Low Carb Cheesecake Muffin Recipe FAIL! I Barely Saved Them…

You know how it goes. You find this amazing low carb recipe online and you have all the ingredients on hand… so you whip it up! 🙂 Well, normal people do. I rarely cook lol. So when I test a recipe – it’s either a total disaster, or it turns out AMAZING (total shocker!) and becomes a favorite. You never really know though until you put it to the true test, right? I’m sure I’m not alone here…

Have you ever tried what seemed like a great low carb recipe – but it ended up being a total flop?

I do think this recipe could be saved, which is why I’m going to share it with you. But I don’t think I’ll use it again myself – ever. And I’ll explain why.

Low Carb Cheesecake Muffins Recipe

This is a pretty common recipe floating around all over the web with slight variations. But the base recipe is pretty much the same. I decided to try this recipe because it looked pretty 🙂 lol. But also because it fits into my personal criteria: very few ingredients. Obviously you can mix it up to suit your personal taste.

I notice a lot of people tend to put tons of artificial sweetener in this, but I don’t like things “sweet” – outside of the natural sweetness of things like berries & pecans (and yes, if you’re in ketosis, pecans DO taste sweet!).

Anyway, here’s MY version of the base recipe:

Ingredients:

• 8oz Block Philadelphia Cream Cheese
• 1 Raw Egg
• 1 TSP Vanilla Extract
• 2 TSP Torani Sugar Free Vanilla Syrup
• 3.5 TSP Sugar Free Mountain Berry Preserves

* 3 Net Carbs Each

Substitution Notes:

I added the Torani Sugar Free Vanilla Syrup for a tad of flavor, but you can use your own preferred sweetener – if you even want one. I also used the Sugar Free Mountain Berry Preserves because it’s a personal favorite (amazing flavor!!) but that could be replaced with fresh berries or your favorite sugar free preserves.

Instructions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Soften the cream cheese block (I put mine in the microwave). Use a hand mixer to blend the cream cheese, egg, vanilla extract and sugar free syrup (or other sweetener). Mix well until all the lumps are out.

This is meant to make SIX Low Carb Cheesecake Muffins.

I used a traditional muffin pan, and carefully measured out my batter to 1/4 cup of batter per “muffin” (so I could accurately track the carb count & macros for individual muffins) – and I ended up with SEVEN muffins.

I used a 1/2 TSP measuring spoon to carefully add a 1/2 TSP dollup of Sugar Free Mountain Berry Preserves to each muffin:

(You only see 6 in the photo, but I promise you there was a 7th. Not that it really matters, because I dropped it later – lol. But for accurate nutrition data, ya know…)

Here’s where I probably went wrong: I used tin & paper muffin cups in my muffin pan. I used both to test them both. I believe some of the recipes said to “grease the muffin pan” and not use “cups” – so you may be able to save this recipe by buttering a non-stick muffin pan liberally. The butter would probably make them taste better too. 🙂 Although they tasted fine, but I still won’t be making them again…

Another note: You could swirl your sugar free preserves into the muffin to spread out the flavor and make them “pretty”. Or mix it into the batter, maybe. I’m not very fancy in the kitchen, so you probably have better ideas to work with. 🙂

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.

I checked mine after 15 minutes. I took them out at 25 min. After they cooled, I didn’t think they were done enough, so I put them back in for ~10 more minutes. I might have gotten mine a little more “brown” than they were meant to be. 😛

Let me give you a closer look at them…

I know… your mouth is watering. Looks great, doesn’t it? 🙂

Like I said, I probably should have buttered the muffin pan generously instead of using tin & paper muffin cups. I tested both, and they “stuck” in both types of cups. And that’s not because I (possibly) overcooked them. The reason I put them back in the oven is because they were sticky and stuck and mushy, lol.

Not pretty. I had to scrape them out of the little cups to eat them. Because I had to eat every crumb to properly track “one muffin” in my meals & macros. 🙂 lol.

But that’s not the only reason I won’t be making these again…

I used the Recipe Calculator in MyFitnessPal to enter the ingredients and get accurate nutrition data – which I recommend you do for ANY low carb recipe you create or make. It’s the only way to properly track your macros.

They’re quite small for 3 net carbs each. That’s pretty high for MY carb budget. 😛

Darn the Philadelphia Cream Cheese for being 2 carbs per ounce! lol. A whole 8 ounce block will cost you 16 carbs.

As you can see in the nutrition facts (also created in the MFP recipe calculator), they are 3 net carbs each.

They’re also “high fat” of course, which makes them a great treat for a LCHF diet.

Note: Cream Cheese may stall your weight loss. Especially when consumed in large quantities. 🙂

On that note, there’s the issue of these being easy to eat, especially since they ARE small – and pretty tasty. REALLY tasty, actually. So that carb count could add up on you FAST!

Personally I love a tablespoon of cream cheese and a teaspoon (or just half) of sugar free preserves together. Yes, right off the block and right out of the jar.

Eaten together it tastes just like cheesecake to me! Melt in your mouth delicious. And there’s no time wasted in the kitchen, no cooking or dishes involved (other than spoons, which you can lick clean and put back – lol).

I don’t even know why people waste time in the kitchen making “low carb muffins” and such when you can stick a spoon in the fridge and come out with “cheesecake” and total happiness in your mouth in 3 seconds flat. 😛

Since I had to “ruin the prettiness” just to eat them, I decided to make a real meal out of one. You know me and my LOVE for pecans. Pecans make everything better! 🙂 And more filling. And more healthy. lol. It reminds me of when I was a kid and my mother would let me eat a cupcake –as long as I drank a whole glass of milk with it.

So here’s what I did: I mashed up one of the Low Carb Cream Cheese Muffins with 1/3 cup of pecan halves in a bowl… and called it “second lunch”:

Not pretty – but that was actually pretty tasty!

Of course, if anyone could totally ruin a recipe – it’s me. 🙂 But like I said, this wasn’t worth the time and effort – or dishes. I prefer to eat Philadelphia Cream Cheese and Sugar Free Mountain Berry Preserves right off the spoon!

So there you have it. A total recipe fail, with a potential save (buttering the pan) – IF it’s worth the carb count to you. And the time, and the dishes. I have a few left to finish off, so I am going to go mix one up in a bowl with some pecans & cottage cheese or something…

No sense letting them go to waste, since it’s not a food that affects MY waist.

🙂 *cheers*

Best,
Lynn Terry
aka @LowCarbTraveler

p.s. After all of that “exercise” in the kitchen yesterday making these… I’m 2 pounds lighter today. 🙂 lol.