Low calorie carrot cake cheesecake muffins
A soft, moist and fluffy carrot cake muffin filled with a velvety smooth cheesecake – what could be better? These low calorie carrot cake cheesecake muffins are truly what weight loss dreams are made of because how easy is a calorie deficit if you can satisfy your sweet tooth with a cheesecake filled carrot cake muffin for 90 calories?
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You know I love a good dessert mash up and for whatever reason, adding cheesecake to any dessert just makes it a million times better. Carrot cake is one of my all time favorite desserts so adding cheesecake to carrot cake sounds like a heavenly combo! I mean these low calorie carrot cake muffins are incredible and honestly at 67 calories, I didn’t think they could get any better. Until I added a dollop of cheesecake to the centre and omg – new favorite dessert unlocked! And with how easy these muffins are to make, I am prepared to crown them the best low calorie dessert ever – with your approval of course!
This recipe requires 10 ingredients and these fluffy bakery style muffins bake in just 20 minutes. Low calorie desserts while in a calorie deficit are great but I find that sometimes, they can taste quite bad and require ingredients you don’t have at home. These muffins are perfect for when you have a craving but don’t want to step out to buy ingredients. The ingredients required are all things you’ll already have lying around! Plus, these muffins come together in just 35 minutes so you can have these delicious muffins from kitchen counter to your belly in no time!
Looking for more low calorie carrot cake desserts? Try these low calorie carrot cake cookies or this low calorie carrot cake loaf!
Ingredients in low calorie carrot cake cheesecake muffins
Exact ingredient quantities can be found at the bottom of this page.
To make these low calorie carrot cake cheesecake muffins you will need:
Egg – This recipe calls for one egg at room temperature. To quickly get a refrigerated egg to room temperature, set on the kitchen counter for at least 30 minutes or in a bowl of warm water for at least 10 minutes.
Stevia or 0 calorie granulated sweetener – Any 0 calorie sweetener will work for this recipe as long as it is granulated. Be mindful of the conversion as the sweetener I use is a 1:2 ratio of stevia to sugar.
0% fat greek yogurt – Greek yogurt is thicker than regular yogurt and is perfect for adding moisture and volume to these muffins without adding too many calories. Fat-free regular yogurt will also work but might yield muffins that aren’t as soft or moist.
Vanilla – No muffin is complete without vanilla! I always use vanilla bean paste for an elevated vanilla flavor.
Plain/all-purpose flour – This recipe calls for good ol’ plain/all-purpose flour. For a gluten-free alternative, use gluten-free flour.
Baking powder + baking soda – A mix of both baking soda and baking powder will result in the most perfectly risen, bakery style muffins.
Shredded carrot – You can shred carrots to whatever size you like. I used a cheese grater for very finely shredded carrot so you get some in every bite!
Low-fat cream cheese – To make the cheesecake filling.
0 calorie icing/powdered sweetener – To make the cheesecake filling. You can make your own by blitzing 0 calorie granulated sweetener in a food processor until fine. You can sub for regular icing/powdered sugar but the calories will be higher.
Spices – I feel like the spices make a carrot cake! This recipe features a blend of ground cinnamon, ginger, cloves and nutmeg.
How to make low calorie carrot cake cheesecake muffins
- Pre-heat oven to 180ºC(350ºF). Prep a 6-count muffin tray with 6 muffin liners and set aside.
- In a medium bowl, make the cheesecake filling by mixing together the cream cheese, vanilla and 0 calorie icing/powdered sweetener until smooth and well combined. Set aside.
- In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the egg and stevia until light and fluffy. Add the yogurt and vanilla and whisk again until smooth.
- Add the flour, spices, baking powder and baking soda and whisk until well combined. Fold in the shredded carrot.
- Pour 1/12 of the batter into a muffin liner, add a dollop of the cheesecake filling and top with another 1/12 of the batter. Repeat for the remaining 5 muffin liners until all the batter and cheesecake have been used up. The easiest way to get perfectly even muffins is to weigh the carrot cake batter and the cheesecake filling and divide both by 6 to get the amount per muffin.
- Place the muffins in the pre-heated oven and bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into either side of the batter comes out clean or with very few crumbs.
- Allow the muffins to cool completely before enjoying!
Top tips
Don’t over mix the batter – Over mixing leads to dry and rubbery muffins so you want to avoid it to get soft, moist and bakery-style muffins. Mix until the ingredients are just combined and no more! It’s better to have a few small lumps than to over mix for a smooth batter but dry muffin.
Weigh out the batter – To get perfectly even muffins, weight the batter and the cheesecake filling. What I did was weigh each bowl and note down the weight. I then made the carrot cake batter and weighed the bowl + the batter and noted that down. For example, lets say my bowl weighs 300g by itself, then when I’ve made my muffin batter, it weighs 600g. That means I have 300g of batter. I then divided it by 12 so for each muffin, I would add 25g of carrot cake batter, then a dollop of cheesecake filling and another 25g of batter. Each muffin has 50g of carrot cake batter and they’ll come out even!
Allow the muffins to sit for 30 minutes – Allowing the carrot cake batter to sit for 20-30 minutes at room temperature will give the flour time to hydrate and the gluten time to develop. This results in more flavorful, more moist and bakery-style muffins!
More low calorie muffins…
Low calorie carrot cake cheesecake muffins
Ingredients
Cheesecake filling:
- 75 g light or low-fat cream cheese
- 20 g 0 calorie icing/powdered sweetener*
- ½ tsp vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
Carrot cake muffins:
- 1 egg room temperature
- 35 g stevia or 0 calorie granulated sweetener*
- 50 g 0% fat greek yogurt*
- 1 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
- 80 g plain/all-purpose flour
- 1½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ¾ tsp ground cinnamon
- ¼ tsp ground ginger
- ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
- ⅛ tsp ground cloves
- 50 g shredded carrot
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 180ºC(350ºF). Prep a 6-count muffin tray with 6 muffin liners and set aside.
- In a medium bowl, make the cheesecake filling by mixing together the cream cheese, vanilla and 0 calorie icing/powdered sweetener until smooth and well combined. Set aside.
- In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the egg and stevia until light and fluffy. Add the yogurt and vanilla and whisk again until smooth.
- Add the flour, spices, baking powder and baking soda and whisk until well combined. Fold in the shredded carrot.
- Pour 1/12 of the batter into a muffin liner, add a dollop of the cheesecake filling and top with another 1/12 of the batter. Repeat for the remaining 5 muffin liners until all the batter and cheesecake have been used up. The easiest way to get perfectly even muffins is to weigh the carrot cake batter and the cheesecake filling and divide the carrot cake batter by 12 and the cheesecake filling by 6 to get the amount per muffin.
- Place the muffins in the pre-heated oven and bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into either side of the batter comes out clean or with very few crumbs.
- Allow the muffins to cool completely before enjoying!
Notes
Nutrition
