Low-Carb Bacon, Egg & Cheese Muffins
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If you are on a low-carb diet, you probably miss baked goods every once in a while. Here’s a fast, easy, and very nutrient-dense recipe for Low-Carb Bacon, Egg & Cheese Muffins. These muffins are a delicious on-the-go breakfast — or a healthful snack.
They are made with coconut flour, which is low-carb. It also makes these muffins gluten-free.
I love that these muffins are portable. For all those people who don’t have time to sit down to a nutritious plate of eggs and bacon in the morning — they can grab a muffin and go. You could also make a large batch of these muffins and freeze them, then heat them up in the toaster oven (NEVER the microwave!).
My husband loved them — he said, “Those savory Polish pastries you made were quite good.” Ha! Polish, I don’t know about but I’m glad he liked them.
This recipe is adapted from Bruce Fife’s excellent book, “Cooking with Coconut Flour”.
I made just one change: instead of putting the cheese on top as he recommends, I recommend mixing it into the batter. I followed the recipe as written and I found the muffin texture to be a tad dry — and the cheese was too gooey on top (as you can see in the photo above). The cheese also got stuck to the paper cups.
I also wanted my muffins to be a bit more “eggy”. I think my eggs were a little small. Next time I will try using 4 eggs instead of 3.
Of course, these flaws didn’t stop anyone from eating them. Do not expect leftovers. These muffins will be snarfed up in record time.
Makes 6 muffins.
Ingredients:
3 pastured eggs
2 TBS bacon drippings
1/4 tsp sea salt
3 TBS coconut flour (I use Bob’s Red Mill or Tropical Traditions)
1/4 tsp baking powder (aluminum-free — I use Bob’s Red Mill)
8 strips nitrate-free bacon (preferably from pastured pigs that are not fed soy)
1/2 cup (4 oz) cheddar cheese (preferably grass-fed cheese)
Butter or lard (if you are greasing your muffin tin)
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Fry bacon in a skillet until crispy. Set aside.
3. Blend eggs, bacon drippings and salt in a mixing bowl.
4. Add coconut flour and baking powder — mix until there are no lumps.
5. Throw the bacon and cheese into the food processor and pulse until crumbled. Stir into batter.
6. Either grease your muffin tin with butter or lard or use the paper inserts.
7. Pour batter into muffin tin and bake for 15 minutes.
This recipe is part of the new Real Food Wednesday blog carnival. Kelly’s the Kitchen Kop is hosting this week. To see more low carb recipes, visit Kelly the Kitchen Kop!
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07/01/2009 at 6:52 am Permalink
Oh, these look yummy. I’m going to have to try to get my hands on some coconut flour now. Thanks!
07/01/2009 at 8:27 am Permalink
I find your website/blog so inspiring! My daughter and I are now doing GAPS so will have to wait on these (the cheese part anyway) but they look delicious. We tried your coconut pancakes and muffin recipes and loved those. Thanks for all of your work and info!
07/01/2009 at 8:30 am Permalink
You know Angela, I think they would taste great without the cheese. Just add another egg or two.
07/01/2009 at 10:05 am Permalink
They were delicious! I did add the extra egg and it was very good.
Thanks Kathy
07/01/2009 at 10:11 am Permalink
Wow that was fast, Kathy!
Did you put the cheese in? If so, did you mix it in instead of putting it on top? Curious to know how it turned out…
07/01/2009 at 10:59 am Permalink
Do you happen to know the nutritional breakdown, especially the carb count for one? I’m too lazy to go over to daily plate and do it myself LOL. These look great.
07/01/2009 at 12:04 pm Permalink
Motherhen68 (cute name),
I would go look it up on http://www.fitday.com but I am too busy today!
07/01/2009 at 7:11 pm Permalink
Wow, what a great recipe! Just what I’ve been hoping for – eggs and bacon, made ahead, freezeable, and potentially Ok for GAPS. I’ve been reading your blog every day since I met you at the Deidre Currie festival. You inspire me and have given me great ideas for wholesome, nutrient-dense meals for my family. Keep up the great work!!
07/01/2009 at 7:21 pm Permalink
Hi, Valerie,
Thank you so much for the compliment. It makes me feel so good to know that I am helping someone!
And yes these muffins are totally fine for GAPS. Just leave out the cheese and add another egg or two. I bet you could make them with almond meal too if you prefer.
