Strawberry Cottage Cheese Muffins with Oats

These strawberry cottage cheese muffins are soft, lightly sweet breakfast muffins made with a cup of cottage cheese blended right into the batter. The cottage cheese disappears completely. What you get is a moist, tender crumb, a little extra protein from the cottage cheese and eggs, and juicy pockets of fresh strawberry in every bite. Rolled oats add some heartiness, and honey or maple syrup sweetens them instead of white sugar.

One batch makes 12 muffins. They take about 15 minutes to mix and bake at 375°F for 20 to 22 minutes. I like them warm with coffee, and they hold up well in a lunchbox the next day.

What You Need

For the wet ingredients: 1 cup cottage cheese, 2 large eggs, ⅓ cup honey or maple syrup, ¼ cup melted butter or coconut oil and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract. For the dry ingredients: 1½ cups all-purpose flour, ½ cup rolled oats, 1 teaspoon baking powder, ½ teaspoon baking soda and ¼ teaspoon salt. Then 1 cup diced fresh strawberries.

Any cottage cheese works, small or large curd. Full fat gives the richest, most tender muffin; low fat works but the crumb is a bit drier. Honey and maple syrup are interchangeable. Maple tastes a little deeper and pairs well with the oats, while honey is more floral and lets the strawberries stand out.

Use rolled oats. Quick oats work too and give a slightly finer crumb, but steel cut oats stay hard and chewy after 22 minutes in the oven. If you want a smoother muffin, pulse the rolled oats a few times in the blender first, then tip them back in with the flour.

Blend the Cottage Cheese Smooth

Do not skip this part. Put the cottage cheese, eggs, honey or maple syrup, melted butter and vanilla in a blender and run it until the mixture is completely smooth, with no curds left. It should look like thick, pale pancake batter.

Skip the blending and you get little white flecks of curd through the crumb and a lumpier texture. No blender? An immersion blender in a tall jar or a food processor does the same job. If your butter was hot, let it cool for a few minutes first so it does not start cooking the eggs.

Mixing and Filling the Tin

Heat the oven to 375°F (190°C) and line a 12 cup muffin tin with paper liners, or grease each cup. Whisk the flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. Pour in the blended cottage cheese mixture and stir gently, only until no large pockets of flour remain. A few small lumps are fine. Overmixing makes muffins tough and full of tunnels.

Pat the diced strawberries dry with a paper towel, then fold them in. Wet berries bleed into the batter and make the bottoms soggy. Divide the batter between the cups, filling each about three quarters full.

Baking and Checking for Doneness

Bake for 20 to 22 minutes, until the tops are lightly golden and a toothpick in the center of a muffin comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs. If the toothpick hits a strawberry, it will look wet; test a second spot. Let the muffins cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then move them to a wire rack.

For a crunchy top, sprinkle a few extra rolled oats over the batter before baking. They toast in the oven. Cheapest bakery trick I know.

Common Problems

• Dense or gummy: the batter was overmixed, or the berries were wet. Stir only until the flour disappears and dry the fruit first.
• Curd specks in the crumb: the cottage cheese was not blended long enough. Blend until fully smooth.
• Sticking to liners: normal for lower fat muffins while warm. Let them cool completely and they release cleanly.
• Pale tops: your oven runs cool. Give them 2 more minutes, or bake on the upper middle rack.

Frozen strawberries work in a pinch. Dice them while still frozen, toss with a spoon of the flour mix and fold them in at the very end so they do not turn the batter pink.

Storing, Freezing and More Ideas

Because of the cottage cheese and fresh fruit, keep these in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days. Freeze cooled muffins for up to 3 months and thaw them at room temperature, or warm one in the microwave for about 20 seconds.

If you like cottage cheese for breakfast, our cottage cheese pancakes and the blueberry cottage cheese breakfast bake use it the same way. For more berry muffins, try the sour cream blueberry muffins, and for a chocolate snack with a protein boost, the protein cottage cheese brownies.

Save these strawberry cottage cheese muffins on Pinterest for your next meal prep week. If you bake them, tell me in the comments if you used honey or maple syrup.