These blueberry muffins contain a secret ingredient – they are packed with cottage cheese and a punch of extra protein! Best of all, this recipe is made in one bowl and only makes 6 muffins!
Anybody else a muffin fiend like I am? While I love baking them, it gets old having a dozen of the same flavor hanging around the house all day (unless we are making these eggless chocolate zucchini muffins – in that case, we never have enough).
We have some leftover cottage cheese from making lasagna and I wanted to see if I could find a creative way to use them up. I found these blueberry cottage cheese muffins and was all over them. Even better, they were made in one bowl and only made 6. Perfect. Each of my family members could have 2 and then we’d be done. In case they didn’t turn out well, then there wasn’t much food to waste.
My husband got scared when I said that there was a secret ingredient in them. He got hesitant and backed away from them. I told him that they were just regular blueberry muffins with all the regular ingredients. He made a face at me. He finally tried one and wasn’t too thrilled, but I thought they were fine.
The muffins were a bit on the salty side, so I recommend eliminating the salt altogether (I’ve reflected the changes in the recipe below). Other than the saltiness, the flavors and texture were spot on and held up to my blueberry muffin standards.
Small batch blueberry cottage cheese muffins (one bowl)
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup lowfat cottage cheese
- 1 egg
- 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
- pinch salt
- 1 and 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 Tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup milk of choice
- 1 cup blueberries fresh or frozen (if frozen, do not thaw)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F. Generously grease a standard muffin pan and set aside.
- In a large bowl, mix together the cottage cheese and egg until well combined. Add in the flour, salt, baking powder and sugar. Fold together until a few dry streaks remain. Add in the milk and mix until just combined. Gently stir in the blueberries.
- Evenly distribute the batter into your prepared muffin pan, filling each well at least 3/4 full.
- Bake in your preheated oven for 15-18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow the muffins to cool before serving.
Hi Eva, I’ll be trying your recipe today but I’ll be using ricotta cheese left over from making lasagna. As a mother of five and married for
almost 27 yrs I’d like to suggest to NOT pre worn your audience when your trying something new. Serve it as you normally would, then later on after you and everyone is finished with the meal or the item (cupcake, muffins, cookies etc.) ask them if they liked the new recipe. Depending on what you’ve done (and if you want them to know at that point) you can share what you’ve done. Remember, ask normal. You want your husband, family friends to give you an honest opinion and not have pre conceived notions of what they might be venturing into.
My biggest success is making Bisquick’s recipe for Hamburger Pie. I changed it to Cheeseburger Pie. Over a few years each time I made it I’d change out the ground beef to 1/2 ground chicken or turkey then onto a foux beef (tofu) mixture. I purchased in the refrigerator section where they sell tofu and its various products.
I always add sliced American cheese, pickles, ketsup, and mustard. I add an extra egg, and grated parmigiana cheese to the Bisquick mixture it’s self.
Only my newly converted vegetarian daughter is aware that I’ve adjusted the recipe. When my grown children come home to visit, this is one of those comfort foods they request, I just chuckle inside. Someday they’ll find out, maybe when they want the recipe. Until then, it’s my little secret.
This is such a weird comment and why review it with low starts if you hadn’t even made it yet? So bizarre.
Agree w/Rachel . So weird….
Agree with both of you….strange
I do this all the time!!! My husband is a meat and potatoes man who needs to eat more veggies so everything I make has hidden veggies. He even eats jackfruit sausages for breakfast and has no idea !! My homemade tomato soup is one large seeded and skinned tomato with mostly puréed carrots, onions, garlic, zucchini, mushrooms and their broth —- everything my husband says he does not like but has no idea he is eating. It’s better not to let them know !!
Uhh weird and it’s Pre Warn
Anne, this is the most useless review I’ve ever seen. Perhaps you should write your thoughts & recipes out on a notecard & then set them on fire.
First comment was such a weird comment. Maybe weirder than weird.
Ok you lost me at recipe for cheeseburger pie hijack. WTH? 🤦🏼♀️
I loved these. Big fan of blueberries and never baked anything with cottage cheese. It’s always ricotta. This is a much healthier option. Making my 2nd batch today.
Author
You made my day, Kathy! So happy that you enjoyed these muffins!
There is still salt in the recipe shown despite the suggestion in the text that it was eliminated. Salt or no salt?
Author
Yes, desserts should almost always include a bit of salt, even if it’s just a pinch. It balances out the sweetness, so it’s essential. I’ve adjusted the recipe to remove the 1/2 teaspoon of salt and swapped it with just a pinch of salt instead.
These are great, I did make a few adjustments. I did 2 Tbs of maple syrup in place of sugar (I made these for my toddler) and I did 1/2 cup unbleached all purpose flour and 1/4 cup whole wheat. I also used frozen wild blueberries (which are much smaller) and I cut those down to 2/3 cup but I found there were still way too many (made the muffins dense and soggy in the middle) so next time I make them I’ll probably only do 1/3 cup of them. I also added some vanilla. These are a great recipe for a small batch snack and my toddler loved them so I’ll be making these again. Thanks for the recipe!
Author
Thanks for sharing your adjustments, Allison! I’m happy you all enjoyed them (and I am jealous that you have access to wild blueberries!).
Could you use almond flour for the regular flour ?
