foam be enough to help the muffins rise? Could I add a 1/4 tsp of cream of tartar to stabilize the egg whites?
Thanks in advance!
Hi! Sorry for just now seeing your question. The recipe is correct as written. :) I haven’t tried adding cream of tartar to these muffins (or anything other than angel food cake) so I can’t really recommend it. But it’s really not needed! How I and the reviewers made them is as you see in the recipe.
These muffins are the bomb! I just love your blog! Thank you for making Paleo baking fun and delicious!
Aww, yay! You’re welcome. So happy you like the recipes! Thanks for your comment. :)
I was wondering if you have the nutritional breakdown of these? Like how much fat and protein and carbs, etc.
my coconut sugar is brown and the muffins came out pretty dark. Could that be the reason? The batter was medium beige color
Thank you.
I don’t have that info but you can copy and paste the recipe here for the nutritional profile, if you’d like. I don’t know if you can tell by the pictures, but my muffins were also kind of beige. They’re definitely not white like regular muffins made with all-purpose flour. I hope you still enjoyed them! Thanks a bunch for your comment (and sorry for my slow reply!). :)
These are really good! I was really scared when baking as it was my first time baking with almond flour. Also, the resultant batter looked too “foamy” because of the folded in whipped egg white. My very picky hubby said this is a keeper. He was also glad that a paleo muffin can taste so good.
I’m so happy that your first time baking with almond flour went well and that you and your husband enjoyed the muffins. :) Thanks for your comment and so sorry for just now seeing it! I’m in the process of moving and things are chaotic.
I made these this morning — great recipe! I don’t have a food scale, so did my best with the measurements provided and my muffins came out great. The separating of eggs, separate processes and careful folding are well worth the extra effort (I’m a lazy and reluctant baker).
My Modifications:
I flip-flopped the amounts of almond extract and vanilla extract, as I like almond as a “hint” but love vanilla. Happy with how this came out… the almond note is still there. :-)
The recipe is much appreciated!
Hi Dani! Sorry for just now seeing your comment. I’m happy that you found them worth the time and effort! I’m also quite a lazy baker and usually don’t post recipes like this, but they’re so good I couldn’t resist! Thanks a bunch for your comment. :)
Hi Erin,
I tried these muffins today. They were very good! The problem for me was that I don’t have a mixer; I just have a Braun food processor. So when I mixed the egg whites I never got them to beat up to a fluffy egg white. The coconut sugar is quite sweet too. Anyway I just kept following the recipe and somehow they turned out okay. I used pecans instead of almonds. The food processor is plastic so maybe that’s why the egg whites never beat up to nice peaks. Anyway they were’nt a failure. I might get a hand mixer and try them again.
Hi Elizabeth! I’m so sorry that I just now saw your comment. I hope you’ll try them again with a hand mixer so that the egg whites will beat properly. Then I really think you’ll find them better than okay. :) And if you don’t get one but want to try them again, just make sure the plastic bowl is totally free of any oily residue. I definitely had that issue a few times when I used plastic bowls! Thanks for your comment.
You can ALWAYS use a whisk to make fluffy egg whites…..and a metal bowl (glass in a pinch) copper if you have it. It just takes a lot of whisking.
Thank you Jane for the reminder! I remember my mother telling us this to be true and had us whisk the eggs whites by hand! She told us that it is great for your arm muscles, to keep them in shape. The egg whites were perfect, too!
HI, Erin. I made your delicious Best Paleo Blueberry Muffins Ever and you’re right, they are the best. My husband and I ate half of them (6) for breakfast this morning and he is also hooked on them. I was so excited about the results, I wanted to send you a picture, but don’t think it’s possible. I followed the recipe exactly and they came out perfect first try! Thank you for your recipe.
Hi Diana! I’m so happy that you and your husband enjoyed the muffins. :) I’d love to see a picture (and for others to be able to see it, too!). Are you on Facebook? It’d be great if you could go to my Facebook page and under the four pictures at the top, there’s a white box that says, “Write something on this page.” You can upload your picture there! If you’re not on Facebook, no worries. :) Thanks a bunch again for your feedback.
These came out so fabulous! I was worried because I was trying to use up some sour blueberries and the coconut sugar doesn’t taste very sweet to me. But once they cooked, the blueberries were much better and these are just sweet enough. The texture is AWESOME!! They are so light and fluffy, and they do not taste eggy at all. Also, I don’t have a kitchen scale, and they still came out perfect even though the coconut sugar I bought doesn’t really pack (not like brown sugar does). Thank you for such a great recipe!!
Aww, yay! So happy that they came out well for you! And it sounds like you loved the texture as much as I did. No more weird egg paleo muffins for us. ;) Thanks a ton for your nice comment!
