Baked Cottage Cheese and Raspberry Breakfast Cups with Cinnamon and Flax
Cottage cheese blended smooth with eggs, cinnamon, and ground flaxseed, poured into a muffin tin over crushed raspberries and chopped almonds, and baked until the tops puff and set.
Why You'll Love This Recipe
These came out of wanting something warm and sweet on a weekday that was not another bowl of oatmeal. Cottage cheese blended with eggs sets into a custard that is much closer to a cheesecake than to a curd, and once you have that as a base, the fruit and the spice can go anywhere you like. A muffin tin does the work of eight small ramekins, they bake in twenty minutes while you get dressed, and there is nothing to do afterward except run the tin under hot water. The whole thing goes together in a blender, which is the only reason it happens on a Tuesday.
The trick is the blender. Left as it is, cottage cheese bakes into something grainy and a little squeaky, but thirty seconds on high turns it into a smooth pourable cream and the finished cup is silky right through. Raspberries go in whole at the bottom of each cup and collapse in the oven into streaks of sharp pink, which is what keeps a rich custard from going cloying. Ground flaxseed thickens the batter so the cups hold their shape, and chopped almonds on top toast dark while everything underneath stays soft. That contrast, crisp lid and loose middle, is most of the pleasure.
I bake a tin on Sunday and eat two cups a morning through Wednesday, warm from the toaster oven or cold from the refrigerator standing at the counter, and both are good in different ways. They pack for a car journey without falling apart, they suit somebody who is not hungry first thing but needs to eat something, and they are the only thing in this house that both my nieces and I will agree on before nine in the morning. If you have somebody in your kitchen who says they do not like cottage cheese, blend it smooth, bake it with berries, and say nothing at all.
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups lowfat cottage cheese
- 2 1/2 cups raspberries, fresh or frozen and thawed
- 4 large eggs
- 1/2 cup ground flaxseed
- 1/2 cup almonds, coarsely chopped
- 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
- 2 tsp lemon juice, plus the zest of 1 lemon
- 1/8 tsp fine sea salt
Instructions
- Heat the oven and prepare the tin: Heat the oven to 375°F and grease eight cups of a standard twelve-cup muffin tin thoroughly, bottoms and sides, or use silicone liners. Custard sticks to anything you miss. Fill the four empty cups halfway with water so the tin heats evenly.
- Blend the base: Put the cottage cheese, eggs, ground flaxseed, cinnamon, lemon juice, lemon zest, and salt into a blender and run it on high for thirty to forty seconds, until it is completely smooth and no curds are visible. Let the batter stand two minutes so the flaxseed swells and thickens it.
- Fill the cups: Divide two thirds of the raspberries among the eight cups, crushing a few against the sides as you go. Pour the batter over them, dividing it evenly and stopping a quarter inch below the rim, since these rise. Press the remaining raspberries into the tops and scatter over the chopped almonds.
- Bake until set and domed: Bake for eighteen to twenty minutes, until the tops are puffed and lightly golden, the almonds have taken color, and the centers barely wobble when you nudge the tin. A knife slid into the middle of one should come out clean with a film of custard on it rather than wet batter.
- Cool before lifting: Let the tin sit on a rack for five minutes. The cups deflate slightly and firm up as they cool, and that rest is what lets them come out whole. Run a thin knife around each one and lift it out with a spoon.
Variations
- Blackberry and orange: Swap the raspberries for blackberries and the lemon zest for orange, which makes a rounder, less sharp cup.
- Cardamom and pistachio: Use a teaspoon of ground cardamom in place of the cinnamon and chopped pistachios on top.
- Savory, with herbs: Leave out the fruit and cinnamon, blend in a handful of chopped dill and chives, and top with sliced scallion for a savory cup.
- Chocolate and raspberry: Stir two tablespoons of cocoa into the batter and press a few dark chocolate shavings into the tops before baking.
Storage & Leftovers
These keep five days in a sealed container in the refrigerator and are excellent cold, where the custard firms up and the texture goes closer to cheesecake. Keep them in a single layer so the domed tops stay intact.
To warm them, thirty seconds in the microwave or six minutes in a 300°F toaster oven brings back the soft middle. Do not go hotter than that, since custard reheated fast weeps water and goes rubbery at the edges.
They freeze for three months. Wrap each cup individually, thaw overnight in the refrigerator, and warm gently. Frozen raspberries thawed and drained work perfectly well in the batter to begin with, so this is a recipe you can make in February from a bag.
Notes & Tips
- Grease every surface: Custard grips bare metal. Get into the corner where the side meets the bottom with a pastry brush, or save yourself the argument entirely and use silicone liners.
- Let the batter rest two minutes: Ground flaxseed needs that time to swell. Poured straight into the tin the batter is loose, the raspberries float, and the cups bake up thin.
- Fill the empty cups with water: Dry cups in a hot tin scorch and the whole pan heats unevenly. Half an inch of water in the four spares fixes it and costs nothing.
- Crush a few berries as you go: Whole berries stay in neat pockets, which is nice, but a few crushed against the side of the cup bleed through the custard and give you those pink streaks.
- Cool five minutes before lifting: Hot custard has not finished setting and will tear as you pry it out. Five minutes on a rack and they come away in one piece.
Nutrition & Mindful Eating
- Cottage cheese, eggs, flaxseed, and raspberries carry the whole recipe between them. The cheese and eggs set into the custard and bring the protein, the flaxseed thickens the batter and brings most of the fiber, and the berries make the whole thing taste like a dessert while adding fiber of their own.
- Cottage cheese is a fresh cheese, mild and slightly salty, and blending it is what turns those curds into cream. It is unusually rich in protein for something this soft, and it brings calcium and phosphorus along with it.
- Raspberries have more fiber than their size suggests, most of it in the seeds you can feel between your teeth, and they carry the anthocyanins responsible for that deep pink bleed through the custard. Their tartness is what keeps a sweet cup interesting.
- Ground flaxseed swells in liquid and sets soft, doing structural work here that a flour would otherwise do, and it brings soluble fiber and alpha-linolenic acid, the plant form of omega-3 fat.
- Cinnamon, lemon zest, and toasted almonds are what make these smell like baking rather than like breakfast. The cinnamon gives warmth, the zest gives lift, and the almonds toast dark on top and add the only real crunch in a very soft cup.
- As you eat, break a cup open with the side of your spoon and watch the pink run into the pale custard, and take the first few bites sitting down rather than on the way out the door.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I have to blend the cottage cheese?
If you want a smooth custard, yes. Unblended, the curds stay distinct through baking and the cups come out grainy. Some people like that texture and it does no harm, but the silky version is what makes these feel like a treat.
Can I use frozen raspberries?
Yes, and I often do. Thaw them first and drain off the liquid that collects, or the extra water thins the batter and leaves a wet layer at the bottom of each cup. Blackberries and blueberries both work the same way.
Mine sank in the middle. Is that a problem?
No. Custard rises with steam and settles as it cools, and a slight dip is normal. A deep collapse usually means they came out a couple of minutes early, so give the next tin the full twenty and check for that clean knife.
Can I bake this as one dish?
You can, in an eight-inch square baking dish, but it needs thirty to thirty five minutes and it is no longer a quick breakfast. The muffin tin is what keeps the time down, since small cups set fast.