Cottage Cheese Cookie Dough Is A Sweet Take On The TikTok Trend

Cookies fresh out of the oven can be delicious, but sometimes the leftover dough from the spatula is just as tempting. The problem with eating raw cookie dough before you bake it is that it contains uncooked eggs and flour, ingredients that the CDC deems unsafe for consumption due to their high risk of causing food poisoning. Fortunately, there are a growing number of cookie dough recipes being shared across TikTok that are designed to be eaten raw rather than baked. Many use ingredients like garbanzo beans or call for a higher ratio of butter to make up for the lack of eggs, but they can result in an off taste and a texture that's more like Play-Doh than cookie dough. However, TikTok influencer and cookbook author Jake Cohen seems to have cracked the code. The key ingredient in his recipe is cottage cheese, and according to those who have recreated it, it makes cookie dough that tastes pretty close to the real deal.

Wait, cottage cheese? Indeed, experimenting with the curdy foodstuff has become a bona fide craze on the social media platform and thrust the dairy product into the spotlight — even the industry has started to take notice. "Cottage cheese is cool again," states Dairy Farmers of Canada in a recipe headnote introducing its "peanut butter chocolate chip cottage cheese cookie dough." What might be even cooler is how incredibly easy it is to make this treat that combines two viral trends into one sweet powerhouse snack.

Making cookie dough with cottage cheese only calls for four main ingredients, and doesn't follow the same process as preparing traditional cookie dough. According to Jake Cohen's viral video, it starts by pureeing cottage cheese in a food processor until creamy. After folding in almond flour, vanilla protein powder, and adding in the chocolate chips, the mixture comes together to form a consistency that reassembles cookie dough.

@jakecohen

COTTAGE CHEESE EDIBLE COOKIE DOUGH. I'm unwell, I know, but I need a steady stream of sweets throughout the day and lots of protein so I'm actually vvvvvvvv into a few spoons of this magic whenever my sweet tooth is acting up!! Very easy! Don't try to bake it! Hope y'all are getting swole!!!! 🥰🥰🥰🥰 Cottage Cheese Edible Cookie Dough 1 pound low-fat cottage cheese 1/4 cup maple syrup 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 2 cups almond flour 1/2 cup vanilla protein powder 1 cup dark chocolate chips In a blender, combine the cottage cheese, maple syrup, and vanilla, then purée until very smooth. Transfer to a bowl and stir in the almond flour and protein powder until well incorporated, then fold in the chocolate chips. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

♬ original sound – Jake Cohen

Vanilla protein flour tends to already have a lot of sweetness and flavor, but there are other ingredients you can add to give it an even more cookie-like taste. Cohen opts for mixing a splash of maple syrup and vanilla extract into the cottage cheese, but some commenters have recommended additives such as cheesecake pudding mix, brown sugar, and agave syrup instead. While the results won't be a perfect replica of traditional cookie dough, the taste and texture can still satisfy a hankering craving.

Since edible cookie dough isn't designed to be baked, it doesn't include ingredients like baking soda or eggs that are necessary in producing the bready, cakey texture cookies normally have. However, when it comes to cottage cheese cookie dough, it can actually be baked into a cookie, as another TikToker discovered. According to their video, you don't need to make any adjustments to the recipe (though they did swap coconut flour for almond flour to reduce the fat content). The dough doesn't appear to expand much in the oven, but it does successfully bake into cookies.

The reason cottage cheese cookie dough can be baked is largely due to the fact that cottage cheese plays a similar role in cookie dough as both eggs and butter. Not only is it an effective substitute, but it also adds moisture and binds the ingredients together. The only thing it can't do is cause the cookies to spread and puff out, but you can always add eggs to your cookie dough as long as you plan on baking it.