'I Tried Cottage Cheese Ice Cream and It's My New Favorite Go-To Healthy Dessert'
Just try to curd your enthusiasm for this viral TikTok treat.
When I told a friend I was making homemade ice cream the other day, she got very excited. After all, it’s getting warmer out and summer treats are front of mind. Her excitement turned to disgust when I said I was making the recipe with cottage cheese. “When I think of cottage cheese, I think of diet diner food,” she said. And she’s right—cottage cheese with grapefruit is one of those ubiquitous food items from the 1970s, listed right in between the Jell-O mold and the cheese balls. But this misunderstood little tub of curds is having a renaissance on TikTok, with people blending this good-for-you snack into smooth, creamy, cottage cheese ice cream goodness and freezing it into a protein-packed treat.
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What is the viral TikTok cottage cheese ice cream?
This latest craze to hit TikTok is something to really get excited about. The epitome of healthy food from the past is gaining ground with creators on TikTok lately. People are making high-protein ice cream out of cottage cheese by whipping full-fat cottage cheese until it’s smooth, putting in sweetener and fun mix-ins, and freezing until it’s a soft serve-like consistency. The serving size seems to be for the whole container too, because just like you bogart the Ben & Jerry’s, you’re going to want to keep this one all for yourself as well. The whole container clocks in at about 60 grams of protein and 12 grams of sugar (not including mix-ins).
Courtesy of Jessica Wrubel
Versions of the recipe include strawberry cheesecake, cookies and cream, and banana cream pie. There are many brands out there to use, the most popular being Good Culture Whole Milk Classic (I can attest to this being the most popular too, as I had to go to four different stores to finally find it on the shelf).
How do you make cottage cheese ice cream?
The ingredients are simple—one container of full-fat cottage cheese (2% or lower will give you more of an icy consistency which you don’t want, so get the 4%), sweetener of choice, and mix-ins of choice (fruit, nuts, chocolate chips or shredded coconut). I decided to really embrace the cheesy flavor and go with a strawberry cheesecake-flavored version. Plus, once I found mini graham cracker bunnies at the grocery store, I couldn’t get the vision of the cute little crackers swimming in a strawberry pool out of my head. My mind was made up.
Courtesy of Jessica Wrubel
After dumping the whole container into a bowl, use an immersion blender to blend until completely smooth. If your immersion blender is anything like mine, you may have to switch halfway through and (I know, I know) dirty the blender. You want all the curds incorporated until it’s smooth and pourable, so don’t skimp on this step. Next, throw in your mix-ins. For mine, I added chopped strawberries and crushed graham cracker bunnies. Some TikTokers pour the whole mixture back into the cottage cheese container, pop the lid on, and freeze, but I decided to pour mine into a pretty dish for presentation purposes. After freezing, scoop and serve.
Courtesy of Jessica Wrubel
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Not everything you see online is perfect (shocker), so let’s talk about the mistakes I made so your recipe will go a bit smoother. One mistake I made is that I was too light-handed with the sweetener. I added in barely a tablespoon of maple syrup and I think for the whole container, I could have added a bit more. If you’re watching your sugar (and plan to eat the whole container), proceed with caution. Maple syrup is still sugar and a quarter cup has about 50 grams of sugar—over 12 teaspoons (at that point, you could eat less sugar in regular ice cream, a friend of mine pointed out). Another mistake was that I added too many strawberries. With too many mixed into the cottage cheese, it added more water which, in turn, froze into more of an icy mixture. The third mistake I made was freezing for too long. TikTokers caution against freezing for longer than three to four hours and mixing it every hour or so—things I neglected to do.
How does cottage cheese ice cream taste?
My second attempt was met with a bit more success. I froze it for a shorter amount of time, mixing every hour, adding a touch more sweetener, and added half the strawberries I did initially—enough to taste but not enough for the consistency to freeze into an unpalatable icy mess. The good old tang of the cottage cheese is still there but since the curds are blended and you have your mix-ins and sweetener, it’s definitely dialed down a bit. It’s as creamy as full-fat ice cream and it tastes like cheesecake batter. It’s tough to put the spoon down. I think TikTokers are onto something with this one and I’ll be mixing up different versions as the temperature rises. So, when the hankering for Haagen Daz creeps up on you this summer, give this one a whirl. It just might become your new sweet summer staple.
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