23 Calorie Low Sugar Pistachio Muffins
This recipe makes easy, low sugar pistachio mini muffins that are only 23 calories each! You seriously can’t beat that with a muffin! Am I Right?
Muffins are meant to be sweet, and these pistachio muffins are no exception. But, when you are counting calories like me for weight maintenance or weight loss, every calorie counts! {see my weight loss story here}
So, because I love muffins, and I want to keep the weight off, I made this recipe both low in sugar and low in calories.
Want to save this post?
Enter your email below and get it sent straight to your inbox.
How to make these muffins low calorie and low sugar
To do this, I made three, very important substitutions.
- The first substitution was to switch the sugar in a muffin recipe for zero calorie sugar. I like the Lakanto Monkfruit Baking sweetener. You can get it at Costco, and it’s a 1:1 swap, meaning, for every cup of regular sugar, you can just use 1 cup of the Lakanto sugar.
- The second thing I added was some sugar free pistachio pudding mix! This gave the muffins the pistachio flavor, without adding pistachios, which are high in calories.
- The third low calorie substitution is applesauce in place of oil or fat. This works well for me every time, and saves a lot of calories!
I also made them into mini muffins so that they come already portion controlled. A mini muffin vs. a large muffin can range greatly in calories.
Also, a muffin from a bakery or Costco can be extraordinarily high in calories. These two muffins, a 520 calorie muffin from a bakery, and a 600 calorie muffin from Costco were outrageous. I know cookies with less calories than this!
So, a mini pistachio muffin with zero calorie sugar is the way to go! You can still enjoy your treat, but also have enough calories leftover to eat actual meals the rest of the day.
This recipe for low sugar muffins makes 30 mini muffins, when you use 1 tablespoon of batter in each.
Ingredients for healthy Pistachio Muffins
The ingredients for this healthy breakfast muffin recipe, I used:
- 1 1/4 cup self rising flour- I like the self rising flour these days! That way, you don’t have to use baking soda or baking powder to get a rise. It’s been making terrific baked goods for me!
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 2 tablespoons sugar free pistachio pudding mix. I love this pudding mix!! I buy several boxes at a time. If I have any on hand, I will stir it in to nonfat plain greek yogurt and it’s my favorite afternoon treat!
- 1/3 cup Lakanto Monkfruit Baking Sweetener. There it is.. the sugar that has zero calories. I like that it bakes well with muffins.
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon almond extract. The almond extract tastes like pistachio to me. It’s better than vanilla extract for the flavor of these sugar free muffins.
- 1/4 cup applesauce. Instead of oil, I like applesauce. I’m not afraid of fat in food, but it does make calories higher, and I like to keep the calories low!
- 1/2 cup buttermilk. Buttermilk is great for baked goods like muffins. It makes a tender baked good, without the fat and calories. If I don’t have any buttermilk, I’ll make the same thing with 1/2 cup 2% milk and 1 tablespoon lemon juice and let it sit for 10 minutes. It curdles just a little bit, and then it’s ready.
Then, if you have some, you can crush some pistachios for top. It’s not necessary, but they are pistachio muffins after all!
So, the total for each mini muffin comes to Calories 23, 1 g protein, 6 g carbs, 0 g fat
23 calorie Low Sugar Pistachio Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cup self raising flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons sugar free pistachio pudding
- 1/3 cup monk sugar (or zero calorie sugar)
- 1 medium egg
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1/2 cup buttermilk
Optional
- 1 tablespoon crushed pistachios
Instructions
- Mix dry ingredients together: Flour, salt, and sugar free pudding mix.
- Mix wet ingredients in a separate bowl. Fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.
- Bake at 375 for 10 minutes
any tips for making these with the Kodiak high protein mix to get more protein?
That would be a good thing to try- or you could also replace 2 tablespoons of the flour with protein powder. That should work too.
Strange texture and had no taste.
Would Splenda work instead of the monk sugar?
It doesn’t bake quite the same, but if you like the taste of splenda, I’d definitely give it a go!
Kind of not fair comparing those store bought muffins to something that is a size of a tablespoon
That’s true!
Can I use gluten free flour or whole-wheat flour and if I can icy I need to put baking powder or baking soda or both ??
A good gluten free flour should work. Report back and let me know if you try it and how it turned out!
I made these today and I think they are DELICIOUS!!!!!! I will be making them a lot. Some sugar free cool whip would go great on top. Could you bake them as a cake instead of muffins?
I’m so glad you liked them! And cool whip on top of ANYTHING is always a good idea. I’m definitely obsessed!
I don’t see why you couldn’t do a cake. I’d start with an 8×8 pan, and bake for probably 30 minutes at 350.
Very easy to make, but completely flavorless.
Sounds interesting, but the addition of apple sauce means they do have sugar in them
OH my gosh Melanie!! You are exactly right. I’m usually such a stickler about the label of “no-sugar”, so I don’t know how I overlooked this! I’ll have to do some recipe testing and try other true sugar free ingredients and fix the recipe.
Thanks for reaching out!
Hey there! Is there anything i can substitute the buttermilk for? Ty for great recipe!
You can mix milk with lemon juice and let it sit for about 10 minutes and it is a great substitute!
these turned out great!
Is it really alright to mix the uncooked pudding mix into the muffins? Isn’t it better to cook the pudding first and then mix it in the ingredients?
Yes, you don’t cook the pudding at all. I use the powder for the flavor.