Water ?
What’s your question?
These were heavenly, thank you!:)
I made them with chocolate chips!
Yay! So happy that you liked them. :) Thanks a bunch for your feedback!
Can I get the nutritional info? To include calories, carbs, fiber, sugar?
I don’t have that info but you can copy and paste the recipe here for the nutritional profile, if you’d like. :)
I baked these mixing by hand (I didn’t achieve the stiff peaks) and using regular almond flour instead of blanched (cause that’s what I had at the time) and they turned out lovely. Absolutely love the texture. Everybody is crazy about them.
That’s great! I’m so happy that they came out well and it’s comforting to know that they work despite not achieving stiff peaks. :) Thanks for your comment!
Sorry if this sounds like a silly question but I am very new to baking :) I have all of the ingredients needed to make this recipe, except for the blueberries! I do have strawberries. If I use strawberries to make these muffins instead of blueberries, will the baking time be the same or does it change? Also, could I make this with just chocolate chips instead of blueberries or strawberries? Thank you!
Not a silly question! The baking time should be the same. I haven’t tried these with strawberries, thinking they’d be too watery, but someone else did and enjoyed them. :) And chocolate chips are amazing in these! I’d love to hear how it goes. :)
Thank you so much for the quick reply! I will try these and let you know how they turn out :)
No problem! And awesome. Good luck! :)
Hi Erin,
I did the recipe but with strawberries instead of blueberries. The flavor was fine, however, the texture was way too “moist” for my liking. I think this is probably because of the strawberries since you said it might make them too watery.I will try again later this week with blueberries as the original recipe intended and will let you know how they turn out ;)
Oh no! These shouldn’t be too moist at all. Definitely was the strawberries. I’m sorry about that! Maybe the other person had quite dry strawberries. I’m sure the blueberry version will work out much better. :) Thanks for letting me know how it went!
Erin,
I just made these with blueberries!! O.M.G!! Soooo delicious!!! Loved them so much!! My boyfriend and I are obsessed with these now, lol. Thank you!
Yay! I’m thrilled it worked out better this time and that your boyfriend liked them, too. :) And awesome that you’re obsessed. There are definitely worse things to be obsessed with. ;) Thanks so much for coming back to let me know that the blueberry version was successful!
Hello Erin, just wondering if this recipe would work with frozen blueberries. They’re out of season here in Florida right now, but I do have some frozen ones in stock.
I haven’t tried it but I think it’d work. I’ve seen conflicting info about whether or not to thaw them first so I’m not sure what to recommend. If you’re not worried about some blue streaks, I’d thaw them first and pat them dry. That way, you don’t have to adjust the baking time. Hope you’ll enjoy them! :)
Thanks!
I just made these & they turned out great! I added lemon zest to the batter & on the top. O. M. G!! I’ve never folded egg whites in like this but it made the end result so fluffy! Thanks for the tip!!
I can’t wait to try a lemon version of these! It’s good to know that it works out well. :) And I’m so happy to hear that these came out well for you (especially after receiving that last comment!) I’m with you on the egg thing – I’ve always avoided recipes where you have to separate the eggs, just because I’m lazy, but it was so worth it here! Thanks a bunch for your feedback. :)
Help! What did I do wrong? I just made these blueberry muffins, followed the recipe to the letter & they went in stiff & came out unmoved, blueberries still not well combined (I thought when in the oven the batter would soften & all would blend in) & I didn’t/couldn’t fold any more as the dough was so stiff it wouldn’t allow. They didn’t rise at all & not very sweet either :( reluctant to use another batch of almond flour are you sure no either raising agent is needed? I whisked the whites well as directed.
I’ve made these and a hazelnut version about a dozen times so I’m sure no other raising agent is needed! It really sounds like something went wrong. The egg yolk + almond flour mixture may be a little thick, but adding the egg whites shouldn’t be a problem at all. And once the egg white and egg yolk mixture is combined, it shouldn’t be stiff at all. It should be puffy and light. Do you live in the US? Sometimes ingredients can vary from country to country. Did you use almond flour that’s made of blanched and ground almonds or did you use defatted almond flour, which is like a powder? That kind of flour is very rare in the US (I’ve never seen it and have never come across a recipe calling for it) but perhaps it’s more common in other countries. That could explain the problem. Did you use something other than coconut sugar? I ask because I think these muffins are plenty sweet, so perhaps you accidentally didn’t add the right amount? That kind of things happens to me all the time. I’m positive I followed the recipe and then realize that I added the wrong amount or something like that. I’m sorry it didn’t work for you! Hopefully we can figure out what the problem was. :)
Mine turned out perfectly!
