Cottage Cheese Protein Pancakes
Polish people have been putting twarog in everything for centuries. America just discovered cottage cheese and thinks it's new. I love this country, but sometimes the lack of dairy history awareness is staggering.
Ingredients
- 1 cup full-fat cottage cheese 225g
- 3 eggs
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour 65g; or oat flour for GF
- 1 tablespoon sugar or honey or maple syrup
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Pinch of salt
- Butter for the pan
Method
Blend
- Add everything — cottage cheese, eggs, flour, sugar, baking powder, vanilla, salt — to a blender. Blend for 20-30 seconds until completely smooth. No lumps. The blending is what makes these fluffy — it incorporates air and breaks down the cottage cheese curds into a smooth, pourable batter. You can mix by hand, but the texture won't be as good and you'll have cottage cheese lumps, which my daughter described as "suspicious dots." The blender eliminates suspicion.
Cook
- Heat a non-stick skillet or griddle over medium-low heat. Add a small pat of butter. Pour about 1/4 cup of batter per pancake. Cook 2-3 minutes until bubbles form on the surface and the edges look set. Flip gently — these are more delicate than regular pancakes because of the higher protein and lower flour content. Cook another 1-2 minutes until golden. Keep heat at medium-low. Higher heat burns the outside before the inside sets, and nobody wants a pancake that's burnt outside and raw inside.
Serve
- Stack them up and go wild with toppings. Maple syrup is the obvious choice. Fresh berries and a dusting of powdered sugar is my favourite. A dollop of Greek yogurt and honey is the high-protein way. Or — the Polish Mom way — a smear of farmer cheese (twarog) and a drizzle of honey, which brings the whole thing full circle back to nalesniki and makes my babcia's spirit smile.