CM (my other half – affectionately referenced as “Cookie Monster”), came home yesterday, saw the Spiced Hazelnut Muffins with Orange Cream, took a huge bite and asked, “why isn’t this chocolate?” In his mind, every sugar free dessert should be a low carb peanut butter brownie based dessert.
Okay, good point. Mind you, he literally asks this about every recipe that I make, so I should really learn to just not have him try something unless chocolate is involved (he doesn’t really like non-chocolate dessert items). Live and learn.

So today, for him, I made this batch of chocolate hazelnut muffins with peanut butter cream. He said I should call them “brownie muffins,” and so they shall be named.
Some notes on these low carb peanut butter brownie muffins:
- Peanut butter and chocolate is clearly one of the best combinations out there, therefore, low carb peanut butter brownie muffins are kind of an automatic win.
- If you wanted to bake these in a pan, instead of in muffin cups, to make regular low carb peanut butter brownies, increase the cooking time by about 5 minutes (but check them, as each oven is different).
- You could easily sub the hazelnut flour (ground hazelnuts, really) for pretty much any other nut – pecans, walnuts, peanuts, almonds.
- Baking these for slightly less time (maybe 2-3 minutes less) will yield a fudgier, denser middle. To get these results, check muffins after 15 minutes, and then every minute after, pulling them when the tops are juuuuuuuust starting to set up.
- I have a theory that you could replace the coconut manna and cocoa powder with melted sugar free chocolate, but I haven’t gotten around to testing it yet. I’ll keep everyone fully updated.
- You could also use full-fat coconut cream in place of the yogurt/skyr in the frosting – I’d use less than 1/4 cup, though. Start with 2 tbsp and mix thoroughly, then slowly add more in until you get the consistency you want.
Ingredients
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For the muffins:
- 3/4 cup hazelnut flour (finely ground hazelnuts)
- 1/4 cup coconut manna/butter
- 1/4 cup cocoa powder
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 10 drops of liquid stevia
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For the peanut butter frosting:
- 2 tbsp smooth peanut butter
- 4 tbsp plain quark, skyr, or Greek-style yogurt
- 1 tbsp hot water
- 5 drops of liquid stevia
Method
- Preheat the oven to 350. Grease a 6 wells of a muffin tin or use a silicon one. Either way is fine!
- Put the cup of hazelnuts in a food processor/blender and grind until fine.
- In a mixing bowl, add ground hazelnuts, cocoa powder, coconut butter, vanilla, and stevia. Mix until thoroughly combined.
- Add in eggs one at a time, completely mixing each in before adding the next.
- Distribute evenly into the muffin tin and bake for 20 minutes until a knife comes out clean when inserted in the middle.
- While the muffins are baking, blend peanut butter, hot water and stevia. Slowly mix in quark until a creamy frosting forms.
- Once muffins are pulled from the oven, let cool for 10 minutes before topping with the frosting!
Just found your blog and LOVE it.
One small thing: the BEST BEST combination is chocolate and hazelnut. The Italians have it right. Second is peanut butter + chocolate :)
Thanks for the recipes, the blog ,etc.!
Haha, yes!!! You are totally right! Chocolate and hazelnut is soooo good!
Thanks for commenting – I’m glad you like the blog! :D