Author
I have not tried it so cannot tell you if it will work or not. Please let me know if you try.
I’d say yes, you can use almond flour in place of regular flour. I’ve done it in many recipes. 💕
Just made these with raspberries and they were delish! Thanks for this recipe.
Author
You just made my day, Melanie! Glad you enjoyed these!
Super yummy. I added some vanilla and cinnamon. Also used sugar substitute (monk fruit sugar).
Author
Great to know that monk fruit sugar is a good alternative!
These were delicious, I did omit the salt as you suggested. I had a handful of blueberries and a small amount of cottage cheese left in the fridge and this recipe took care of both. And I love the one bowl concept! Thank you for sharing the recipe, it’s a keeper!!
Author
Glad you enjoyed this, Sandy!
Made these this morning. Texture is good but not sweet, even though I added a little extra sugar.
Your instructions did not state, but should I have sprayed my muffin pan liners before filling? My pans are very old so I always line them. I let them cool completely and they still stuck to the paper?
Author
Hi Gayle – the extra sugar could have caramelized your batter a bit and made them stick to the paper. I use a silicone muffin pan and don’t line or spray it. I haven’t used liners in years so can’t accurately speak to that.
Do you know the calorie count per muffin as well as protein and carbs?
Author
Hi Janis – unfortunately, I don’t.
Thanks! I’m an empty nester so nice to make just 6! I also switched to maple syrup and raspberries! But my husband needs gluten free so I used a gluten free flour blend!
HonAnn! Did you have to change anything to account for the GF flour?
Our family loves to make these! We use ap gluten free flour and add some vanilla because GF flour tends to have a hint of bitter and they turn out great!!!
Author
Oooh – love the addition of vanilla! I’m so happy your family enjoys these, Ashley!
Hello! What kind of gluten free flour did you use?
This looks so good! What a great combination of flavors!
Has anyone tried these in a mini muffin pan?
I am looking for this answer as well
So how much salt do I add?
Author
It should be half a teaspoon. I’ll update the recipe card!
This recipe is just perfect!!
We all loved the muffins !
These will become a regular addition in our kitchen!!
Thank you for this great recipe.
Author
So glad you enjoyed these muffins, Andrea. Thanks so much for letting me know how they turned out!
Hi, need carb and sugar count please? My daughter has type 1 diabetes
Author
Hi Monica – I used a recipe analyzer online, and according to the chart (it might be off, so take it with a grain of salt), there are 46.7g carbs and 35.9g sugar per serving. This is based on 6 muffins (with 1 muffin per serving). I assumed you are using 1% milk.
Awesome recipe!!!
These muffins are perfect! I added a half of a squeezed lemon to the batter and replaced the sugar with honey because I had no sugar on hand.. they really are delish!!
I even drizzled some lemon butter cream icing over them.
I’ve made them weekly for couple months now .. Even made them with fresh strawberries when I had no blueberries!!
Author
Yay – good to know that honey is a good substitute and that you can replace the blueberries with strawberries. I’m so happy you enjoyed them, Andrea! (and double yay for butter cream icing…!!)
I am on Weight Watchers so made this with almond milk and monkfruit in place of the sugar…….I loved these!
Author
Thank you for sharing your substitutions, Kate! I’m so happy you enjoyed these!
Do you happen to know the macros or at least protein content in these?
Author
I’m sorry, but I don’t
These were surprisingly good. My adjustments:
No salt
Add 1 tsp vanilla
Used only 1/3 cup frozen blueberries
Sub 2TBSP Splenda syrup for the sugar
Hubs said they taste like pancakes. 🙂 I’ll take that as a win.
Author
Anytime a dessert tastes like pancakes is a winner in my book too, Mrs B! 😊
These muffins were delish! Only thing I changed was using monkfruit instead of sugar. Perfect😋 thank you!
Author
Awesome – glad the monkfruit substitution worked, Debbie! 😊
Do you think Greek yogurt would be ok—- instead of cottage cheese?
Author
I haven’t tried it personally but it should work. I have Greek yogurt blueberry muffins on my blog if you want a specific recipe for that.
Could I possibly make this as a cake in a glass pie plate .. my muffin tins are missing in action
I’ve made them as muffins couple times before and these are the absolute best.. just wondered if I could just pour the batter into a greased glass pie plate…?
Author
I’m sure you could do that, but I’m not positive on the baking time for the cake. You’ll likely need to adjust the time it’s in the oven, so keep your eye on it.
Wondering if I could sub almond flour to make it more low-carb. Looks like a great recipe! 🙂
Author
I haven’t tried it personally but think it could work. Almond flour tends to be a tad drier (in my opinion) for baking recipes so you might need to slightly alter the liquids and increase them. Let me know how it turns out!
Watching my grandson for a few days and made this tonight for our dinner. I’ll let you know how they tasted. Like a previous commentor, I used maple syrup instead of sugar only because that’s all my daughter had on hand. Love the versatility of cottage cheese. I put it in my oatmeal to add some protein.
Author
Hope it turns out great!
Made according to recipe but doubled it. Was going to add monk fruit drops but used coconut sugar instead. Used blackberries, fresh from the bushes, right outside my backyard. They turned out great. Will be a well used recipe. Thank you for sharing. 😊
Author
Yum – love the swap for fresh blackberries, and glad the coconut sugar worked!