Cottage Cheese Pancakes

I inherited a couple of containers of cottage cheese from our next door neighbour, who was leaving town and had bought too much, so I was experimenting with it last week. By cottage cheese, I mean the lumpy curd stuff swimming in a creamy broth, not the drier, smoother kind of cottage cheeses I usually buy for baking.

One thing that it showed me is that the drier, smoother ones are better for baking and I should keep right on buying them instead of the more readily available soupy stuff. The second conclusion I came to, is that if you are going to bake with the soupy, lumpy kind of cottage cheese, it MUST be puréed. Otherwise the curds, once cooked, go unpleasantly hard and chewy.  These, on the other hand, were really quite good and I will certainly make them again.

about 12 4" pancakes
30 minutes prep time

2/3 cup rolled oats
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup cottage cheese
3 extra-large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
oil to fry

Put the ingredients listed above, without the oil, into a blender in the order given. (Rolled outs on the bottom, vanilla last, in other words.) Blend until smooth.

Preheat the oven to 200°F and put in an oven-proof dish to hold the pancakes as they are made. 

Heat the oil in a large skillet (or 2, if you are impatient) over medium-high heat; the usual temperature for cooking eggs and pancakes. Pour the batter into the pans to form 4" pancakes. Cook until firm and brown on each side. Keep the finished pancakes in the oven and continue until they are all finished, adding a little more oil between pancakes if needed.

I served these with apple sauce and maple syrup, but once my herbs come up in the spring I will omit the vanilla and add a couple tablespoons of chopped herbs instead, and serve them bacon.