Yay! Thanks again for your comments. :)
Hi Erin, I live in the UK where Almond Flour, as opposed to ground almonds, is available although expensive & I fear this is where I went wrong & should have used ground almonds which is mealy whereas the flour is a fine flour (as the name suggests!)I am so upset as I have tons of ground almonds & am pretty sure this would have made the light & moist muffins as pictured. So I’ve now used precious almond flour unnecessarily & ruined the muffins :( I will have to try again just to see if this is the case as everything else is as the recipe states.
Hi Katherine! There are only two other reviews from people who have made these muffins, but they’ve both been positive so I’m sure the flour must have been the culprit. I’m so sorry they didn’t come out for you! In the US, almond flour refers to what you’re calling ground almonds (almond flour is indeed ground almonds, but it’s still called almond flour). As far as I know, defatted almond flour isn’t even sold in the US. I just googled it and couldn’t find a source. I only know about the defatted kind because I once ordered something that translated to “almond flour” in Germany and it was the defatted kind, which I wasn’t even aware existed up until this point. I hope you’ll have better luck using the other kind of almond flour. :)
Yep, that was definitely the cause! Just made them again with Ground Almonds & they came out perfectly! So, assuming I’m not the only UK follower, perhaps a language/terminology note to use ground almonds and NOT Almond Flour in case anyone is unsure. Thanks for another wonderful Paleo treat, your recipes make all the difference to maintaining abstinence from regular sweet treats. Hope my feedback was helpful rather than negative :)
Yay! I’m happy they came out well this time. Your feedback wasn’t negative at all! And I appreciate you not leaving a bad rating after you made them the first time. ;) I just checked the stats on this post and less than 1% of the people who viewed it are from the UK and in the list showing the breakdown of where people are viewing it from, the UK is #8. It’s hard for me to anticipate ingredient differences for all those countries so I think what I’ll do is make a note at the bottom of the recipes saying something like, “If you live outside of the US, please check out my ingredients page, where I talk about ingredient differences.” I need to do a lot updating to it first, though. For example, since I wrote that, I’ve discovered that German (and I’m guessing all EU) eggs are sized differently. So when I write large eggs in a recipe, Europeans need to use medium eggs. I didn’t know this the first few years I blogged and used large German eggs (which are actually American medium) and very, very rarely get a comment about a recipe not coming out well so it must not make a big difference… but still. And thanks for the kind words about my recipes! That’s great that they help you abstain from the regular stuff. :)
These look AMAZING! I love angelfood cake..and a paleo version packed with blueberries…sign. me. up.!
I hope you get the chance to make them! I bet you’d love them. :D
Coconut sugar? Can you use anything else? They look so yummy!
Because you have to beat the egg whites together with the sugar, I don’t think anything would work other than coconut sugar or granulated sugar. Sorry about that! If you try them out, I hope you’ll enjoy them. :)
Super delish! My batch just cooled and my 4 year old and I love them! :) I posted a pictures on FB and copied your link into the info so my friends could make them as well
Yay! I was super excited to read this as this is the first feedback I’ve gotten on them. :) Thanks a ton for your comment and for sharing the link with your friends! If your post isn’t private, could you tag @Texanerin Baking on Facebook so I can see them? I’d love to see how they came out! No worries if the post is private. :)
Hi Erin, I just tagged you in the post! Let me know what you think of the pic!
P.S. – my daughter was BEYOND excited to have one for breakfast this morning!!
Aww, I love that she was excited about them! Thanks again for your comments. :)
Hi Emily! I don’t see a notification anywhere. I’m guessing you have your privacy settings set to friends only or something like that which is preventing me from seeing your post. But no worries! Thanks so much for trying. :)
Try this link! Maybe it will work :) https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10206304272956172&set=a.3746220184524.120600.1546878668&type=3&theater
It says, “Sorry, this content isn’t available right now. The link you followed may have expired, or the page may only be visible to an audience you’re not in.” I guess it’s because your Facebook posts aren’t public. Thanks again for trying! :)
I did just post the picture as a comment to the recipe for the muffins you have listed on your FB page. Maybe that will work…LOL
Woohoo! It worked. Thanks again! :)
Yep, that is probably what is happening! I can certainly email you the picture if you would like OR find “Emily Brantford” on FB and I will accept your friend request. No worries either way! – em
I’ve tried making almond flour muffins just once so far, and I felt like they turned out too gooey (even after baking longer than the recipe called for and having a toothpick come out clean). Is this the problem that beating the egg whites fixes? If so, I’d really like to try this recipe! :)
These are moist but not like other almond flour muffin recipes that seem kind of wet and eggy. I definitely recommend giving these a try! :)