Unpredictable cottage cheese pancakes

[Vetter]

OK, can someone wise in the food science of cottage cheese tell me why sometimes I make cottage cheese pancakes that are lovely little jam delivery devices, completely flippable in the pan with very little egg/flour, and other times, I get puddles of goo?

It really seems to be a function of the cottage cheese itself, and not the proportion of liquid in the recipe (via egg) or the varying moisture in standard, undrained cottage cheese. It's like some brands just liquefy! The pancakes this morning weren't even salvageable with coconut flour and ground flax added in.

[blue room]

I like this recipe, and I can remember it without having to look it up! Have used it for 30 years.

1 (16 ounce) container cottage cheese

7 eggs

7 tablespoons of flour

I separate the eggs and whip the whites stiff, fold them into the (smoothly mixed) yolks, flour, and cottage cheese. The cheese I use is small curd -- if it looked unusually liquid I'd probably drain it, but this hasn't happened. It takes patience to cook these little free-standing soufflés, I think the whipped egg white insulates them and it takes a while to get them done through.
Just as tasty *without* the whipped egg white, just all ingredients mixed together like any pancake batter.
Flat, though, not puffy.

[rafjel]

Have you tried using dry curd cottage cheese? Then you would be adding the only liquid.

[Vetter]

I have never even seen dry curd. Isn't that odd? And I can get most anything here.

[goodhealthgourmet]

try a Russian or Polish market...or one of your local farmers' markets. it's sometimes labeled as farmer cheese.

another option, which i forgot to suggest yesterday...use ricotta!

[bushwickgirl]

Yup, ricotta, I 've had much better luck with ricotta then cottage cheese for pretty much the same effect and flavor. Either that or the dry curd, or farmer cheese, which sadly is tough to find sometimes.

[HillJ]

http://www.belgioioso.com/Crescenza.htm

If your open to other dry cheese suggestions, Crescenza-Stracchino is dry.

I buy farmer's cheese from the cheese shop, never see it at the commercial grocery chains anymore. My Grandmother would make her own.

I know I'm going to wake up tomorrow craving pancakes!!!

[4Snisl]

Have you checked to see whether some cottage cheese brands that you use have stabilizers/thickeners added? That might affect how cohesive cottage cheese stays when cooked into a recipe....

[Vetter]

Hmm, that's a thought. Today's version had added guar, carrageenan, and carob bean gum. And it turned to goo.

I think I've had good luck with Trader Joe's, but I can't find their ingredients posted online.

[goodhealthgourmet]

darn, i was just at TJ's a few hours ago - i would have checked for you. HillJ is right, the drier the cottage cheese, the better. it's really too bad Friendship products are so hard to find out here on the West Coast - their cottage cheese - especially the whipped - makes killer CC pancakes. some Whole Foods carry it - you might want to check for it near you. otherwise look for dry-curd CC, or take HillJ's suggestion and just drain the regular stuff.

oh, and if you run into the issue again, try folding in some GF oat flour or chia seeds - they'll absorb the excess liquid better than coconut flour will.

[HillJ]

chia seeds? No kidding. I have never tried doing this. Always learn something new.

[goodhealthgourmet]

they absorb an *insane* amount of liquid...it's pretty amazing to see, actually. i've taken to using them instead of flax for vegan "egg" gel.

[HillJ]

So interesting and it's on my list of must experiment... in the kitchen. I haven't done much of anything with chia seeds.

[goodhealthgourmet]

definitely play around with them. they're higher in omega-3s than flax, and a great source of fiber & antioxidants...and unlike flax seeds you don't need to grind/crush them to get the nutritional benefits. i use them in both whole & ground form for various things. oh, and they have pretty much no detectable flavor so they don't "clash" with anything. (FYI, when ground they're a terrific thickener for homemade salad dressings & sauces.)

[HillJ]

I have to be honest with you the tiny buggers look like they would fill a tooth crevice real easily :) and that's the main reason I've hesitated to use them. I'd love to get them into my recipes..but it's that teeny tiny seed size that bugs me.

[goodhealthgourmet]

unfortunately you're right about that, and it drives me crazy too - have to floss after i eat anything with the whole seeds...so my solution is to use them ground more often than whole!

[HillJ]

Maybe I'll just sprout them!

[goodhealthgourmet]

ha! and do what, eat the grass? mmm...lawn clippings :)

[HillJ]

house plant...or http://thehappyrawkitchen.blogspot.co...

[goodhealthgourmet]

pfft. i know plants clean the air and all that, but you'll still reap more benefits from *eating* the seeds. i'm determined to get you to try them in SOMETHING...

[HillJ]

look @ my eta..

[goodhealthgourmet]

ooh, nice :) looking forward to hearing a report...

[piccola]

Thanks for the tip about salad dressing -- it never would have occurred to me!

[goodhealthgourmet]

a little goes a long way, so use sparingly...or you'll end up with a VERY thick batch of goop :)

[piccola]

Haha duly noted.

[Vetter]

I like them a lot too. No fishy taste like flax, just a pleasant (tiny) crunch, and ground they just meld in. I love them in my homemade granola.

[eclecticsynergy]

I always had this image in the back of my mind, of starting to sprout green hairs a couple of days after eating chia seeds...

[goodhealthgourmet]

eat 'em long enough and you might morph into Jerry Garcia ;)

[HillJ]

Curd size? Density of the cheese? Liquid in the cheese? Lowfat vs whole milk. All variables in my past versions too. I tend to use the small curd, denser brands and still might drain whatever liquid is in the package if I think its too thin.

Was there any dietary reason behind the coconut flour & ground flax? If you use other flours
this is the recipe I've been using lately:
http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/11/cot...

It's a large batch recipe but I love the taste.

[Vetter]

Today's batch was Darigold small curd 4%, and wasn't very wet at all.

I'm gluten free, hence the two random things I pulled out of my pantry-of-wacky-flours, but that recipe looks smashing. I'll try it - that's a cinch to adapt. But I'd really like to also figure out how to get my groove back on the plain version - just the cottage cheese, some egg, and a smidge of flour.

[HillJ]

I hear ya. I would drain the cheese over a fine mesh strainer and a bowl overnight in the frig to separate out as much liquid from the cheese as you can. The drier the better. It will still be plenty creamy.