I know it sounds wild , but trust me on this one …
Every year, it seems like there’s a new “healthier"ice creamtrend that manages to go mega-viral the second we cross into ice cream season. There’s always"nice cream”— the phrase alone makes me want to gag — made with blended frozen bananas. And recently, the buzzy Ninja Creami appliance has proven itself capable of turning just about any liquid into a frozen dessert. But those who don’t equate bananas with ice creamorhave a spare $230 to blow on new gadgets appear to have turned to an entirely unexpected ingredient for making homemade ice cream this year: cottage cheese.
Here’s the deal: TikTokers have been touting a frozen concoction made with blended cottage cheese and various mix-ins as “high-protein ice cream.” Though a few of them will add the base to an ice cream machine, 99% of them just toss the mixture back into the cottage cheese container to freeze — no special equipment required.
Listen, if you’re tired of people trying to protein-ify everything we put in our bodies, from pasta tocoffee, I’m probably even more tired than you are. But this “protein-packed” trend actually made me do a double take…and it had very little to do with its macros andeverythingto do with its texture. I mean, you can’t argue that this doesn’t look texturally immaculate:
BANANA CREAM bungalow CHEESE NICE CREAM is my version of the VIRAL FOOD TREND inspired by @lainiecooks _ . I ’ve been making bungalow cheese bowl and using bungalow cheese in my healthy desserts for twelvemonth so I knew I had to assay this one ! Yes , I ’d absolutely make it again . Everyone include my kids loved it ! Give it a slam and tell me what you think . serve 4 element : -16 oz cottage tall mallow ( I in person prefer Friendship ’s 1 % whip bungalow Malva sylvestris ) -1/2 tsp vanilla -1/4 cup maple syrup -1 banana -1 banana slice -3/4 loving cup Nilla wafers demolish -Add bungalow cheese , 1 banana , maple sirup and vanilla to a liquidizer and flux well . -Pour cottage cheese into a container . -Fold in sliced banana tree and crushed Nilla wafer , cover and place in the freezer for at least 4#viralfood#viralfoodtrend#cottagecheese#cottagecheeseicecream#nicecream#bananacreampie
After watching nearly a billion videos of folks making this, with small variations here and there, I decided that I couldn’t live another day without trying it in my own kitchen. I also reached some conclusions on what made for seemingly-tasty results vs. subpar ones:
• Using fertile - free cottage cheese , the variety that most of these TikTokers opted for , is a difficult no in my book . These people always terminate up absorb their spoon into what looked ( and sounded ) like a literal internal-combustion engine rink , so I knew I take to use cottage cheese with the gamy fat message possible . That ’s usually 4 % for most brands , but the bighearted the figure , the better .
• bungalow Malva sylvestris is salty , which mean it necessitate a decent amount of sugar to weaken its salty pungency if you ’re give way to make it into a palatable dessert . And keep in mind : cold solid food actually call for more salt , sugar , or smell in cosmopolitan to taste great when they ’re frozen , so I knew I ’d likely need to use more than the paltry splashing of maple syrup that these TikTokers were adding .
• While I do think putting the base into an ice cream machine to churn it would technically be cheat , I knew it would still be important to give the whole mixing a generous stir every hour or so as it sat in the deep-freeze . Keeping things moving is the best way to ward off monumental frappe watch glass without any special equipment , and it adds very little additional study to the intact process .
I know it sounds wild, but trust me on this one…
My final consideration: Given the “cheese” of it all, I gravitated toward the cheesecake-inspired recipes over some of the other flavors I was seeing. I landed on raspberry cheesecake as the flavor profile I was going for, and in the end, I actually think it was pretty darn convincing.
With my strategy in place, I ran to the store and picked up the ingredients I’d need to make it.
Here’s how I put the whole thing together.
STEP #1: I used an immersion blender and a large blender cup to combine all the cottage cheese, half the raspberries, 3 tablespoons sugar, 1 tablespoon brown sugar, and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract until the mixture hadnovisible chunks remaining.
Y’all, I cannot stress the “no visible chunks” thing more. You might be blending this mixture for up to two minutes before it’s 100% smooth, and if it takes you that long, so be it.
I gave it a taste, just to make sure it was sweetened and flavored to my liking, and I’ll be the first to admit that I would’ve eaten the entire thing like that, room temp.
STEP #2: Next, I chopped up the remaining raspberries into teeny, tiny pieces.
Then, to get them a little mushier, I used the side of my knife to mash ‘em into a paste-like consistency…with some chunky bits here and there for texture.
STEP #3: I used a mortar and pestle to break the graham crackers into large crumbs.
STEP #4: I layered the ingredients back into the original cottage cheese container. First, I added half the blended cottage cheese mixture and topped it with half the mashed raspberries and graham cracker bits…
…and then I repeated those layers with the remaining ingredients.
STEP #5: Before popping on the lid and tossing it into the freezer, I gave everything a gentle swirl. (You’ll want layers and streaks of raspberry and graham crackers throughout, so use a light hand here.)
Finally, I tossed it into the freezer.
STEP #6: Since most TikTokers mentioned it took anywhere from three to four hours for the mixture to reach soft serve consistency, I decided to give it a decent stir every hour, breaking up as many ice crystals as I could each and every time.
I scooped it…
…I took a seat…
…and I absolutely devoured every last bite in about 15 seconds. Sorry! I genuinely loved it.
I’m not all that surewhyI loved this as much as I did — after all, it’s far from the best bowl of ice cream I’ve ever had — but I do have a working theory. As someone who loves a) salted desserts, b) cheesecake, and c) frozen yogurt, this recipe low-key feels like it was made in a lab to exist as a hybrid of all of those things. The saltiness brings out the freshness of the raspberries, the graham cracker crumbs beautifully mask any residual icy bits, and the entire thing has a perfect tang that helps to offset some of the sweetness going on. If “balance” were a dessert, this would be it.
As we wrap things up, let me do some light level-setting in an attempt to spare my DMs the outrage messages when this doesn’t come out like the most glorious, velvety-smooth pint of ice cream you’ve ever tasted.
Will it taste like ice emollient ?
No!It ’s slightly lemony from the pick Malva sylvestris , and actually kind of piquant , though not in a room that ’s unpleasant . It legitimately has the flavour of a icy cheesecake , not traditional ice ointment .
Can I leave it in the Deepfreeze for long than three or four hr ?
I would n’t ! It ’ll turn into a solid , frozen mass and be pretty tricky to deice to an enjoyable grain . You could always try blitzing it up in a food for thought processor for Round Two , but I have n’t try this myself so do n’t scream at me if it does n’t work .
Why should I make this instead just buying a dry pint of regular trash cream ?
You should believably just buy some regular ice pick at the store if you ’re already there — betting odds are it ’ll be punk , anyway . But if you hap to have a container of cottage cheese hang around your electric refrigerator ( or if you just really love the stuff ) , this formula is very much deserving trying out .
If you try this recipe out yourself, shoot me a comment below to let me know what you thought of it. 👇
And a round of felicitation to the cottage cheeseflower lobby for yet another unusual - but - delectable use for one of the most polarizing dairy products ever . Every time I think that we , as a society , have exhausted all the ways we could possibly utilise bungalow cheese , I stop up eating my words . Today was no dissimilar !
