High protein, gluten free, low fat OR low carb strawberry cream & blueberry coconut muffins!

These are based on my former post “High protein, gluten free, low fat OR low carb chocolate ginger muffins”

 

There’s two versions of this: a higher carb, low fat and high protein recipe, and a higher fat, lower carb and high protein version. That gives me some flexibility depending what else I’d eaten in the day and whether it was the fat or the carbs I needed to keep down. Being on a particularly high protein vs low fat diet (read: nutritious macro based eating & exercise plan tailored to my specific requirements – REMEMBER: Everyone’s different!) at the moment I’m struggling to get the protein without exceeding the fat intake, so I’m making the higher carb one more often, but some will prefer the lower carb higher fat version.

Note: I’ve tried to increase the protein content further; more protein powder can be added but it starts getting pretty dry and dense. You may not mind – I’d recommend trying the recipes below, and, if you need more protein, add more protein powder plus a little more liquid (milk or dairy free equivalent, or even water or juice). You could also add eggs (fat and protein) or egg while (protein).

The only difference in the recipe of the chocolate ginger protein muffins was that the low fat (and therefore higher carb) version was made using dates; swapping those out for peanut butter lowered the carbs (but obviously increased the fat).

I’ve been making these for a while and have experimented a little with other flavours; I added some espresso and some instant coffee powder, coconut flakes and cranberries for example.

This recipe below is for the strawberry cream & blueberry coconut muffins. I was inspired to make this recipe based on seeing some strawberry and cottage cheese muffins a friend had posed on Facebook. Very happy with the way they have turned out!

I’ve basically swapped out the dark chocolate protein powder for strawberry cream protein powder. I guess plain strawberry or other fruits (raspberry, banana) could work nicely too. I reduced the dates a little and swapped out the ginger cubes for blueberries, and added some coconut flakes – delicious!

Below is the recipe for the HIGH CARB, LOW FAT version.

1 cup oats*
1/3 cup almonds (or cashews or other nut of your choice**)
1/4 cup sunflower seeds (or pumpkin seeds)
1/2 cup dates
1/2 cup coconut flakes
2-3 ripe small/medium bananas
2/3 cup blueberries in the mix plus a handful to add at the end
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
3.5-4 scoops strawberry cream protein powder***
10-20ml milk****

*Whilst oats are naturally gluten free, they are often processed alongside wheat and you may need to ensure you use certified gluten free oats if you need this to be gluten free
**If you are allergic to nuts, skip these and add some more seeds or more banana/oat
***I actually use 1 scoop of rice protein powder and 3 scoops of strawberry cream protein powder
****With the blueberries rather than the ginger in the chocolate ginger recipe this was a much wetter mix and you want less milk, if any at all; you want a wet but thick ‘dough’ that doesn’t really drip off the spoon and only falls off under it’s own weight. My mix was much wetter. It’s not a major problem; it just means you need to cook for longer. Also: diary intolerance; substitute for almond or coconut milk; even a little water should be ok

Add all the ingredients (except the milk and a handful of blueberries) to a food blender and add the milk if the consistency is too dry.  I added a handful of halved blueberries at the end and stirred in slowly so that there were mashed blueberries adding to the moisture of the dough but also some nice blueberry chunks in there. Scoop the dough into a muffin tray (or suitable cupcake holders) and bake in a pre-heated oven at 170C for 22-30 mins. The thinner ‘flakes’ on top (i.e. it’s hard to get smooth and there should be ‘peaks’ in the dough) should be getting almost black. There should be some ‘spongyness’ if you poke the muffins but they must also have some firmness to ensure they’ve cooked in the middle.

Leave to cool before removing from tray.

 

To make the LOW CARB, HIGHER FAT version:

The below is what I’ve done with the chocolate ginger version; I haven’t tried it with these but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work:

Replace the dates with peanut butter (or suitable nut butter/nut free alternative). You may need to adjust the volume of milk accordingly.

-that’s the only difference!

What this gives you from a macro nutrients angle is (according to my measurements and the use of the MyFitnessPal app for the chocolate ginger muffin; these should be very similar as there’s less dates but more blueberries replacing the dates and the ginger plus a little coconut):

Per muffin (usually makes 10):

HIGH CARB, LOW FAT version

Carbs: 52% (25.2g)
Fat: 22% (4.8g)
Protein: 26% (12.2g)

(% value is the % of calories rather than weight – i.e. fat is more calorific per gram)
182 calories per muffin

LOW CARB, HIGHER FAT version

Carbs: 38% (20.9g)
Fat: 37% (9g)
Protein: 25% (14g)

(% value is the % of calories rather than weight – i.e. fat is more calorific per gram)
205 calories per muffin

Note that this also depends on your peanut butter – some are higher fat or may have added sugar which will increase the carb content.

Enjoy!!