Not sure about the baking powder for GAPS, but you know, I made other coconut flour recipes without the baking powder and they came out totally fine.
Ann Marie
08/01/2009 at 9:28 pm Permalink
These sound delicious! (I’m excited that they’re gluten-free, too!)
I would love to know the protein count on these; I’m sure it’s a good amount!
Thanks!
Michele
09/01/2009 at 11:32 am Permalink
Hi Ann Marie,
I just made these muffins today. They are yumm-o! I will definitely be making them again. They would be great for a breaky on the go. I did add 4 eggs instead of 3. You could really experiment with these by adding in peppers and onions too, or sausage, ham, etc.
Thanks for the recipe.
09/01/2009 at 12:09 pm Permalink
Mmm sounds good with peppers or onions — or sausage!
I think I’ll make another batch with the pork sausage I have in my fridge.
I think instead of the bacon drippings you can also just use butter — or lard.
I bet they were better than mine came out because you incorporated the cheese, eh?
Speaking of baking… I need to get into the kitchen soon. I’m going to make some pie crust (with the lard in my fridge) and make my Steak & Kidney Pie tonight! Woo hoo! (Of course Seth is still out of town, which is why I am able to eat this.)
10/01/2009 at 10:11 am Permalink
Let us know how your steak and kidney pie turns out. I made some yogurt dough and put it into the freezer just for that purpose. I have kidney’s in the freezer and need a great recipe for this. You can be the guinea pig Ann Marie!
Kelly the Kitchen Kop had a recipe posted on her blog for graham cakes. I made them yesterday and the kids really liked them.
10/01/2009 at 1:31 pm Permalink
Ann Marie, will you delete my first comment please? I messed up my html.
Christine, I forgot about those graham cakes, I’m going to look that recipe up again!!
Just made my bacon for those muffins, they sound so good!
Someone asked how low carb these are – since they only call for 3T. of coconut flour, according to my package that would equal 12g net carbs divided by 6 muffins, equals only 2 grams of carbohydrate per muffin!!! Hey, look at me doing math, all without your fancy carb-calculator websites!
p.s. Hi Valerie!
11/01/2009 at 8:55 am Permalink
I just made them and they were SO GOOD! The whole family scarfed them down.
So much for my math, though! The 4g net carbs above was for 2T., so actually they’re only 1g/muffin! Even less, if you make them a bit smaller like I did – a double batch made 17.
I figured the comparison if you were to make it with whole wheat flour or white flour. The coconut flour makes it 6g carbs/batch, whole wheat would be 15g, and white would be 19 1/2/batch – a big difference!
BTW, I didn’t feel like getting my food processor out, so I just crumbled the bacon small and used my shredded raw cheddar.
Last thing: I’m learning to like coconut very slowly, so I was wondering if I would notice a coconut taste in these, but I didn’t AT ALL! I think with the bacon grease and enough other ingredients, it becomes unnoticable. Yay!
Thanks, Ann Marie! If you find other good recipes in that coconut cookbook, let us know!
Kelly
11/01/2009 at 9:02 am Permalink
Wow, thanks, Kelly! That is great info about how low carb these are. You’d never know it, either, don’t you think? They taste so good.
I actually have an extra copy of Bruce Fife’s book, “Cooking With Coconut Flour”. So I’m going to do a giveaway!
The recipes in that book are all so great — I just love it.
It will be my first giveaway. I’m excited about it! In fact, maybe I’ll post about it today!
13/01/2009 at 8:13 pm Permalink
I made these muffins– delicous. I did a fourth egg, pre-shredded cheese inside and on top, and crumbled bacon.
I keep them in the fridge and when I get hungry I pop one in the toaster oven and it sizzles and gets crispy and they are sooo delicious. Can’t taste the coconut.
I almost bought Bob’s Red Mill coconut flour, but I’m trying to spend less. Seeing how I only needed a couple tablespoons, I bought some bulk organic finely shredded coconut at Whole Foods and put it through the grain mill. (Although– warning– it did turn oily and get stuck after a while.)
I have enough of all the ingredients to make it again, and I definitely will. So excited! While cooking I was explaining to my brother about how starches give you blood sugar bumps (here I would demonstrate with my hands, drawing a line graph spike like on a heart monitor) and saturated fat smooths those bumps out. I explained that coconut flour is naturally easier on your blood sugar, and then we have lots of good saturated fat– cheese, bacon, bacon grease, and eggs– to smooth out your blood sugar even more. Aaaand on top of that, it tastes good!
13/01/2009 at 8:23 pm Permalink
Ahhhh I am so happy you tried them and liked them, Katy! And thank you for sharing that explanation of why coconut oil is good for us (well, one of the reasons — I’m sure there are more).
29/01/2009 at 6:39 am Permalink
I made these last night and because I doubled the recipe (we have a 12 muffin pan), I could have skrewed it up….but I thought they were a little too salty. So next time I would omit the salt because my bacon made up for any salt needs, well and the cheese too. Maybe no one else agrees but that would be my two cents. Thanks for the delicious recipe.
29/01/2009 at 6:47 am Permalink
Interesting… mine were not too salty. Not at all.
It may depend on the kind of bacon and cheese you are using. The bacon I buy from my farmer is much less salty than say Niman Ranch bacon…
07/02/2009 at 9:24 am Permalink
I just whipped up this recipe; Lovely! I omitted bacon (since I don’t have any on hand), used 2 T butter (instead of bacon drippings), 4 eggs instead of three, and dumped all the indredients into a wide mouth quart jar and used my immersion blender to whip it all up.
The savory muffins have a moist, cakey texture without having the gritty-coconut-flour feel.
I can see this basic recipe having many possibilities! I’ll definitely add it to my repertoire. Thank you!!
18/02/2009 at 2:44 pm Permalink
I am SO dag-on excited about these muffins. if it weren’t snowing out I’d run out to buy a big thing of coconut flour this minute! oh you made my day!!!
23/02/2009 at 1:00 pm Permalink
Absolutely wonderful! Just what I’ve been looking for. Thanks for sharing.
17/03/2009 at 10:56 am Permalink
Oh. My. Gosh. I finally got around to making these this morning — they’re not just gluten-free good, they are heavenly! Thanks so much for posting this…I’m going to order Bruce Fife’s book right now!
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14/05/2009 at 2:14 pm Permalink
Yummy! I’m making these for dinner tonight with homemade cheddar, bacon from our neighbors’ pigs, and butter from our cow, Beauty. And as someone who is allergic to all wheat and corn, I am totally buying that cookbook.
Stacie
20/07/2009 at 10:21 am Permalink
These are great! I froze them individually wrapped in plastic (is that bad?) so my husband can just warm one or two up for breakfast.
I used turkey bacon, and it became a little more chewy in the baking process. I think I’ll try the next batch without the bacon. Would beef work?
21/07/2009 at 9:22 pm Permalink
These look fabulous – cannot wait to try! Ann Marie, is that non-stick muffin tins I see? Looking into stoneware, myself, and just got rid of my non-stick ones…
20/09/2009 at 7:54 am Permalink
I was wondering if I could add some onions and peppers and make them into mini crustless quiche?? If so, would I saute the onions and peppers before adding them? I love you site, I just found it today and can’t wait to try some of the recipes. I am new to the world of gluten-free.
13/01/2010 at 11:05 am Permalink
I have tried Atkins Diet, South Beach Diet and other forms of Low Carb diet. They are all good for the general health and for maintaining a healthy weight.
28/01/2010 at 9:29 am Permalink
I am so excited about this recipe. I follow your blog sometimes, but I’m a bad follower, so I missed this one when it was posted. Doh! Thankfully, someone told me about this post, and I am SO excited to make these!
I’m having a baby in a few week, and I’m always pretty useless in the kitchen (or anywhere but the couch, really) for a few weeks after my babies are born, so protein is always a toughie for me. Even though eggs are ridiculously easy to make, they just don’t happen…soooo, I’m super thrilled about this recipe, and I’m going to make a TON of them to stick in the freezer.
My husband is really excited too, because he never gets up early enough to eat breakfast, and needs something easy to take with him, so these will be perfect for him.
The only bummer is that I can’t get coconut flour until Saturday, and the wait is killing me! I ordered some from Azure Standard, but apparently, they were out, so now I have to wait until I can make it to the health-food-store on Saturday…*sigh*
I don’t know why I felt the need to share all of that information…this is what happens when you have preggo insomnia at 4:30 am.
13/07/2010 at 7:12 pm Permalink
These look so good. I tried a similar recipe from Mark Sisson’s new Primal Blueprint Cookbook but they didn’t have bacon, so I’m going to try this one!
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18/08/2010 at 7:25 pm Permalink
This is my favorite recipe.